It was back to grey skies and mizzle after my butterflying visit to Dartmoor and it wasn't until Friday 19th June that I headed out to Wembury for a walk. It was overcast in Plymouth when I caught the bus but on arriving at Wembury it was shrouded in sea mist, it did eventually clear and it became very hot and humid but by the time I was heading back to Plymouth the clouds had rolled back in and it had begun to rain.
It was quiet on the bird front as expected but along the beach there were signs of Autumn approaching already with 4 Black-headed Gulls (2 adults and 2 1st Summers) and 8 Mediterranean Gulls (2 2nd Summers and 6 1st Summers) feeding amongst the Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls. Presumably they were a mixture of failed breeders and immature, non-breeding birds but the 2 second-summer Mediterranean Gulls looked exceptionally smart in their breeding plumage with the small amounts of black feathering in their primary tips giving away their not quite full adult status.
Swifts were noticeable too, maybe due to the mist and low cloud, maybe unsuccessful breeders or maybe just wide-ranging feeding birds. I first saw 1 in the mist low over the village houses as I arrived on the bus, later there were 5 feeding in the mist low over The Point with Swallows and after the mist had cleared a group of 11 were seen high overhead heading west over the main beach.
With the sun eventually appearing the butterflies began to take to the air and amongst the numerous Meadow Browns and Common Blues I found a Ringlet and a Small Skipper, both year firsts. Also present were a few Large Skipper and Red Admirals and there were also good numbers of Painted Lady flying around, either a new influx or maybe the progeny from the last influx. I also found a Hummingbird Hawkmoth feeding on Red Valerian flowers before it settled on the ground as the sun began to disappear again behind the clouds.
With my mate Mavis celebrating her birthday on the 21st June I met up with her and Kay on Saturday 20th June for a pre-birthday Dartmoor walk, it was overcast but warm and eventually the clouds cleared and it became hot and sunny and humid. We visited a site I've never been to before and we had an enjoyable and interesting walk.
We were hoping to see butterflies but to begin with there were very few on the wing in the cloudy skies. A few Meadow Brown were flopping about over the grass, a Red Admiral was seen dashing about and a Ringlet was seen trying to bask in the weak sunshine. A very worn looking Peacock and a few male Brimstone were then seen before we had a few sightings of Fritillaries dashing over the Bracken.
The sun eventually started to appear as the clouds began to clear and in a grassy glade amongst the trees we found at least 2 White Admiral, a surprise sighting of a Butterfly I'm not that familiar with, and we enjoyed some good views although they rarely settled for long and mainly spent their time up in the Oak trees.
A pristine looking Peacock, a Painted Lady, a Speckled Wood and more Fritillary were also seen but the ID of the Fritillaries was never properly confirmed as they settled so very briefly before dashing off.
Other insects of note were a Green Tiger Beetle, an Early Bumblebee, Brown Silver Line Moths, a Cockchafer and a colony of Ornate-tailed Sand Wasps.
Bird wise it was quiet but Song Thrush were seen and heard including a bird that was bashing Snails on a rock along the footpath. Chiffchaff were heard constantly along with a Blackcap, a Garden Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and a Nuthatch. The biggest surprise though were 2 Nightjars briefly heard churring at around 4pm despite the sunny skies, very unexpected and quite unusual although I have heard Nightjars in the day time before and have also seen a day flying bird.
There was patchy cloud in the sky when I awoke on Sunday 21st June but by the time I arrived at Oreston to look for Hairstreaks at around 9:15am it was beginning to clear up and it became a very hot and humid day as another heatwave begins to develop.
Dave the Butterfly Guy was already there when I arrived and things had been quiet but within a few minutes I had found a Purple Hairstreak resting on an Elm leaf before it flew off out of sight. White-letter Hairstreaks then began to appear and I had some good views of them, there must have been 10+ present but they were restless and constantly skirmishing with each other. Eventually more Purple Hairstreaks were found with at least 3 present but they behaved much more demurely and remained mostly stationary on the leaves and mostly out of the sun.
A Comma, a Holly Blue, a Meadow Brown, a Large White and a Painted Lady were also seen with a Kestrel, 2 Swift, a Chiffchaff and a Blackcap of avian interest. At the nearby roundabout there were still 3 very tatty looking Bee Orchids in flower along with around 20 flowering Pyramidal Orchids looking a bit fresher and smarter while a quick look at a nearby Elm tree revealed at least 3 White-letter Hairstreaks skirmishing together in the top branches.
I carried on to The Ride and had a look around Chelson Meadow, there were good numbers of Marbled White, Meadow Brown and Ringlet on the wing along with a few Small Skipper, Common Blue and Large Skipper and single Comma, Small Heath, Red Admiral and Painted Lady. A look for White-letter Hairstreaks drew a blank but the Elm tree I saw them in 2 years ago is now looking very poorly although there are smaller but healthier Elms nearby.
There were good numbers of 6-Spot Burnet on the wing and including quite a few mating pairs and I also found a few Burnet Companion with them. Pyramidal Orchids were in flower here too along with Grass Vetchling but I didnt find any Bee Orchids.
Not much to report on the bird front but a Swift and a Buzzard overhead, a pair of Stonechat on Chelson Meadow, a Black-headed Gull along the river on the high tide, singing Chiffchaff and Blackcap and 3 Ring-necked Parakeets squawking away in the trees were of note before I had reached my heat threshold and headed home to get out of the sun and cool down.
Monday 22nd June was forecasted to be the coolest day of the coming week as the heatwave takes hold and intensifies and I had considered taking a trip down to Upton Towans in Cornwall to look for Silver-studded Blues but with delays to trains likely due to the heat and a lack of shade at the reserve I switched plans and headed up to Dartmoor to look for Fritillaries again.
It was hot and sunny and humid when I arrived off the bus at 9am and as the morning wore on it got more humid and hotter still despite the occassional clouds passing over and a fresh breeze that didn't really help as the air was so warm.
Within a few minutes of starting my walk I found a Silver-washed Fritillary nectaring on the Bramble flowers but it soon dashed off and shortly afterwards I found 2 Dark Green Fritillary constantly skirmishing with each other over the Bracken with a worn looking Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary regularly joining in as well.
Onwards and more Fritillaries were seen dashing about over the Bracken, those that settled long enough to ID were all Dark Green but eventually I managed to ID 2 High Brown Fritillary amongst them.
I was slowly starting to melt in the heat, not helped by having to wear jeans to try and avoid any Ticks lurking in the Bracken, and so it was soon time to head back to the bus stop with more Dark Green Fritillaries and a pair of skirmishing Silver-washed Fritillary seen along the way.
Other butterflies seen were Meadow Browns, 2 Comma, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Ringlet, a female Brimstone, a Large Skipper, a Speckled Wood and a Purple Hairstreak which was down on the ground in a boggy patch of grass before flying back up into an Oak tree.
A male Bullfinch, 2 Swift, a hidden singing Garden Warbler, a Meadow Pipit with a massive green caterpillar in its bill for its chicks, a Nuthatch and a Goldcrest were the avian highlights and I thought I had a brief view of a Spotted Flycatcher but it was gone before I could confirm it.
Golden-ringed Dragonfly were buzzing about all over the Bracken, a female Beautiful Demoiselle was seen by the small stream and a Black and Yellow Longhorn Bettle briefly rested on the Bracken but by 12:30pm I had had enough and headed home to get out of the heat.
Despite the heat I had very much enjoyed my walk and I was very pleased to find some High Brown Fritillaries again, making it another 4 Fritillary day out.
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