Hot!

It was hotter again on Tuesday 23rd June and with higher temperatures still to come in the following days I'm really not enjoying  this current heatwave. I had planned to revisit Oreston in the early morning but after getting good views of the Purple Hairstreaks on Sunday I decided to stay at home in the relative cool of the house. However I needed to get some shopping at Sainsbury's in the city centre and so went there via Drakes Reservoir and Ford Park Cemetery for a quick look about but by the time I arrived back home I was in a bit of a sweaty heap.

At Drakes Reservoir there were Common Blue Damselflies buzzing around along with a patrolling male Emperor Dragonfly but as I scanned across the water I picked up 3 female Emperor Dragonflies ovipositing into the pond weed.

Emperor Dragonfly

Emperor Dragonfly

Common Blue Damselfly

At Ford Park Cemetery there were plenty of Marbled White, Painted Lady, Meadow Brown and Ringlet flitting around but they rarely stopped for more than a few seconds. A male Common Blue, a Small Skipper and a Large Skipper were also seen along with Cinnabar Moths, 6-Spot Burnets and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth but the best sighting was a pristine Small Tortoiseshell which disappeared before I could get a photo, my first of the year and likely to be my rarest butterfly sighting of 2026.

Marbled White

The Herring Gulls are nesting on the chimney stack again this year, they have 2 chicks which must be struggling in the heat in such an exposed position although the chimney pots do offer some shade. I assume it is the same pair as last year as the female has all black eyes again, I've seen her all over the winter period down on the busy main road where misguided old people put out food for the Gulls, Pigeons and Crows. The adult Gulls are street smart enough to avoid the speeding cars as they swoop in for the food but I fear that any chicks that fledge this year will end up as roadkill like last year as they are not aware of the dangers.

The hot, sunny and humid conditions of the heatwave have made for some very difficult and uncomfortable nights for sleeping but I have had the moth box out in the back yard with very high expectations. Unfortunately on checking the trap in the morning of Wednesday 24th June I was a little disappointed with the quantity and quality of moths present especially when Bluesky is full of posts about massive hauls of moths that are being caught. There were 2 Large Yellow Underwing in the trap, blundering around as usual and spooking all the other moths but I don't think this was the cause of the small catch. The highlight was a smart Marbled Green, a very lovely moth, and I was pleased to see a Coronet but it was worn and faded. A Peppered Moth was a nice find too but it expired soon after being potted up and I rescued a Bright Line Brown Eye from a Spiders web in a nearby window which luckily survived the ordeal.

Riband Wave

Eudonia delunella and Eudonia mercurella

I headed out to Wembury on Thursday 25th June, I caught the 7am bus and was home by 11:15am to try and avoid the worst heat of the day although it was already hot, humid and sunny when I got off the bus at Wembury and the fresh easterly breeze wasn't very refreshing as the air was so warm and moisture-laden. I don't remember it ever feeling so hot here in the UK, the temperatures have broken all previous June records with the very high humidity levels really making it difficult to cool down.

Anyway, it was quiet as expected on the bird front with the highlight being a Cetti's Warbler seen and heard singing along the stream leading down to the beach, the first sighting here of 2026 for me. I have seen occassional reports of Cetti's Warbler at Wembury on Birdtrack during the year but have failed to see or hear one myself, a situation echoed by a Wembury birder I was chatting to a few weeks ago, and so todays sighting was a very welcome one.

Along the beach there were 2 Shelduck, a Little Egret, Oystercatchers and 6 Mediterranean Gulls (a 2nd summer bird and 5 1st summers) while offshore a few distant Manx Shearwater were moving west with a few Gannets seen closer in. There were 6 Mallard along the beach too, 4 males and a female plus the presumed male domestic type seen earlier in the year on the main beach. 

Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Whitethroat were still in song with seemingly higher numbers of singing Whitethroat now than earlier in the spring. A male Kestrel flew along the clifftops while a brave male Stonechat remained perched up on the Sloe bushes as it passed by, 2 Swift passed overhead heading east and a very yellow-faced fledgling Coal Tit was seen feeding in the Pine trees in a village garden.

Woodpigeon

Butterflies were on the wing in the hot weather, I failed to find a Gatekeeper or a Marbled White but 2 Clouded Yellow were a nice sighting. Painted Lady were still in noticeable numbers along with good numbers of Small White while a Small Skipper and a Large Skipper had regular skirmishes with each other which was a bit of a waste of time and energy and especially so in the excessive heat of the day.

Clouded Yellow

A Glow Worm larva along the footpath and a female Beautiful Demoiselle along the stream were also of note but as I headed home on the bus I really had had enough of the heat and I can't wait for this heatwave to break.

Glow Worm Larva