A Quite Quiet Autumn Continues

Autumn slowly marches on into Winter and things remain fairly quiet on the bird front after the excitement of the isabelline shrike at South Huish Marsh - it has certainly been quieter than this time last year.

October 22nd and it was an early start to drive the Outlaws to Exeter airport for their flight to Malta. After a trudge around the shops in Exeter we stopped off at Shipley Bridge for a walk to the Avon Dam before heading back to Plymouth. I had hoped to see some ring ousels but there was no sight or sound of any but I did see fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds feeding on the hawthorns - the blackbirds were regularly chasing off the fieldfares but seemed to tolerate the smaller redwings and it was nice to see a few immature male blackbirds, all black including their bill and with no yellow eye ring and looking very smart. There were quiet a few goldcrests around too, busily feeding in the trees and bushes.

October 23rd and a dreaded night shift but a walk at Wembury beforehand was a nice distraction. It was again quiet with the highlight being 2 peregrines overhead and spooking all the corvids feeding in the fields above the horse stables. Along the beach 5 feral type mallards were amongst the more usual mallards -  a white bird, 3 pale and dainty females and a pale and dainty male.

3 of the Feral Type Mallards

There was also a large flock of gulls roosting on the rocks, mostly herring along with great black backed and black headed but including a nice adult lesser black backed gull.

Lesser Black Backed Gull

A great black backed gull showed well feeding on a dead fish washed up along the beach.

 Great Black Backed Gull

Juvenile Great Black Backed Gull with Herring Gull

October 26th and another walk at Wembury was a bit more interesting despite being half term holiday hell and a little busier than on the 23rd. It was grey and breezey with mizzley rain at times but mild. My third ever (faded) green brindled crescent in the toilet block started things off well but a large bumble bee was the only other insect seen. A surprise was a slow worm on the footpath despite the lack of sunshine - it was a bit moribund but perked up after warming up in my hand and it slithered off into the grass when I let it go.

 Green Brindled Crescent

Slow Worm

The 5 feral mallards were still present and spending all their time together - they must have escaped from someones garden nearby. Scanning through the mallards and I was pleased to find an immature wigeon amongst them, easily overlooked as it slept on the water despite its noticeably smaller size.

 Wigeon with Mallards

 Wigeon

Wigeon

In the stubble field were 14 Canada geese and a male pheasant with a male cirl bunting very skulky in the hedgerow. Stonechats were seen all along the walk, showing very close at times.

Stonechat

After a pasty and coffee for lunch a feeding flock of small birds in the bushes on a slow walk up the valley from the beach to the car entertained me with views of goldcrests, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, at least 2 chiffchaffs and 2 very smart firecrests. I had some good views of the firecrests with one bird seen flicking its wings and raising its crown in display before I found the second bird.

Late Mothing

The weather has been pretty good since our return to the UK (as it was while we were away) and so my thoughts had turned to getting the moth box out in the back yard, especially after a trip to Bude to put the caravan to bed for the winter on October 9th.

It was a beautiful day - sunny, warm and still - and the Outlaws were busy with medical appointments so the two of us were able to get twice as much done in half the time. While packing up the annexe 2 ravens flew over croaking along with a steady stream of calling meadow pipits and skylarks. A flyover reed bunting had my heart racing as it gave a very yellow wagtail like call. A wood mouse and a toad hiding under the ground sheet in the annexe were as startled at seeing me as I was them and a smart peacock butterfly flitted past.

A flat calm sea was birdless save for a few gulls and along the river flowing over Summerleaze beach a 2nd winter and an adult winter Mediterranean gull were amongst the black headed gulls, the adult bird having a yellow ring on its right leg but it was too distant for me to read it.

Mediterranean Gull with yellow leg ring

 



A quick look around Maer Lake revealed 9 lapwing, 11 black tailed godwit, 32 wigeon, a curlew, a pair of shoveler, teal, mallard and moorhens with herring and black headed gulls busily bathing.

The toilet blocks came up trumps for moths with 3 lunar underwings, 2 plume moths, a large yellow underwing, a common wainscot, a setaceous hebrew character, a rosy rustic and a feathered ranunculus being found. Nettle taps were also found on the daisy flowers behind the caravan.

 Lunar Underwing

 Feathered Ranunculus

 Feathered Ranunculus

Rosy Rustic

That night I had the moth box out in the back yard although I was surprised on waking in the morning to find it raining heavily, not what was forecasted. However the trap had a good selection of moths for my back yard at this time of year - 3 large yellow underwing, a brimstone moth, a shuttle shaped dart, a garden carpet, a setaceous hebrew character, a square spot rustic, a feathered ranunculus (one of my favourite moths) and a light emerald (new for the back yard).

Light Emerald

 



After sorting out the soggy trap and eating breakfast it was back to Bude again for the day, this time with the Outlaws, to finish packing up the caravan. The day was totally different, it was grey and cool and breezey, but we managed to get everything done fairly quickly. I checked out the toilet blocks again and added another lunar underwing, 2 more plume moths and another feathered ranunculus to the previous days sightings.

A quick look again at Maer Lake didn't add anything new to the previous days sightings except for 10 Canada geese and 20 curlew. I did however rescue a shrew from a cat but unfortunately it was injured and had bite marks on its flanks so despite placing it in cover I doubt if it will survive.

 Shrew

 Shrew

Blackbird, Maer Lake

October 11th and we headed off to Wembury for a walk despite the grey skies. It was quite mild though with little breeze and misty, murky conditions offshore. A very nice looking green brindled crescent was found on the toilet block windows, only my second ever sighting of one, along with a brimstone moth.

Green Brindled Crescent

Birdwise it was quiet again with 6 little egrets, a singing chiffchaff, a juvenile wheatear, a single house martin hawking over the cliffs at Heybrook Bay, a kestrel and 2 adult lesser black backed gulls amongst the herring gulls roosting on the beach being the highlights.

A common lizard was trying to warm up in the occassional shafts of sunlight and a small copper, 4 large white and a red admiral were still on the wing.

And so autumn is well and truly here and so far it seems to have been very quiet on the bird front but it has been nice to see a good range of moths.