Birdy Returns (Briefly) and Green Sandpipers at Bowling Green Marsh

Thursday 26th July and while tidying up the back yard we were visited by Birdy who dropped in to have a preen, a drink of water from the bowl we had placed on the flat roof for the young birds and a snooze while also watching intently what we were doing and making lots of noise. He did get a feed from one of the adults who flew in and yakked up something very unappetising looking and it was nice to see Birdy again but he had disappeared by the evening and has yet to return again.

Friday 27th July and after all the hot and sunny and dry weather which has been good for butterflies I needed a bird fix and so I decided to fork out the cash (£20.80!) and head off to Topsham on the early train for the high tide roost at Bowling Green Marsh.

Grey skies and mizzle on the train ride to Topsham were a welcome surprise and at times there were some heavy showers during the course of the day which were actually very pleasent to be out in. On arriving at the hide at 08:45 hrs there were plenty of waders roosting on the marsh and amongst the curlews and black tailed godwits I picked out a redshank, a few lapwing, a bar-tailed godwit and a few whimbrel. The highlight though were 2 green sandpipers, surprisingly my first of the year, which gave some great views in front of the hide.

Black-tailed Godwit - Winter Plumage

 Black-tailed Godwit - Summer Plumage

Also seen were a winter plumaged adult Mediterranean gull and an adult lesser black backed gull amongst the herring and black headed gulls, 4 young tufted duck, a little grebe, 3 grey herons, a wigeon, a few teal and 4 stock doves.

As the tide dropped I headed over to the River Clyst viewing platform where redshanks, greenshanks and dunlins were seen with whimbrel, oystercatcher, curlew and black tailed godwits along with 2 shelduck and 5 fluffy chicks. I scanned around for the osprey which has been hanging around the Exe for a while but with no luck.

Onwards to Dawlish Warren for a quick look around and from the train on the journey there I saw Herbert the Slavonian grebe diving off Cockwood. At Dawlish Warren in the misty gloom offshore I picked out a few gannets and Sandwich terns while in Greenland Lake there were a few marsh helleborines in flower and six spot burnet moths feeding on thistle flowers.

 Marsh Helleborine

Marsh Helleborine

The weather worsened and so I headed home, seeing 4 common sandpipers together along the River Teign from the train and enjoying a complimentary ice lolly on arriving off the train in Plymouth which was very enjoyable despite the cool and wet weather.

Dawlish Warren - 30th June 2017

Friday 30th June and a grey and breezy morning but after a couple of busy days at work I needed to get out for a wildlife fix and with the weather forecast suggesting improving conditions in the east of Devon in the afternoon I decided to jump on the train for a trip to Dawlish Warren. The train journey was just over an hour including a train change at Newton Abbot and on arrival at Dawlish Warren I headed off straight away to the bird hide as it was high tide. However it was a low high tide and with nothing roosting on the island in front of the hide I stayed on the dune ridge where I could scan The Bight and the estuary on one side and the open sea on the other.

Oystercatchers and Canada geese were roosting on Finger Point and 9 mute swans were on the water off Cockwood. Sandwich terns were flying back and forth over the dune ridge making lots of noise and were diving for fish distantly offshore and a smart summer plumaged Mediterranean gull flew past heading east.

The ongoing sea defence work continues with the ship offshore pumping sand from the sea floor onto the beach and attracting a motley crew of gulls attracted to the crabs, starfish, mussels and large flat fish sucked up with the sand - mostly herring gulls with a few black headed, great black backed and a single lesser black backed.

 Dawlish Warren Flood Defence Works

 Gulls

Sandwich Tern

I headed back to Greenland Lake, seeing a male reed bunting by the dune pond and my first gatekeeper of the year along the way. A singing cirl bunting kept itself hidden away but a whitethroat songflighting was much more showy. There were lots of marsh helleborines in flower around the Lake area along with a few southern marsh orchids almost gone over and setting seed pods and blue eyed grass. Butterflies were noticeable flitting around despite the general lack of sunshine - a male common blue, a red admiral, meadow browns,small coppers, small skippers, a large skipper and a flyby white sp. The small skippers gave some great views looking mostly very pristine. Also seen was a silver y resting in the grass and a snout flitting about in the brambles .

  Marsh Helleborine

 Marsh Helleborine

 Small Skipper

 Small Skipper

 Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Large Skipper

 Silver Y

 Snout 

Greenfinch

Heading home and I managed to catch a direct train from Dawlish Warren to Plymouth which only took an hour, all in all not a bad few hours out and about.

Ashclyst Forest - The Right Coloured Admiral !

The weather forecast wasn't great for Saturday 11th July (breezey, sunny spells but clouding over as the day progressed) but I decided to head off to Ashclyst Forest near Exeter for a butterfly walk anyway.

An early wake up call at 04:45 from the noisey neighbourhood herring gulls was annoying, it seemed to be a lot of territorial calling rather than alarm or danger and didn't involve the young bird still residing on the flat roof.

A train to Exeter and there was no problem with the service today after the 48 hour strike by First Great Western staff over the last couple of days. A bus ride to Budlake and I arrived at 09:00, setting off with my map and instructions for the Forests butterfly trail downloaded from the National Trust website. As usual my crap sense of direction and crap map reading skills did not let me down and I got lost but eventually I entered the Forest and within 5 minutes I had seen my first white admiral along with a silver washed fritillary - result!

 My first ever White Admiral

 White Admiral

 White Admiral

White Admiral

On my walk around the Forest I managed quite a few sightings of both species but mostly it was brief fly past views. Occasionally I had some good views as they fed on bramble flowers or basked in the trees and I found the best times to see them well was a few minutes after the sun appeared from behind the clouds as they warmed up and a few minutes after the sun disappeared behind the clouds as they cooled down.

 Silver Washed Fritillary and Comma

 Silver Washed Fritillary with a faded patch on upper right wing

 Silver Washed Fritillary

Two Silver Washed Fritillary

It certainly was a butterfly trail with sightings of large skipper, small skipper, small tortoiseshell, peacock, comma, red admiral, large white, small white, ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, marbled white and painted lady. I also had 2 possible sightings of purple hairstreak - a brief view of a small butterfly flying up from the bracken into an oak tree and a brief view of a small butterfly flying around the top of an oak tree when disturbed by a bird.

 Marbled White

Ringlet

A pair of burnet moths were seen mating, I think they were 5 spot burnet and not the usual 6 spot variety. A Jersey tiger moth was also seen flitting past.

Five Spot Burnet?

Five Spot Burnet?

Birds seen were an adult spotted flycatcher feeding a noisey fledgling in the trees, a treecreeper, nuthatches, siskins, blackcaps and chiffchaffs. A stock dove was heard coo-ing and jays were heard screeching.

A few common spotted orchids were still in flower although they were starting to go over.

Common Spotted Orchid

Heading home and I stopped off at Dawlish Warren for a quick walk, seeing from the train  the resident Slavonian grebe in summer plumage at Cockwood and a common tern roosting with Sandwich terns in the saltmarsh at Dawlish Warren golf course on the way.

At Dawlish Warren the marsh helleborine were flowering well and I added a small copper to the list of butterfly sightings for the day. A reed warbler was singing in the reeds by the main pool and I saw a few blue tailed damselfly and a common darter nearby.

 Marsh Helleborine

Common Darter

And so an excellent but tiring day with more sunshine than forecast and a new butterfly species to add to my UK list.

River Exe and Wembury

Saturday June 27th and I headed off to Topsham to have another look at the apparently summering Ross's gull, seeing the resident Slavonian grebe in summer plumage at Cockwood from the train on the way there. Arriving at the hide at Bowling Green Marsh at around 8:30 there were just 2 birders present so I settled in to scan the roosting birds present due to the high tide. The Ross's gull had been showing very well around 15 minutes before I arrived before disappearing amongst the large numbers of black headed gulls but eventually I managed a brief flight view of it as it landed on the mud before walking off behind a grassy bank and out of sight - not the views I had hoped for! It stayed hidden for a good hour before all the gulls took off together and flew off to the River Clyst. I again managed some brief flight views but I soon lost it amongst the flying gulls, again not the views I had hoped for! Never mind.

As compensation I had some distant views of 2 summer plumaged spotted redshanks roosting amongst the wader flock, mostly obscured by redshanks, curlews and black-tailed godwits but eventually showing well before flying off to the River Clyst as the tide receded. Also seen amongst the wader flock were 4 greenshanks, 2 whimbrel and a few lapwing.

2 (distant) Spotted Redshanks (on the left) with Redshanks



I headed off to Dawlish Warren for a wander around, getting wet at times in the heavy showers before sweltering in the sunny spells. Marsh helleborines were in flower and there were a few tatty looking southern marsh orchids still hanging on. Small skippers were very noticeable along with meadow browns and a few six spot burnets. I managed to find some cinnabar moth caterpillars and some mullein moth caterpillars and a few blue tailed damselflys were flitting about amongst the bramble bushes.

 Marsh Helleborine

 Marsh Helleborine

 Female Blue tailed Damselfy

 Male Blue tailed Damselfly

Mullein Moth Caterpillar

Offshore a few gannets were flying around with Sandwich terns diving for fish. A flock of around 10 common scoters were very hard to see amongst the choppy seas. On the main pond were 4 well grown young little grebes with 2 reed warblers heard singing. Chiffchaff and blackcap were heard and whitethroats were busily songflighting and a pair of Canada geese were very protective of 4 goslings, hissing at me as I passed by.

Sunday 29th June and I headed off to Wembury despite the grey skies but it eventually turned out quite sunny and warm. Bird wise it was as expected very quiet with 1 oystercatcher, 2 curlew and 7 male and 1 female mallard along the beach and a few gannets offshore. Chiffchaff and blackcap were heard and whitethroats were heard and seen including quite a few fledglings. Stonechat fledglings were also noticeable. A cirl bunting was heard singing near the sewage farm with a second bird seen singing at the same time and later a third male was seen at Wembury Point.

Insect life was again abundant with a large skipper, a red admiral, a large white and 2 small tortoiseshells being seen along with my first for the year small white and a marbled white. There were also good numbers of ringlets and meadow browns flitting around. Best of all was a hummingbird hawkmoth flying back and forth over a shale covered area on the cliff at Wembury Point, presumably enjoying the radiant heat, and 2 six spot burnets were seen feeding on thistle flowers. Bloody-nosed beetles were seen high up in the pathside vegetation including a mating pair and 2 young speckled bush crickets were also seen. It was also nice to see the sea kale has survived on the beach after the horrendous winter storms as it finally comes in to leaf.

 Ringlet

Marbled White

 Bloody-nosed Beetle

 Speckled Bush Cricket nymph

Sea Kale hanging on in there along the beach

Heading home and I stopped off at Blagdons Meadow to look for bee orchids but I was out of luck although there was a very tatty southern marsh orchid still hanging on. A lone burnet companion was seen along with six spot burnets, meadow browns and a ringlet. 2 male whitethroats were still singing away and a shelduck was feeding on the very smelly mudflats at low tide before I headed off home just as a shower of rain started.