Nightjars at Stover

Saturday 17th June and with a day to myself and hot and sunny weather forecast I decided to have a walk at Wembury, somewhere I have neglected somewhat this year. It was indeed hot and sunny, so much so that I caught an earlier bus than planned back to Plymouth in order to escape the heat.

Bird wise it was quiet with the usual June at Wembury birds seen - 28 oystercatchers and a male mallard on the rocks at high tide, fulmars around The Mewstone, stonechats, linnets, robins, pied wagtails, a flyover peregrine, a flyover male sparrowhawk being mobbed by swallows, etc. Blackcaps, whitethroats and chiffchaffs were still in song and there were quite a few fledglings of all three species seen especially chiffchaffs which seem to have had a very good breeding season this year.

A few moths were around too -  a dead buff ermine in the toilet block, a rush veneer and 2 unidentified micro moths.

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Butterflies were on the wing too with a ringlet and at least 4 large skippers being firsts for the year along with a faded painted lady, a small tortoiseshell, a male common blue, meadow browns and an egg laying red admiral.

 Ringlet

 Painted Lady

 Large Skipper

 Large Skipper

Red Admiral Egg

 Vipers Bugloss

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On the way home I stopped off at Blagdons Meadow for a quick look around despite the heat. There were no small heaths again but I did see common blues, meadow browns, burnet companions and my first 6 spot burnets of the year.

 6 Spot Burnet, Blagdons Meadow

 Swallows, River Plym

Swallow

Southern marsh orchids were still in flower but were looking very faded and worn, no bee orchids but I did find 3 pyramidal orchids, my first for the site.

 Pyramidal Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

That evening I decided to head off to Stover on the relatively recent regular new coach service between Plymouth and Bristol that stops off at Drumbridges roundabout near the country park. I arrived off the coach at 19:15hrs and it was hot and sunny and still. I checked out the verges of the A38 first as I had noticed orchids flowering by the road side on our drive back from Suffolk earlier in the week and was pleased to find a good display of common spotted orchids (there were also lots of them in flower in the country park too).

 Common Spotted Orchid, A38

 Common Spotted Orchid

Common Spotted Orchid

It was cooler walking through the woodland of the park but hot and humid in the sunshine on the walk around the lake where sand martins were flitting about over the water, a great crested grebe was sitting on its nest with a second bird feeding nearby and a male mandarin duck was feeding on seed on the footpath looking a little worse for wear as it begins its plumage moult.

Great Crested Grebe on nest, Stover Lake

A pair of mute swans were swimming around with 2 cygnets with the male being very aggressive to a white female mallard with 3 ducklings, chasing them off into the side canal.

 Mallard with Ducklings

Male Mallards in Eclipse Plumage

Dragonflies were buzzing over the water too but too distant and active to get a good look at except for a male keeled skimmer that buzzed close to the shore. Blue tailed damselflies were much more cooperative with good numbers roosting in the reeds by the waters edge and I managed to find a single azure damselfly sunning itself on a branch.

Blue Tailed Damselfly

A wood mouse was feeding on seed on the footpath, initially it ran off into the undergrowth before returning and giving some very close views.

 Wood Mouse

 Wood Mouse

Wood Mouse

There were quite a few white looking moths flitting about in the grass close to the waters edge and when one landed on the vegetation I managed to ID it as a brown China mark, a very attractively marked brown and white moth.

 Brown China Mark

 Brown China Mark

Brown China Mark

Chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap were all heard singing along with calling great spotted woodpecker and green woodpecker and at 21:50hrs I heard my first nightjar churring on the heathland between the A38 and the pylons. A second bird then began to churr in trees by the footpath on the lake side of the pylons and I managed a brief flight view as it took off from a pine tree and chased a second bird with much wing clapping and "guicking" before falling silent. The first bird continued to churr but after 20 minutes of listening and waiting to see if I could get a view of it I had to leave to walk back to the bus stop to catch the coach home to Plymouth. The coach was due at 22:25hrs but was 20 minutes late, a little disconcerting standing in the dark at a roundabout off the A38 in the middle of nowhere and miles away from Plymouth but I eventually arrived home having had a very good day out on what has been a very birdy and wildlifey week.

Nightjar - from the Stover Park information board

Silver Studded Blues and a Spoonbill

Last year I had 4 fantastic butterfly day trips to Cerne Abbas, Upton Towans, Aish Tor and Ashclyst Forest and I have wanted to revisit at least one of these sites again this year. Work, weather and other commitments have meant I haven't managed a revisit yet but after another rocky week at work where my increasingly bad language seems to indicate I am suffering with stress induced Tourettes Syndrome I needed to get out of the house for a butterfly fix.

The forecast for Sunday 3rd July was for sunshine after a grey start and so I headed off to Upton Towans near Hayle on the train, this site probably being the easiest and cheapest to get to out of the aforementioned sites.

The weather forecast was indeed correct and it was warm and sunny by the time I arrived at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve of Upton Towans, a contrast to my arrival there last year when it was cold and wet and windy (although it did brighten up later).

 St.Ives from Upton Towans

Ruins of Dynamite Factory, Upton Towans

As soon as I walked through the gate onto the reserve I saw a few silver studded blues flitting about, there appeared to be less than on last years visit but walking further on and numbers rapidly increased, they were everywhere, probably more than last year! I had some great views again although with the warm sunshine they were much more active and difficult to photograph but I managed to get a few decent snaps including some of 2 mating pairs.

 Silver Studded Blue - Female

 Silver Studded Blue - Male

 Silver Studded Blue - Female

 Silver Studded Blue - Male

 Silver Studded Blue - Male

 Silver Studded Blues

Silver Studded Blues

Silver Studded Blues

Dark green fritillaries were dashing across the dunes but frustratingly were quickly lost from sight. Eventually though I found one nectaring on red valerian in a sheltered dip in the dunes and I managed to get some good views.

 Dark Green Fritillary

 Dark Green Fritillary

 Dark Green Fritillary

 Dark Green Fritillary

 Dark Green Fritillary

Dark Green Fritillary

Occassionally I saw 2 together flying past and buzzing each other before breaking away. The singles I saw flying by were also constantly buzzing any butterfly that came near to them but mostly ignored the large numbers of silver studded blues.

Other butterflies seen were a small copper, small heaths including a mating pair, a small tortoiseshell, small skippers, a large white, large skippers, ringlets, meadow browns, common blues and speckled woods.

4 ravens flew over (2 adults with 2 juveniles) and stonechats, whitethroats, skylarks and meadow pipits were seen and heard. 2 cream spot tiger moths were the only moths seen and a large dragonfly was briefly seen flying past.

Cream Spot Tiger Moth

Lots of pyramidal orchids were flowering along with a few southern marsh orchids.

 Pyramidal Orchid

 Southern Marsh Orchid

Sea Bindweed

Heading back to Hayle and I grabbed a pasty at Philps before carrying on the the estuary to look for the long staying juvenile spoonbill that I saw back in January. I quickly found it in the usual spoonbill pose - asleep with its bill tucked under its wings out on the sand banks. The tide was coming in and as its legs began to get submerged it woke up and flew around in a circle before landing again on the sand and going back to sleep! The tide continued to rise and again its legs began to get submerged but this time it woke up and flew off out of sight.

 Sleeping Spoonbill with 5 Black Tailed Godwits

 Awake Spoonbill

Spoonbill

The views were a little distant but it was nice to see it, a strange sight in Cornwall in July. I had hoped to see the Dalmatian pelican too that has been wandering around Cornwall for a few weeks now, it occassional drops in to the Hayle estuary but not today (it was seen at Hayle on June 29th).

I did get some nice views of 80+ curlews roosting on the saltmarsh along with 5 black tailed godwits, oystercatchers, shelducks, a grey heron, little egrets and a first summer Mediterranean gull and a few lesser black backed gulls amongst the large numbers of roosting herring gulls. It was also good to see lots of pyramidal orchids along the roadside again along with a few southern marsh orchids.

 Roosting Curlew

 Pyramidal Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

I carried on walking to the railway station at St Erth to catch the train home, enjoying a well earned cup of tea from the lovely tea room at the station before travelling back to Plymouth. And so it had been an excellent day out with some great views of butterflies and a nice spoonbill too, hopefully it will be enough to get me through the next week at work.