An Elephant at Wembury

A bright and sunny day but with a very strong Southerly wind meant a walk from Wembury Point to Bovisands and back was pretty much bird free. A flyby raven being mobbed by a pair of carrion crows, a few stonechats trying to stay upright on the brambles, a flyover grey wagtail and curlew and oystercatchers feeding on the rocks were the best of it. Offshore some distant gannets were seen and I did a bit of scanning, hoping to see a windblown skua or shearwater - I did get a brief and distant view of what looked like a small and dark shearwater banking up out of the wave troughs before disappearing back out of sight, it looked good for a sooty shearwater but was never to be seen again - oh, well.

A speckled wood was sunning itself out of the wind but the best insect sighting of the day was a very nice elephant hawkmoth caterpillar walking over the tarmac at Wembury Point, something I have hoped to see for some time now. It was surprisingly large and heavy and looked ready to pupate, it would not stay still for a second so it was difficult to get a good photo of it, and so I placed it in the nearby vegetation. It really looked like an elephants head and trunk hence its name.

Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

 

Looking very elephant like

It amazes me that the caterpillar will become one of these! (One I caught in my Mums garden)

 

The following day we headed off to Bude to put the caravan to bed for the winter, the wind had dropped and it was still bright and sunny, and a few small tortoiseshells were on the wing. The chemical toilet waste block held a nice selection of moths including a black rustic, 2 feathered ranunculus, a setaceous Hebrew character, a common marbled carpet and a dead frosted orange.

Best moths were 2 Blairs shoulderknots, a new moth for me. First recorded on the Isle Of Wight in 1951 they have expanded their range across Southern England, no doubt due the increase in leylandii trees in gardens which are one of their foodplants.

 Blairs Shoulderknot showing pinky underside

 

Dead Frosted Orange

 

 Unknown chrysallis - Large White?

 

Unknown chrysallis - Small Tortoiseshell?

 



Just before we left the caravan site to head back to Plymouth I found 2 small moths on a dandelion flower which I think are nettle tap, another new (micro) moth species for me.

Nettle Tap

Wembury, 10th October 2012

Arriving by bus at Wembury I very nearly got back on it to return to Plymouth as the weather was foul - misty and cool with heavy showery outbursts - but I persevered and was very glad I did.

The weather did eventually improve, the mist cleared and the rain stopped and as I was heading back to the bus stop at the end of the walk it became quite warm and humid. As a result insect activity suddenly increased and I saw a large white, a comma and 3 red admirals fly by while bees appeared on the ivy flowers. At the bus stop while eating my pasty I could see lots of small flies quite high up and as if on cue a small flock of around 10 silent house martins and and 10 swallows appeared heading East and busily feeding. The swallows appeared to be juveniles with short tail streamers and some of the house martins had the duskier underparts of juvenile plumage too.

The toilet block held 2 snout (1 very faded) and a new for Wembury Tachystola acroxantha.



Tachystola acroxantha

 



The coastpath was a mud bath and by the end of the walk I was wet and muddy but it had been well worth getting so mucky. Best bird was a very smart and confiding yellow wagtail feeding in the horse field amongst the horses with pied wagtails and meadow pipits , a rock pipit (unusual) and a juvenile wheatear.

 Yellow Wagtail with Pied Wagtail and horse turd

 

Juvenile Wheatear

 



A feeding flock of long tailed and blue tits contained a male blackcap and 2 chiffchaffs, with 1 chiffchaff being very aggressive towards the blackcap. 2 Sandwich terns silently flew East along the shoreline before disappearing from view and only a single adult gannet was seen offshore in the mist.

At Wembury Point a little egret was roosting on the rocks amongst the oystercatchers and at least 4 curlew  - it was hard to see them hunkered down amongst the rocks in the rain. A ringed plover was disturbed by walkers along the beach and 3 adult lesser black backed gulls were roosting on the sea amongst a flock of herring gulls. 2 very smart Mediterranean gulls were roosting on the rocks amongst some black headed gulls before flying off West.

Adult Winter plumaged Mediterranean Gull with 2 Black Headed Gulls

 



In the stubble field 43 male and 26 female mallards were roosting with 2 males and 2 females seen feeding along the beach, my highest count of mallards at Wembury. Later small groups were seen flying over the sea towards Noss Mayo.

A jay was seen flying high West as I headed up the valley to the bus stop, my first Wembury sighting and part of the national influx the UK is experiencing at the moment due to the failure of the acorn crop in Scandanavia.

Surprise of the day especially considering the weather was an adder I nearly stood on at Wembury Point, it was sat right on the footpath despite the heavy rain before it slithered off in to the grass, my first adder sighting at Wembury.

Adder

 



Adder

A very confiding Dunnock