Double Dartmoor Days and a New Moth for the Back-Yard

Doing some gardening in the back yard on Friday 26th April and a moth was disturbed from the vegetation, flying in to the house where it was lost from sight. Monday 29th April and just as I was about to leave for work at 06:30 a moth fluttered around the living room and I managed to pot it up before leaving the house. It looked like an oddly marked snout but when I got home and checked the guide books I realised it was a Bloxworth snout, a rare moth that has colonised the South West - new for me and new for the back yard. Unfortunately it escaped from the pot and I only managed a few poor photos of it - hopefully I will refind it somewhere in the house.

Bloxworth Snout - an overwintering adult



Bloxworth Snout



Tuesday 30th and I headed off to Dartmoor for a birdying day out with Mavis and Mike, an annual event, and after a bit of a delay with the bus due to a breakdown and traffic we headed off to Warren House Inn. Walking from the Inn to Challacombe Farm we saw the usual suspects - whinchats, wheatears, reed buntings, meadow pipits, stonechats, songflighting tree pipits, willow warblers and redstarts. 2 cuckoos gave great views, associating together and presumably a male and female with a few "cuckoo" calls heard along with a bubbly chuckling. A raven, a green woodpecker and a kestrel were flyover birds and a grasshopper warbler was heard reeling but not seen.

 Singing Male Whinchat, Challacombe Farm

 Singing Male Redstart, Challacombe Farm

Singing Male Swallow, Challacombe Farm



A few small tortoiseshell were seen flying by along with a few small white and an early thorn moth was a surprise as it fluttered around in a grassy tussock. 2 green tiger beetles were a nice sight too.

.Early Thorn

Green Tiger Beetle



Challacombe Farm was as good as ever with more whinchats, wheatears, reed buntings and redstarts. 4 displaying stock doves were circling together overhead and a cuckoo was heard briefly. A treecreeper was a nice sight feeding on a moss covered tree trunk.

After lunch at The Warren House Inn we headed off to Burrator and Cuckoo Rock where a cuckoo was briefly heard. Redstarts were again noticeable, all singing males except for 1 female seen with a male. We failed to see or hear any pied flycatchers despite Mavis having seen one here a few days previously but another treecreeper was found while watching and waiting for the pied flycatchers to show. Heading home it had been a great day out on a sunny but very chilly day due to the biting wind

Moss covered tree near Cuckoo Rock



Wednesday 1st May and the wind had dropped so I headed off to Grenofen Woods for a walk. It was sunny and pleasantly warm and I had a lovely walk. My target bird was garden warbler and despite not hearing any I was lucky to get a brief view of a single bird in a hawthorn bush before it flew off and later a brief view of a pair flitting through the undergrowth with one bird silently chasing the other with fluttering wings before being lost from sight.

There was no sight or sound of any tree pipits , pied flycatchers or wood warblers but male redstarts were very much in evidence with at least 4 males seen singing. A male yellowhammer was a nice find, surprisingly my first of the year, and 2 marsh tit, 2 goldcrest, a jay, a green woodpecker and a great spotted woodpecker were also seen. 2 ravens were mobbed by 4 carrion crows and later 2 buzzards were mobbed by a raven. A single swallow was seen overhead with a lone sparrowhawk which did a massive poo in mid flight.

Willow warblers were busily singing away along with chiffchaff and blackcap and along the river 2 dippers were seen nest building with an adult later seen feeding a recent fledgling. 2 grey wagtails also fed along the river with a pair of mallard.

 Dipper with nesting material, Grenofen

 Fledgling Dipper

Grey Wagtail



Hedge garlic was beginning to flower and wood sorrel was flowering across the woodland, I tried some and it has a fresh, acidic, citrusy taste. Small white and small tortoiseshell were also seen flitting about along with a comma butterfly.

 Wood Sorrel

Wood Sorrel



So all in all not a bad couple of days out on Dartmoor!

Great White Egret at Exminster Marsh

The slow cold Spring continues and as a result a trip to Bude on the 19th April with the Outlaws to put the caravan awning up for the Summer drew a complete blank for any moths in the toilet blocks, the first time this has ever happened. I did see a couple of small tortoiseshell butterflies and my first house martins of the year amongst the swallows and sand martins along with a male blackcap and 2 singing chiffchaffs.

A trip to Beesands and Slapton Ley on the 20th and I saw my first whitethroat of the year along with a singing sedge warbler and 5 Sandwich terns offshore. Chiffchaffs were singing and swallows were overhead but no other Summer migrant birds were seen.

I had the moth box out in the back yard on the 21st April and for the first time ever in the 3 years I have been using the trap in the back yard I had no moths! However a few nights later on the 24th April I had 3 moths - a double striped pug, a Light Brown Apple Moth and a first for the garden, a Herald, this time alive and not dead and dessicated in a spiders web like my first encounter with one 2 years ago.

 

 Herald Moth

 

Double Striped Pug

 



I headed off to Exminster Marsh on the 24th April and it turned out to be a sunny and warm day, very pleasant. I was hoping to see lesser whitethroat and yellow wagtail which had been reported recently from here but I was out of luck. However I had a very nice consolation in a very nice Great White Egret which had unbeknown to me appeared earlier that morning. Scanning across the Marsh I had seen what I thought was a little egret but on checking it out through binoculars it lifted up its head showing its yellow bill and long snake-like neck, only my second ever UK great white egret sighting. It was a little distant and obscured at times by sedges but I managed some good views including a brief flight view after being disturbed by an RSPB warden walking across the Marsh on what looked like some kind of survey.

 Distant Great White Egret

 

Still distant Great White Egret

 



Another nice bird was a female Marsh Harrier which quartered over the Marsh putting up teal and a snipe tucked out of sight amongst the sedges before it heading off towards Topsham. A hobby was another nice bonus bird of prey, in dashing agile flight overhead catching insects and also swooping low across the Marsh.

Sedge and reed warblers were seen singing away along with Cettis warblers, blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler and whitethroat. Another bonus bird was a grasshopper warbler briefly reeling from bushes by the car park but I failed to see it. A redpoll in trees by the car park was a nice sight too with a second bird heard nearby and whimbrel were also  heard calling over the estuary. A flyby peacock butterfly was my first of the year and cuckoo flowers were in bloom.

 Grey Heron

 

Male Reed Bunting

 



April 25th and I had a ride to Clifton near Bristol as David was on a study day so I headed off by bus, train and taxi to Slimbridge for the day, the first time I have visited Slimbridge outside of the Winter months. It was strange to see and hear warblers singing around the reserve (blackcap, chiffchaff, reed warbler, sedge warbler and Cettis warbler) and I saw 2 male whitethroats and best of all, a lesser whitethroat, especially pleasing after missing seeing or hearing one yesterday at Exminster Marsh.

 Sedge Warbler

 

Male Blackcap

 



6 male and a female wigeon were still hanging around with teal, gadwall, tufted duck,mallard and shoveler also on show. A kingfisher showed well perched on a tree busily preening itself near its nest hole . A redpoll was feeding on the bird feeders with reed buntings and goldfinches and a flock of around 30 black tailed godwits, some in Summer plumage, were mobile around the reserve. Another strange sight were 6 avocets, my first Slimbridge sighting, but not so strange as a pair bred here last year.

 Male Shoveler

 

 Female Shoveler with a Common Sandpiper

 

 Male Gadwall

 

Summer plumaged Black tailed Godwit

Kingfisher

 



Male Reed Bunting

 

Best bird of the day were the Arctic terns hawking over the pools, 14 on a pool near the Holden Tower and around 30 over the South Lake. They had been present for a few days and I was hoping they would stay around long enough for my visit and luckily some did. They were very elegant birds as they swooped over the lakes picking off insects from the waters surface with graceful and agile flight and some with very long tail streamers. On the ground their short red legs and all red bill were noticeable and the nearby black headed gulls were aggressive at times towards them, both in flight and when resting on the ground. Absolutely beautiful birds to watch and my first Arctic terns since a trip to Shetland five years ago!

 Arctic Terns over the South Lake

 

 Arctic Tern

 

Arctic Tern

 



Arctic Tern

 



A water vole was a good sighting, it looked massive as it fed at the waters edge, maybe a pregnant female? They have been reintroduced to Slimbridge and seem to be doing well here. An owl midge trapped in one of the hides was also a nice find.

Water Vole

 

Owl Midge

 



To finish off a great day out 2 whimbrel flew over the reserve calling as I left and despite not seeing any of the cranes from the reintoduction program that have been nest building on the reserve it had been a very enjoyable day.

Pair of Smew from The Slimbridge Collection

 

Ruff from The Slimbridge Collection

 



Cowslips