Thurlestone 25th August 2011

Felt as rough as a badgers a**e on Sunday morning after the wedding, had a great time at the wedding and actually danced! but I felt really awful the next day. It was a free bar but I had very little to drink but I maybe had more than I thought but I also had an upset stomach and did not sleep well. However I went to work on the late shift, struggled through and went to bed as soon as I got home at 21:45hrs. The next 2 days I was on early shifts and struggled through them too, luckily work was relatively quiet. I was relieved when Wednesday arrived and I had 3 days off but the weather was shite so we went to the pictures and saw "Cowboys and aliens" which was a great piece of frothy fun and nonsense.

Thursday 25th the weather still was crap with a rubbish forecast but we decided to take our chances and headed out to Hope Cove for a walk along the coast. It was quite breezey but the sun shone at times and it stayed dry.

Bird wise a juvenile yellow wagtail was watched feeding around the feet of some sheep in the field in front of South Huish marsh although it was distant. Later a yellow wagtail flew over calling, its underparts being very yellow as it passed over, presumably an adult male, and later another or the same juvenile was seen flying over the sheep field. I was pleased to see them as they are one of my favourite birds but they were not the best views so I'm hoping to catch up with some more of them in the next few weeks.

Also seen were 2 black-tailed godwit on the marsh with a grey heron and some moorhen. 2 wheatears fed in the sheep field with pied wagtails, 1 of the wheatears had the tell-tale scruffy plumage of a recent fledgling. 2 wheatears were later seen feeding on the cliffs at Hope Head. House and sand martins flew overhead with swallows and a whitethroat was seen flying low over some brambles before disappearing. 2 adult male and a female stonechat were seen along the coast path and 2 ravens flew overhead. At one point all the gulls were up in the air calling but I failed to find any raptor flying over.

The toilet block by Thurlestone golf club held 2 single dotted wave, a brimstone moth, a smart setaceous Hebrew character, a rusty dot pearl, lots of grass veneers and best of all, a smart rosy rustic, a new moth for me.

Rosy Rustic

Rusty Dot Pearl

Also seen were a small copper, 2 male common blue, a speckled wood, small whites, meadow browns and a six-spot burnet moth.

We had a sandwich at the cafe on the beach despite it being a little on the expensive side, however David had a crab sandwich which cost the same as the cafes in Hope Cove and I had a sausage sandwich made with local sausages and I have to say it was very tasty and filling.

Cetacean skull on a shed

Despite the weather I had the moth box out in the back yard a couple of times, one morning I was woken up by thunder to find it pelting down with rain and the trap was a little on the soggy side as I tried to process the moths. I got soaked as well!  Nothing new in the trap but I did have a new record count of Jersey Tiger moths for the garden, a total of 5 although 1 was dead in a spiders web, I try to brush the webs away when I get the trap out but the spiders have to eat too and they are quick to respin the webs I brush away. Also caught were an Old Lady, 2 Marbled Green, 2 Square Spot Rustic, 1 Copper Underwing, 1 Rusty Dot Pearl and a Garden Pebble amongst others.

Square spot Rustic

Jersey Tiger Moth

Back to work today for 4 days, a late today and then 3 earlys, haven't done that for a while! No chance to use the moth box until Tuesday night but the weather is still pretty dire, it is Bank Holiday weekend though, but hopefully it will be better by Tuesday. Still hoping to catch large rannunculus in the garden, a very pretty moth that I caught around this time last year, so fingers crossed.

Wembury 20th August 2011

I had the moth box out again on the Friday night (19th) and was up early again on the Saturday morning (20th) to sort it out before the rain came again. A big surprise were the wasps in the trap, I sometimes get the odd one or two but there must have been around 20 in the box and they were very feisty. Unfortunately I found the wings of a brimstone moth and a willow beauty in the bottom of the box so assume the wasps had eaten them and the other moths in the trap were decidedly skittish with good reason. I am allergic to wasp venom so spent longer than usual sorting out the moths as I did not want to get stung and in the end I had to squash a few of the wasps as I could not get rid of them easily out of the trap.

Remains of a brimstone moth and a willow beauty

Moth wise I had 2 Jersey Tiger moths, a smart Marbled Green, a tatty Old Lady and a Copper Underwing amongst the haul.

I headed out to Wembury later than planned due to the heavy rain in the morning but by the time I got to Wembury it was sunny and warm. I enjoyed a pasty from the cafe, delicious as usual. Yesterday we went to Flavour Fest in Plymouth city centre where Chunk, the makers of the pasties, had a stall and I complimented the chaps behind the counter on the fantasticness of their pasties!


The toilet block only held a few moths including a dead dingy footman caught in a spider web. Butterflys were much in evidence in the warm sunshine with wall, red admirals, a comma, a peacock, a small tortoiseshell, large whites, meadow browns, gatekeepers, speckled wood and 2 holly blues being seen. A magpie moth was seen tucked away in the base of a hedge and a Jersey Tiger moth was seen perched on the glass window of the bus-stop when I arrived.


Birds seen included a pair of cirl buntings, the male looking decidedly tatty, a male and female stonechat with 2 juveniles and later a male with a juvenile, a sparrowhawk being mobbed by 2 carrion crows, a male kestrel, swallows, house martins and a buzzard.


Waders seen were a turnstone, 4 ringed plover, a common sandpiper, 2 curlew and a bar-tailed godwit with the usual oystercatchers. Mallards were feeding amongst the rocks, some of the males were back in full plumage with some still in eclipse plumage. Whitethroats and chiffchaffs were heard with brief flight views only across the bushes. An adult lesser black backed gull was seen roosting on the rocks amongst the herring gulls.


No sign of any yellow wagtails, some were reported at Wembury in the morning and they are starting to appear along the south Devon coast now so maybe on my next visit.

Wembury flower field

A close up of the flowers - not sure what they are but the Large Whites love them

Also seen was a sexton beetle enjoying a meal of a dog turd on the path, I couldn't see any lice on this one and it was much more hairy looking than the individual I saw at Bude in July. Still, it was a first for Wembury and on checking the guide book there are different species of similar looking sexton beetles in the UK so presumably is a different type to the one in Bude.

Sexton beetle eating dog turd!

I finished the walk at Bovisand and caught the bus home from there and in the evening headed out to the Duke of Cornwall hotel for the wedding reception of Davids ex-work colleage Krystle, David having been at the wedding for the whole day. And back to work on Sunday again, such fun!