Plym Days

News of a Spoonbill and 2 Yellow Wagtails around The Plym on the morning of Thursday 21st September saw me heading out there for a look about that afternoon. As expected the Spoonbill was long gone but I did eventually find the 2 Yellow Wagtails feeding with 14 Pied Wagtails amongst the cattle in Saltram Park. The grass was very long and the birds were well and truly hidden amongst it but occassionally they would fly up into the branches of a nearby dead tree where they showed very nicely if not a little distantly.

Yellow and Pied Wagtail

The only other bird of note seen on my short low tide visit was a mucky feral Greylag Goose roosting out on the mudflats amongst the 100+ Canada Geese present.

I returned the next morning for the high tide roost, the Spoonbill was again a no show and the cattle field was Yellow Wagtail-less but the Pied Wagtails were still present along with at least 12 Meadow Pipit and all were much more visible on the ground as the cows had been doing an amazing job of grazing down the long grass overnight.

The high tide roost on Blaxton Meadow contained 4 Black-tailed Godwit, 11 Greenshank, 2 Dunlin, 27 Curlew, 16 Oystercatcher and a Common Sandpiper along with the usual Redshank. An adult Mediterranean Gull was in amongst the Black-headed Gulls and the mucky Goose was present amongst the Canada Geese, making lots of noise and clearly loved up as it regularly displayed to an obviously smitten Canada Goose.

A few Swallow, a House Martin and a pair of Stonechat were the best of the rest with Small Heath, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Large White also seen on what was a very autumnal feeling day.

Wembury Days

I met up with Mavis at Wembury for a walk on Monday 18th September, it was grey and overcast and breezy and it didn't look very promising but eventually the sun did appear and we ended up having an interesting time.

Wembury

The highlight was a Turtle Dove, a Wembury first for me. It was flushed out of the sewage farm hedge by a hunting Sparrowhawk, it then flew around in a broad loop before settling briefly in the stubble field and then flew off inland where it was nearly taken out by the still present Sparrowhawk. A shame it didn't linger but very nice to see.

There were still a few waders present along the beach on the high tide - 4 Bar-tailed Godwits, 4 Dunlin, 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Whimbrel, 2 Curlew, around 20 Turnstones and Oystercatchers - and there were still around 60 Mediterranean Gulls roosting on the rocks.

A Common Lizard, a Speckled Wood, a Painted Lady and Red Admirals were seen when they sun did appear and a few Ivy Bees were seen feeding on the Ivy flowers.

Ivy Bee

I returned to Wembury early the next morning for a seawatch as the weather was foul with strong winds and rainy spells. After getting off the bus I headed out to The Point and set up my scope on the usual bench but it was too open and windy and so I moved up the slope and stood in the lee of a large fir tree below the radar station where it was a little less exposed. The light wasn't great, the birds were distant and it was misty and mizzley at times as the rain belts swept in but I managed to see a few sea birds all the same.

Wembury Mewstone from The Bench

Birds were passing west offshore, most were too far out to call except for the usual and obvious Gannets, but a few birds were closer in just out past The Mewstone and I managed to log 2 Cory's Shearwaters, 4 Balearic Shearwaters, 5 Manx Shearwaters, 11 Arctic Skuas and a Great Skua along with Kittiwakes and Gannets. 

At one point 4 Arctic Skua and the Great Skua were harrassing a small flock of Kittiwakes as they passed by, the Arctic Skuas being noticeably smaller than the chunky Great Skua. It was also interesting to note how Shearwater-like the Arctic Skuas flight was at times as they headed into the strong wind.

(And from Penlee just across Plymouth Sound from Wembury Point there were some very impressive counts of seabirds passing west (eg., 80+ Cory's, 2 Great, 400+Balearic, 4 Sooty, 2 Long-tailed Skua), they were seen over a longer period of time than I watched off The Point but it highlights just what was out there and how Wembury isn't really very well placed to view it!)

I watched from 08:15hrs to 10:30hrs before I'd had enough of the wind and with the bird numbers appearing to trail off closer to shore I headed back to the bus stop for the journey home. Along the way I had a look at the waders along the beach on the high tide and found a Whimbrel, a Knot, a Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, 16 Turnstone, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, a Curlew and Oystercatchers. There were also still around 60 Mediterranean Gulls roosting on the rocks or sheltering in the stubble field, at least 10 1st winters and 6 2nd winters were present amongst the adult birds. I also found the adult bird with the green leg ring again but it flew off before I could get a read of it with my scope.

Mediterranean Gulls

Wembury Bull - not fazed one bit by the awful weather