Billacombe Railway and Blagdons Meadow, Plymouth

Sunday June 5th, a hot and sunny day and a day off to myself and after pottering around the house in the morning I headed off to Billacombe Quarry for a nose around. I visited here in July 2012 just before planning permission was given to develop a housing estate on the site and it has certainly changed. The whole area has been filled in and levelled off and houses are popping up at one end of the site. The cliff sides of the quarry have been stabilised and in places planted with trees and as a result still look wildlife friendly. I had a clamber about and saw common blues, orange tips, small whites and green veined whites along with a small tortoiseshell which was obsessed with a dried up dog turd on the ground, regularly returning to settle on it when disturbed.

A blackcap was busily singing away in a small wood and a riband wave and at least 3 treble bars were also disturbed from vegetation but there was no sign of any orchids or slow worms.

Treble Bar

I headed back to Billacombe Railway to have a look at what is happening there as it is right next too where the houses are being built in the quarry and I was a bit trepidatious at what I might find. The first part of the railway line opposite Morrisons  is becoming overgrown with invasive vegetation and the old sleepers are rotting away to dust. Common blues and burnet companions were seen in the remaining open areas where birds foot trefoil is still growing and speckled woods were seen in the shady woodland but there were no orchids.

Burnet Companion

The railway line behind The Range is also becoming very overgrown and all the felt squares present last year where slow worms and common lizards were sheltering had all gone. Again common blues and burnet companions were flitting about and a party of long tailed tits moved through the bushes. No orchids were found until just before I was about to leave when I luckily caught sight of 2 bee orchids, my first here at this site and almost missed - they were taller than those I see at nearby Blagdons Meadow and very nice to find.

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

I am not sure what is happening to the site which is owned by Plymouth City Council. I get the feeling that it is being left to overgrow so that it loses its wildlife and industrial heritage value so that it can be built on as part of the housing development. More likely is the continuation of the cycle path through it following the opening of the cycle bridge across the River Plym. Very sad.

I walked along the roadside towards the cycle bridge looking for orchids but with no luck - it has been cool and dry recently which may have delayed development. The tide was coming in as I walked over the bridge and I saw a pair of shelduck on the mudflats amongst the gulls. Swallows were flitting about the derelict boat by the footpath with a long tailed male constantly chasing a short tailed female around and house martins chittered overhead.

Blagdons Meadow was looking very lush but was very dry underfoot and I managed to find a few early purple orchids which had mostly gone over. No bee orchids but southern marsh orchids were putting on quite a show, I have never seen so many here before and they were present in a much wider area of the Meadow than previously.

Early Purple Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchid

Southern Marsh Orchids

Common blues and burnet companions were flitting about with the burnet companions in flight doing a good impression of small heaths at times but unfortunately I didn't find any small heaths on this visit. A silver y was a first for the year and a large white flying past  was a first for the day.

Two skylarks were feeding in the long grass and I found a male azure damselfly resting on vegetation but by now I was hot and tired from being out in the bright sunshine and so I headed home for a cup of tea and a cool down.

Male Azure Damselfly

Cuckoos

May 9th and I headed off on the bus to Wotter on the edge of Dartmoor for a walk to Cadover Bridge, something I have not done before. My plan was to look for cuckoos having drawn a blank on my trip to Cuckoo Rock the previous week.

Walking across the Moor to Cadover Bridge there were plenty of wheatears, skylarks, meadow pipits and stonechats with a noisey raven seen flying overhead. At Cadover Bridge a female goosander with 11 ducklings was a surprise - the ducklings were very small, presumably recently hatched, and amazingly cute! Also seen were 2 common sandpipers, grey wagtails and dippers with flyover sand martins and swallows.

 Goosander with ducklings

Goosander with ducklings



While waiting for the bus at Wotter for the trip home I was entertained by 2 male and a female yellowhammer which gave some nice views in a nearby hawthorn bush. And just before the bus appeared I finally heard a cuckoo calling in a nearby stand of trees but I couldn't get a sighting of it.

Male Yellowhammer



I stopped off at Blagdons Meadow by the River Plym on the bus ride home where early purple orchids were flowering including a very nice white form amongst the more usual purple form.

White form of Early Purple Orchid



May 10th and I headed off to Yarner Wood with Mavis and Mike for a field meeting with the Plymouth RSPB group. I wouldn't usually have gone on the trip but Mavis offered me a lift so I jumped at the opportunity as Yarner Wood is a bugger to get to by public transport.

Driving across the Moor we had a nice view of a cuckoo sat on top of a gorse bush being mobbed by meadow pipits by the side of the road near Haytor before it flew off low over the heather and out of sight. At Yarner Wood there was quite a group of people and it was a pleasant but windy walk around the wood. We had great views of 2 singing wood warblers, both with coloured rings on their legs, and brief views of a third singing bird and with a fourth bird heard only. Pied flycatchers were seen and heard around the nest boxes along with a treecreeper, 2 marsh tits and goldcrest. A holly blue, a brimstone and a square spot moth were also seen.

Square Spot Moth



Around the pond were 5 male and a female mandarin, 2 male mallard and a juvenile grey wagtail while from the hide a great spotted woodpecker, a marsh tit, a male siskin and a nuthatch were seen on the bird feeders.

 Male Great Spotted Woodpecker

Marsh Tit



Heading home we stopped off at Challacombe Farm where we saw 2 male redstarts before the wind picked up and the heavens opened and so we headed off home having had a good mornings birding.