Heat Wave Wildlife

It has become very hot and sunny since our return to Plymouth from our trip to Suffolk with the heat increasing daily. It is also very still with very little breeze and it is becoming quite unbearable but it has meant that conditions are perfect for back yard moth boxing. 

I had the moth box out in the back yard on our return to Plymouth from Suffolk and on checking it out the next morning on Friday 16th July after a warm and muggy night I was pleased to finally get a decent haul of moths.

The highlight was a Chocolate Tip, the first one I have ever seen, and other highlights in the trap were a V Pug, 3 Coronet, a Marbled Green, an Old Lady and a Grey/Dark Dagger. 

Coronet

Marbled Green

Old Lady

Grey/Dark Dagger

Saturday 17th July and I headed down to Falmouth in Cornwall for a 7 hour boat trip offshore to look for cetaceans and sea birds. It was a hot and sunny day as the heatwave continued to build and with very little breeze the sea was flat calm and crystal clear.

Manx Shearwaters were constantly seen along with Gannets and Fulmars. A single Storm Petrel was seen resting on the sea before flying off, a Whimbrel flew over the boat heading towards the coast, an adult Mediterranean Gull was feeding amongst a group of Black-headed Gulls and a Raven and a juvenile Peregrine were seen flying along the cliffs.

Manx Shearwater

Gannet

The conditions were ideal for looking out for any movement at the waters surface and we were very lucky to find 4 pods of Common Dolphins, all amazing encounters as they came to bow ride at the front of the boat and giving fantastic views in the clear water. They were close enough to hear their vocalisations and blows at the surface, a wonderful experience.

Common Dolphins

Common Dolphins 

Common Dolphins 

Common Dolphins 

Common Dolphins 

Common Dolphins 

Common Dolphins

An Ocean Sunfish was another good find as it flapped its fin at the surface and we also had good views of a Harbour Seal and 3 Grey Seals close to the shore. The floating and very smelly corpse of a Minke Whale was a sad sight and not the one we had hoped to see. 

Minke Whale corpse

Sunday 18th July was hotter, sunnier and even less breezey and so we headed out to Bolt Head for a coast walk, figuring it may have been cooler along the cliff path than elsewhere and indeed it probably was but only just slightly so. The hot weather meant there were butterflies everywhere and I found my first Gatekeepers and Graylings of the year along with a Dark Green Fritillary, Small Copper, a Common Blue, Meadow Brown, a Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Skipper, a Speckled Wood, a Small Tortoiseshell and Whites.

Grayling

Monday 19th July and on checking out the back yard moth box in the morning there were fewer moths than previously but the highlights were a male Four-spotted Footman, a Clay, a Brussels Lace, 3 Coronet, a Small Fan-Footed Wave and a Poplar Grey. 

Four-spotted Footman (male) 

Small Fan-Footed Wave

Poplar Grey

After checking through the moths I headed out to Wembury for a walk, my first for a few weeks now, and it was even hotter as the heatwave continues. 

Butterflies were again very noticeable and I was pleased to see a Wall, a Dark Green Fritillary,  2 male Common Blue, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Whites, Ringlet, Gatekeeper and quite a few Comma. 

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

On the incoming tide there were 27 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew, a Little Egret and 15 juvenile Black-headed Gulls amongst the adult Gulls out on the rocks. 

Whitethroat and Stonechat fledglings were seen along the footpath, both seeming to have had a good breeding season this year and Whitethroats were heard singing too. 2 Cirl Buntings were heard singing  and another male was briefly seen while overhead a Buzzard, Kestrel and juvenile Peregrine were noted. 

National Moth Night

After all the wildlife excitement of last weekend this week has been very quiet with work, chores and weather hampering any opportunities to get out and about.

Friday 28th August was cool and showery and so we visited Saltram with Mother-in-law for a short walk and a spot of lunch. We walked down from the car park to the bird hide and back and on Blaxton Meadow on the high tide there were the usual Curlew, Oystercatcher, Little Egret, Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull along with a Stock Dove and 2 White Doves while Ring-necked Parakeets screeched in the trees nearby.

Scruffy looking Mandarin Ducks in eclipse plumage were seen roosting around the Cafe Pond with Mallards and Moorhens while we ate our lunch. A Mistle Thrush was feeding on Yew berries in the tree by the Pond and a Sparrowhawk flew overhead while Swallows swooped into the roof space of the stables to feed young in their nests.

Mandarin Duck

Moorhen

I had the moth box out in the back yard that night for National Moth Night and the next morning I had 25 Moths of 11 Species. The theme of this year's moth night is Red Underwing, no chance of one of those in my trap, but I did have a Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and 12 Large Yellow Underwing although the numbers of Large Yellow Underwing this year are noticeable lower than usual (so far). A Spectacle was a nice first for the year and the other moths seen were a lovely Marbled Green, 3 Vines Rustic, 2 Brimstone Moth, 1 Double-stripe Pug, 1 Square-Spot Rustic, 1 Light-brown Apple Moth, 1 Common Marbled Carpet and 1 Eudonia Angustea.

Spectacle

Spectacle

Marbled Green

After sorting out the moth box I headed out to Wembury for a walk on what was a sunny but cool day with a strong northerly breeze. Being a Bank Holiday weekend I expected it to be busy and indeed it was but it wasn't too bad.

A Double-striped Pug in the toilet block and 2 Silver Y along the coast path were the only moths noted but there were many Red Admirals, Small Whites and Large Whites seen along with a Comma, 2 Common Blue, Meadow Browns, Speckled Woods, a Green-veined White and 2 Small Copper. A male Beautiful Demoiselle and 3 Hawker Sp. were also seen.

 Green-veined White

 Green-veined White

 Green-veined White

 Comma

Comma

On the incoming tide there were 2 Ringed Plover, 2 Curlew, 12 Dunlin, 5 Turnstone and 20 Redshank out on the rocks with the Oystercatchers and 6 Little Egret and a Grey Heron. 7 adult and 5 juvenile Mediterranean Gulls were roosting amongst the Herring, Black-headed and Great Black-backed Gulls on the rocks too. 

 Dunlin

 Turnstone

Dunlin

Chiffchaff, Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, Stonechat, Linnet, Swallow and House Martin were also noted along my walk with a Buzzard overhead, Pied Wagtails along the beach and 6 Wheatear in the top horse field.

Stonechat

On checking the wildlife sightings pages on the Internet that evening I read that a juvenile Woodchat Shrike had been found at Wembury that day but it was along the footpath past the church heading towards Noss Mayo, a route I have only walked once in all the years I have been visiting Wembury and so I wouldn't have seen it anyway (and I did see the cracking male Woodchat Shrike at Wembury Point back in May of this year). 

Sunday 30th August and with 2 night shifts looming I headed out in the morning to Ernesettle Creek to look for 2 reported Osprey seen fishing along the River Tamar the previous day. It was sunny but cold in a biting northerly breeze and I was hopeful of catching up with them.

I set up my scope and scanned around briefly before hearing Oystercatchers in a bit of a kerfuffle and flying down river and on looking up I found an Osprey circling around over the water and heading over towards Kingsmill Lake on the opposite bank - a result in just 5 minutes of arriving on site!

River Tamar from Ernesettle

I watched it flying around and making a few aborted dives before it flew back to the mouth of the River Tavy where it eventually caught a fish and flew upriver and out of sight. On view for around 30 minutes and some lovely scope views and my first in the Plymouth area - very pleased.

I hung around for another hour in the hope that the second bird would appear to fish but it wasn't to be so instead I kept myself amused watching 3 Raven and a Sparrowhawk flying over, a Wheatear feeding on seaweed along the foreshore, 5 Great-crested Grebes out on the river including 2 Juveniles, 2 Dunlin flying upriver and the usual Redshank, Oystercatcher, Little Egret, Grey Heron and Gulls.

A look along Ernestettle Creek revealed a Greenshank and 2 Common Sandpipers while a Chiffchaff was heard singing and Swallows flitted about overhead.

Greenshank

A very pleasent morning indeed and something to help me get through the joys of a double night shift on a Bank Holiday weekend.

Melodious Warbler

I had the moth box out in the back yard again on August 22nd/23rd and was very pleased on checking it out in the morning to find a Marbled Green inside it which this time I was able to pot up and get a good look at. Flounced Rustic, Setaceous Hebrew Character, Light Emerald, Angle Shades and Pyrausta despicata were nice finds too.

 Marbled Green

 Marbled Green

 Flounced Rustic

 Pyrausta despicata

Angle Shades

Setaceous Hebrew Character

A Melodious Warbler had been found at Dawlish Warren on Tuesday 18th and I had expected it to be a skulky one day wonder and while it was skulky it was still present on Saturday 22nd. Spoonbills had also appeared at Bowling Green Marsh on Wednesday 19th and were also still present on Saturday 22nd and so I decided to go and have a look for them all on Sunday 23rd.

High tide on the River Exe was around 10:30am and so I visited Bowling Green Marsh first for the high tide roost. The RSPB hide was open and only had 2 Birders inside which was a surprise and 1 of them very kindly got me onto the 2 Spoonbills (an adult and a juvenile) which were asleep side by side and obscured by vegetation from where I was sitting.

I moved position and managed some good scope views of them as they occasional awoke to briefly preen but eventually they moved position and were totally obscured by the vegetation.

 Spoonbill - adult

 Spoonbill

Spoonbill - juvenile

A winter plumaged Knot and a Lapwing were found amongst the roosting Curlew, Redshank, Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit and around 20 noisy Greenshank flew over towards Goosemoor.

 Curlew

Redshank, Dunlin and Teal

An adult Common Gull was found amongst the Black-headed Gulls and an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull patrolled around the Marsh terrorising the smaller roosting waders.

Amongst the eclipsed plumaged Teal and Mallard out on the Marsh were 2 juvenile Shelduck, 4 Gadwall, 2 Wigeon and a few Shoveler while out diving on the open water were a Little Grebe and bizarrely a juvenile Scaup.

Scaup

I moved on to Dawlish Warren, heading straight to the area where the Melodious Warbler was being seen and expected a bit of a wait to see it as it was proving to be very skulky and elusive for long periods of time but within a few minutes of arriving it was found by 1 of the birders present and showed very well for around 5 minutes before disappearing again.

 Melodious Warbler

 Melodious Warbler - with damaged left eye

 Melodious Warbler 

 Melodious Warbler 

Melodious Warbler 

It was a very smart looking bird as it moved around the bramble bushes snaffling down Shield Bugs but it had a very nasty looking damaged left eye although it obviously wasn't affecting its feeding abilities. My first UK sighting of one having only ever seen them in Spain before and a very nice and unexpected sighting too.

I had a wander around the Greenland Lake area where Autumn Lady's Tresses were in flower and a Red Admiral, a Green-veined White, Meadow Brown and Common Blue were flitting about. A Migrant Hawker was resting on a gorse Bush and a juvenile Wheatear was feeding out on the golf course.

 Autumn Lady's Tresses 

 Autumn Lady's Tresses 

 Autumn Lady's Tresses 

Autumn Lady's Tresses 

 Migrant Hawker

Migrant Hawker 

I returned to the area where the Melodious Warbler was being seen and spent a bit more time looking for it but it never showed again before I had to leave. I did see a juvenile Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff (with 1 heard singing) and Long-tailed Tits in the trees while waiting and it was nice to chat to some of the birders present although it was a little bit too twitchy for my comfort and liking.

As I headed home tired but happy after another wildlife filled day it was nice to reflect on all my fantastic sightings over the weekend and to be thankful for being able to get out and about to see it in these continuing weird COVID-19 restricted times.