Wembury, 8th August

A quick walk along the coast path at Wembury before yet another dreaded night shift on Thursday 8th August was relatively quiet but signs of the approaching autumn were in the air.

Waders were roosting at The Point on the hgh tide and along with 4 little egrets there were 77 oystercatchers, 5 curlew and my first Wembury ringed plover of the year.

Ringed Plover

A cirl bunting was heard singing and I had a few brief flight views of birds flying over the wheat in the wheat field which was looking very much like it was ready to be harvested. Better views were had of a nice male feeding a fledgling in the sewage farm hedge.

Offshore a few gannets and fulmar were seen but there was much excitement with 2 presumed juvenile peregrines busily chasing after a flock of 7 small waders, probably dunlin. The peregrines managed to isolate 1 bird from the other 6 which rapidly disappeared off westwards but the lone bird very fortunately managed to eventually escape westwards too.

A small feeding melee of gulls close to shore held 2 scruffy adult winter plumaged Mediterranean gulls and 2 juveniles amongst variously plumaged herring gulls and black-headed gulls and juvenile great black-backed gulls.

A blackcap was heard singing and chiffchaff were heard and briefly seen along with just a single scruffy looking whitethroat  but stonechat showed very well including good numbers of fledglings.

No moths in the toilet block again but I did see my first Jersey tiger moth of the year flitting about on the road leading up from the beach. A very active knot grass caterpillar was seen on the wooden fence but the best was a privet hawkmoth caterpillar found on a privet bush near the bus stop and my first one ever.

 Jersey Tiger Moth

 Knot Grass

 Privet Hawkmoth

Privet Hawkmoth 

Painted lady, red admiral, gatekeeper and whites were flitting about and 2 small and black common lizards with a large male were seen along with bloody nose beetles while a dark bush cricket catching a ride on the window of the bus on the journey home was a surprise.

Dark Bush Cricket

Soggy Days in Bude

With 5 days off in a row again the plan was to head off to the caravan in Bude on Sunday 19th for a few days away but the weather was awful with virtually constant rain and so we stayed at home. Monday 20th and the forecast was for the rain to stop at lunchtime and so we too the plunge and headed off to Cornwall. It did indeed stop raining and it was warm and muggy and mostly cloudy during our time away but at least it didn't rain during the day time. It was wet and squelchy underfoot though and the water level at Maer Lake was very high but we had a pleasant time.

Caravan Sunset

With the high water level at Maer Lake the most exciting birds were a grey heron and a pair of teal along with moorhens and mallards while 2 chiffchaffs were busily singing away in the nearby hedgerows. More interesting were the birds offshore with a juvenile kittiwake being the highlight along with a juvenile gannet and a few Manx shearwaters, while 2 fulmars were flying around the cliffs and resting on the cliff ledges. On the clifftops a wheatear was a nice find but just 2 meadow brown and a male common blue were seen on the butterfly front.

Fulmar

A hare was a nice surprise at the caravan site, it looked like a young animal as it ran across the grass before hunkering down in an overgrown patch but it was soon spooked and ran off out of sight. I never saw it again but David disturbed it from cover the next morning as he wandered down to the shop to get the newspaper.

A sparrowhawk overhead at the campsite on a number of occasions caused much panic and noise from the swallows and a whitethroat was regularly heard singing with a second bird singing away along the footpath up to the cliffs.

I had the moth box out overnight on the 20th but had forgotten to bring my egg trays to put in the bottom of the trap and had to use screwed up newspaper instead. It worked well but meant some of the moths unfortunately flew off as I went through the sheets of paper.

I have wanted to have the moth box out for a while at home especially as it was National Moth Nights on 9th-11th June but work and poor overnight weather meant I wasn't able to. The theme for this year was hawkmoths and in my moth trap on the morning of June 21st I had 4 of them - a pristine eyed hawkmoth, 2 worn elephant hawkmoths and a very worn and weak privet hawkmoth.

 Eyed Hawkmoth

 Elephant Hawkmoth

Privet Hawkmoth

Also caught were a crescent dart, an ingrailed clay, common wainscot, buff ermine, white ermine, a lychnis, a brimstone moth, flame, flame shoulder, a snout, setaceous Hebrew character, a barred straw, lots of heart and dart and a large yellow underwing amongst others.

 Ingrailed Clay

Crescent Dart

Bude Wildlife - July 12th to 18th

Sunday 12th July and it was off to the caravan at Bude for the week. While packing up the car in the misty drizzle I saw a fledgling herring gull in the small car park across the road, I thought it may have been the bird I saw in the front garden a few days ago but then noticed that the chimney stack fledgling had gone. I also found another tick on my leg from my trip to Ashclyst Forest the previous day - it must be a good (or bad) year for ticks this year or I am just particularly tasty.

The weather at Bude wasn't particularly great, I managed to get the moth box out for 2 nights and had a small but varied haul of moths. Highlights were poplar hawkmoth,  Brussels lace, drinker, rosy footman, buff tip, shoulder striped wainscot and buff arches. Best of all was my first privet hawkmoth since seeing one many years ago as a boy in Suffolk and my first small mottled willow.

 Shoulder Striped Wainscot

Rosy Footman

 Privet Hawkmoth

 Privet Hawkmoth

 Small Mottled Willow - an immigrant moth from The Continent

 Small Mottled Willow

Small Mottled Willow

I also saw my first (faded) grass emerald on the cliffs along with a female ghost moth and a hummingbird hawkmoth.

 Grass Emerald - a faded individual

Ghost Moth - female

A few butterflys were seen - ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, red admiral, speckled wood, comma and a large fritillary flying along the clifftop, probably a silver washed.

Comma

Maer Lake was full but with some muddy margins and over the week I saw a lapwing, a common sandpiper, 2 black tailed godwits, 2 greenshank, 1 whimbrel, 1 redshank and 3 eclipse plumaged teal amongst the mallards. A sedge warbler was heard singing along with a chiffchaff and a flyover sparrowhawk caused a bit of a panic.

Offshore a few gannets and fulmars were seen and on an early morning walk on the 16th I picked up a loose feeding flock of 100+ Manx shearwater some distance out. They were resting on the sea, flying around and plunging in to the water in small groups but despite searching I couldn't see any cetaceans amongst them. However a scan closer in to shore revealed at least 2 harbour porpoise in their usual blink and you'll miss it surfacing views.

My sister Vik and her family were staying at Blagdon Water near Holsworthy for the week, having hired a stationary boat to stay on. We headed over one evening for a BBQ and I kept a look out for barn owls which frequent the area but with no luck. A bonus though were 2, possibly 3, reeling grasshopper warblers and I managed to see one in a bramble bush before it flew off.

Emperor Dragonfly - ovipositing female at Blagdon Water

Other highlights were :- 3 hares in the cow fields along the lane on an evening walk; sticklebacks in the stream and a common darter basking in the sunshine at Crooklets Beach along with a moulting adult summer plumaged Mediterranean gull; and sadly a kestrel and a vole squashed on the road near Northcott Beach, presumably the kestrel had caught the vole and then was hit by a car.

 Male Stickleback

 Mediterranean Gull

 Mediterranean Gull

Common Darter

And so not the best of weather and not the best wildlife watching trip I've had at Bude but a nice break away - and with some new moths, and some time spent with Vik and Nik and Jack and Clara, I can't complain.