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

Four Tern Day and a Solo of Sandpiper

Monday 5th August and I decided to head up to Dawlish Warren on the train for the mid-morning high tide roost. I caught the 07:45hrs train but it ended up being delayed and I arrived at Dawlish Warren over an hour later than planned - but at least I can get 50% of the ticket cost back under the Delay Repay scheme.

On arriving off the train I walked straight out to the hide and on settling into position to scan the estuary I noticed that there were very few birds on the island in front of the hide with virtually all the birds roosting out on Finger Point instead.

On the island were 2 grey plovers, 1 in summer plumage, a common sandpiper and a few gulls while out on Finger Point there were oystercatchers including an albino/piebald bird, cormorants, gulls and Sandwich Terns. I managed to pick out an adult little tern amongst the roosting terns before it flew off and up into the estuary, never to be seen again. A juvenile black tern was also picked up flying around the roosting birds before settling on a buoy in the river channel and a few common terns were found too but despite searching I didn't pick out any roseate terns.

As the tide receded the terns began to fly over to the island and a juvenile little tern appeared out on the mud in The Bight before flying off out towards the sea. The black tern also reappeared, flying very close to the hide before also heading out to sea.

Also seen from the hide were a black-tailed godwit, a curlew on the golf course, a few whimbrel feeding out on the mud, ringed plovers and dunlins, 2 adult common gulls and 2 adult winter plumaged Mediterranean gulls while along the beach a few sanderling were seen. A juvenile wheatear on the golf course, chiffchaffs in the brambles and swallows overhead were the only land birds of note.

I had a look for brown argus in the Greenland Lake area but only found some very brown argusy looking female common blues amongst the males and more distinctive looking females. Small copper, red admiral, meadow brown, gatekeeper, painted lady, small white and green-veined white were also seen along with 6 spot burnets and an emperor dragonfly.

Common Blue - female

Common Blue

Common Blue 

Common Blue 

Common Blue

Common Blue - female

The train journey home was delayed by 20 minutes so I have again reclaimed 12.5% of the ticket cost through the Delay Replay scheme so not a bad day out all round!

Tuesday 6th August and I decided to catch the bus to South Efford Marsh at Aveton Giffard for a quick look around after a report on the internet the night before of 2 wood sandpipers and a green sandpiper being seen there.

I visited South Efford Marsh in August 2013 and saw wood, green and common sandpipers (a Trio) but in August 2014 I only saw green and common sandpipers (a Duo) and on this visit I only saw common sandpipers (a Solo) - so I guess my next visit will be sandpiper-less.

A few other waders were seen on the high tide - 8 greenshank, 5 curlews, a whimbrel, 2 dunlin, a redshank, a ringed plover and a black-tailed godwit - and Canada geese, little egrets, a grey heron, mallards and a pair of shelduck with 5 well grown ducklings were also noted.

Greenshank, South Efford Marsh

Painted lady, red admiral, small tortoiseshell, meadow brown, gatekeeper and wall were flitting about too despite the grey sky and breeze and despite not seeing the sandpipers I had hoped for it was a pleasant walk anyway.

Painted Lady

Gatekeeper

Wall