With rain forecast for late morning and continuing throughout the day, I set the alarm for silly o'clock so that I could get a walk in before it arrived. Well I managed to get up and as I set off it was even sunny for awhile. I got back around 9:00am just as the rain began to fall. Perfect timing.
My last walk through Penns Wood to the Cove was back on the 21st April, and unsurprisingly everything looked a lot greener today.
No real highlights and no butterflies either, but then it was pretty early in the day.
Birds Recorded:
1 Buzzard
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
1 Stock Dove
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
4 Common Whitethroat
1 Lesser Whitethroat
3 Blackcap
1 Chiffchaff
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Wren
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Linnet
Goldfinch
One of the four Common Whitethroats I came across this morning.
And another view.
Looking across Wakeham Railway Cuttings from Perryfield Quarry Butterfly where......
..............this Lesser Whitethroat has taken up residence.
A short video of the Lesser Whitethroat singing
2 Slow-worms
Butterflies Recorded:
None
Moths Recorded:
Plum Tortrix (Hedya pruniana)
Plum Tortrix (Hedya pruniana) on Penn's Weare
Bees Recorded:
Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Common Carder (Bombus pascuorum)
Chocolate Mining Bee (Andrena scotica)
If I have this right, this is a Chocolate Mining Bee which was in the grounds of St Andrew's Church
Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Vagrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
Marmalade Hoverfly
Vagrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
8 - Bloody-nosed Beetles (Timarcha tenebricosa)
Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Ischnomera cyanea)
Bloody-nosed Beetle
One of many Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetles on the Ragwort flowers.
Plants:
Ivy Broomrape (Orobanche hederae)
Common Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
An Ivy Broomrape just emerging on Penn's Weare
Common Poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
And me just trying to be clever with a bit of artistic licence.
General Shots:
Pennsylvania Castle Woods. Ted is somewhere down the track.
The very lush looking grounds of St Andrews Church
And the toilet block at the Cove has had a facelift.
Rufus Castle with The Portland Races in the distance
Ted:
He does like sitting on the cliff watching the world go by.
Whoops!! Ted's snagged a nasty bramble and can't look. I can't blame him. Fortunately it was easy enough to remove.