Wednesday 17 June 2020

Sunday 14 June 2020

Marbled White

I took a look around the old tennis courts at Pynes Hill in Exeter this morning and I managed to see a few of these gorgeous Marbled White Butterflies , also seen were a few Meadow Brown and 5 Cinnabar Moths .
The only birds seen today were Blackcap , Common Chiffchaff and a flock of Long-Tailed Tit .

Marbled White ( Melanargia galathea ) . Pynes Hill . Exeter . Devon


Saturday 13th June

Not a lot to report lately ! But I got up this morning and pulled the curtains back and flushed a feeding European Green Woodpecker from my lawn . And later in the afternoon I was sitting in the garden having a cup of tea when a Red Kite went over being harassed by Corvids .

Friday 12 June 2020

Currant Clearwing

I had a call from my neighbour today telling me that he had a very rare moth in his garden . So he very kindly said that I could go around and have a look at it , and I was soon looking at my first ever Currant Clearwing , this is the 3rd Clearwing species I have seen with the others being Yellow-Legged Clearwing and Six-Belted Clearwing .

Many thanks Tim .

Currant Clearwing ( Synanthedon tipuliformis ) . Topsham . Devon


Thursday 11 June 2020

Little Tern

A trip down to Cockwood to look for Little Tern on the Exe Estuary as I had had news that they had been seen and I managed to see two of them sat on a sand bar in the middle of the estuary with a row of 15+ Sandwich Tern .
I then had a look around the lanes near Kenton and I saw 2 Red-Legged Partridge , 4 Barn Swallow and a Common Raven .

Red-Legged Partridge ( Alectoris rufa ) . Nr Kenford . Devon


Tuesday 9 June 2020

Marsh Warbler

On Friday the 29th  of May news came out of a Marsh Warbler found on the River Otter at Tipton St John and as it was a new bird for me and nearly everyone else in Devon I got there as fast as I could . I stayed on the site for over six hours and the bird was heard it singing but I only got brief views of it .
So the next morning I went down to the site again early in the morning and the bird was showing a lot better and I was able to get these shots of it and I was very pleased with that as I have seen two of these birds in this country before but was never able to get a shot of one .
After talking to local birder Chris Townend I was asked not to put the news out just incase a female bird was attracted to the site , the news I then had from Chris was that there was no news on the bird from Monday the 1st of June and after consulting with Mr Kevin Rylands the Devon recorder I have now got permission to post a record of the sighting on my blog .
This puts me on 363 birds seen in my County of Devon … Not a bad count I think !

Marsh Warbler ( Acrocephalus palustris ) . Tipton St John . Devon