Engrailed

Tag: dawlish

  • Heron and gulls

    Strange, prehistoric-sounding noises overhead at about 11.30 am – turned out to be three gulls attacking a very vocal heron. Had a terrific view of the heron diving and striking back at them.

  • Swifts

    About a dozen Swifts screaming through the gardens during the late morning, just above head height. Saw an article on the BBC website about five minutes later about the decline in Swift numbers. According to the RSPB the low-flying, screaming behaviour means that the birds are breeding close by and they are collecting reports to…

  • Pipistrelle

    Saw a bat flying over the garden for the first time, at about 10.30 pm last night. The bat detector identified it as a common pipistrelle.

  • Great Spotted Woodpecker

    Clear morning at 6.30 am, then clouds/fog suddenly appeared from the north, moving very fast. No breeze whatsoever at ground level – every leaf perfectly still and the sun looking like a full moon through the haze. Swifts flying very low though the back gardens, barely skimming the tops of the fences, and a Great…

  • Hedgehog

    Spotted a hedgehog on the garden path at about twenty-past four this morning – the first one I’ve seen here.

  • Eyed Hawkmoth

    Eyed Hawkmoth Smerinthus ocellata. Previously wrongly identified as a Poplar Hawkmoth. The confusion was due to the fact that we didn’t get a chance to see the ‘eyes’, plus the Chinery illustration for the Eyed Hawkmoth doesn’t show the hindwings projecting forwards, though the text does describe them this way. Thanks James.

  • Apple blossom

    Crab apple Malus sylvestris John Downie

  • Hornbeam catkins

    European Hornbeam or Common Hornbeam – Carpinus betulus

  • Early hawthorn leaves

    Common Hawthorn – Crataegus monogyna, at Dawlish Warren

  • Turnstones

    Turnstones, Arenaria interpres, off the Devon coast near Dawlish