July 2020

26th. A walk up Brent Knoll. Lots of gatekeeper butterflies flying.

16th. Green sandpiper, oystercatcher and 24 black-tailed godwits at Herriot's Pool. A walk at Folly farm - great flower meadows, and butterflies included a brimstone an several marbled whites.

12th. 1-2 marsh tits calling and 2 silver-washed fritillaries in Bourton Combe.

11th. Ham Wall. Male brown hawker and black-tailed skimmer. Peacocks feeding on thistles. I also saw my first bittern of the year, and a marsh harrier.

3rd. Back to the Island. A male linnet fed seeds to a chick.

More plunging gannets.

2nd. A circular walk from Trevescan - Nanjizel - Land's End. Stunning.

Corn marigolds at a field edge.

The wild carrot is in full flower.

Heather above the Nanjizel Valley.

Near Land's End.

There were a couple of large groups of silver-studded blue butterfly on patches of kidney vetch. The vetch flowering was mainly over, so there would have been little food for the adult butterflies. Most of the butterflies were males, so I wonder if the males aggregate around these patches, knowing that females will lay eggs on the vetch as this is a larval food plant.

I saw a buzzard circling while carrying an eel - I've only seen one previous record of a buzzard eating an eel. I also saw a peregrine juvenile and 3-4 choughs, including 2 unringed birds.

I photographed a juvenile gannet plunging off the Island.

1st-3rd. St Ives to enjoy the last time before major lifting of lockdown. We have 3 herring gull chicks living on our roof.

1st. A round of golf at The Bristol. Puss moth caterpillar on the track.