Tuesday 28th May

With passage migrants virtually non-existent, a fly through Cuckoo on Warren Point, the first of the year, was a nice surprise. A few of the usual waders were resting on the high tide with counts including 29 Sanderling, 24 Dunlin, six Ringed and a Grey Plover. 

Elsewhere the six Eider were in the estuary and offshore, five Sandwich Tern and a pair of protective Shelduck were escorting three chicks towards the estuary, having presumed nested on cliffs toward Dawlish.

Year List Addition:

153. Cuckoo

Other Wildlife: The limited sunshine and a stiff westerly wind meant flying insects were mainly confined to sheltered woodland areas, with the only butterflies two Speckled Wood. 

Despite the weather a new species of fly for the Recording Area was discovered, Polyporivora ornata, a distinctively marked flat-footed fly associated with tree fungi.

Polyporivora ornata - Alan Keatley 

Other Diptera recorded, all making their first appearance for the year, included Sieve-winged Snailkiller Coremacera marinata, the tachinid Ectophasia crassipennis and a Common Awl Robberfly Neoitamus cyanurus.

Sieve-winged Snailkiller Coremacera marinata - Alan Keatley

Ectophasia crassipennis - Alan Keatley

Common Awl Robberfly Neoitamus cyanurus - Alan Keatley