A blustery walk around the Cemy.

Thursday 8th September 2022.

Plenty of cloud over the Cemetery this morning with the occasional shower passing over. 

Yet again, the south of the UK is going through a lot of very heavy rain showers on a blustery south-westerly wind. However, I took a gamble and took our Scruff for a walk around Highland Road Cemetery, hoping his little old legs might cope on a slow walk round. Fortunately, he made it OK, but he is now walking very slow indeed.

Top photo: the deceased Flounced Rustic moth. Middle photo: the scrap between a Great Tit and a Blue Tit in the south-west corner of the Cemy and bottom photo: the Tapered Drone Fly.

Despite the blustery conditions, it was reasonably warm (18 degrees centigrade) and the occasional light shower, I still notched up 11 species of birds on my way around the Cemetery and although no nothing really of note was seen, it was still worth the walk round as always. The oddest sighting was of a Great Tit having a tassle with a Blue Tit on the ground on the south-west corner below the large Conifer. They carried on fighting, claws locked, all the time I was there! The following birds were present this morning within the Cemy:

• Herring Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Blackbird
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Dunnock
• Robin
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit 

Top photo: Drone Flies on the flowering Ivy plants. Middle photo: one of the large Dryad's Saddle fungi growing by a Beech Tree in the centre of the Cemy. Bottom photo: plenty of Wood Pigeons here today. 

Other notable wildlife present included a Small White and Holly Blue butterfly and the Ivy is now starting to flower and attracting a good number of Hoverflies including Eristalis Tenax (Drone Fly) and also Eristalis Pertinax (Tapered Dronefly). All the usual plants were present including Lady Bedstraw, Cat’s Ear, Yarrow and even the remains of a Vipers Bugloss growing by a grave on the south side of the Cemy. Both Beef Fungus and Dryad’s Saddle fungi were present again in the middle of the Cemy. On entry to the Cemy, I noticed a dead moth caught in a spiders web and on release, it was a Flounced Rustic. Another moth was found (this one was alive!) a micro moth, Pyrausta despicata; a species that is very common within the grass, of which is now very green within the Cemy.  So, plenty to look at within the Cemy despite the windy conditions. 

Top photo: a lone Carrion Crow over on the east side of the Cemetery. I had found a dead one over on the west side and looked like an adult bird that had succumbed. Middle photo: Beefcake fungus growing on an old bough of a dead tree. Bottom photo: our Scruff! I remember taking him around the Cemetery when he was a pup and now 15 and a half years later, he is just managing to walk round the area.