Wednesday 7th August: Nanjizal

The children had been starting to complain that we were being too local and weren't going anywhere else so today we decided to go to Nanjizal for a picnic on the beach. We drove to Trevilley and parked up before wandering at a slow pace in the heat along the path down to the beach. I spotted a couple of dragonflies en route, one was a Hawker of some sort and the other a Golden-ringed though both were only seen briefly.

The walk from Trevilley to Nanjizal

Sadly it was high tide when we arrived at the beach (we should really have checked) but we found a shady corner in which to munch our sandwiches and to stare at the sea. There were several Rock Pipits flying about, including some which looked like young birds - it's good to see that they've bred successfully. The children made pebble sculptures out of stone and I wandered off to investigate the two streams there that feed into the sea. These were once again full of colourful flowers and insects with a host of Banded Demoiselles and a single Blue-tailed Damselfly. The Hemp-Agrimony was full of butterflies and hover flies with at least ten butterflies just on one plant alone. I spent some time taking snaps for later identification and just enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Over at the second, smaller stream I came across a male Keeled Skimmer patrolling the margins and I busied myself with taking some photos.

Daughter B's stone sculpture

male Keeled Skimmer

On the way back I found this Magpie Moth

Next stop was St Just for some tea and refreshment before we headed down to Kenidjack as the children really wanted to see the donkeys there though sadly there was no sign of them when we arrived. We wandered down the valley to the sea, with myself lingering to admire the flowers and insects once again. As before, I couldn't get over how different the valley looked at this time of year compared to my usual visits - it was just so colourful! In one spot were a couple of Golden-ringed Dragonflies as well as the usual Banded Demoiselles. I spotted a couple of young Stonechats flitting about so once again signs of successful breeding. 

The Kenidjack mining ruins

On the way back up the valley we discovered that at least two donkeys had now appeared - they seem to have a shelter they can retreat to if it's too hot. We stopped to say hello to them and they seemed happy to see us.

Kenidjack Donkey

Then it was back to the car and home to Pendeen. We noticed that there was a large flock of several hundred large gulls milling around by the lighthouse for some reason though there was no reason that we could see for them to be there. After dinner we wandered down to the lighthouse to stare at the sea for a while. B & L went down to the small sandy beach there whilst I looked out over the Wra. A few Manxies were going by and a couple of Whimbrel flew past as the light started to fade. It was all very peaceful.

That evening I put the month light on again and as there was little wind I managed to attract a few more moths than previously.

Batia lambdella -back home in Oxford I catch it's smaller cousin B lunaris
but this one is found in coastal regions near gorse.

Dark Arches

Plant du Jour: Sea Campion. This is the coastal version of Bladder Campion
and is very common around the lightouse area where we are