Devon fun!

Over the weekend, we went to north Devon to visit friends - we'd been around the same time last year and were super-excited to see our friends again, enjoy the beautiful surroundings, and stuff our faces with delicious food!

I was as always on the lookout for birds, butterflies, geology and new plants to learn too, and I was not disappointed. Here's some of the stuff I found:

The first place we visited was Watermouth Bay. Several Fulmars were gliding around the cliffs the whole time while we were there.

I think this is Betony (Stachys officinalis).

Part of a mystery sea creature, we found various bits of its shell. Anyone know what it is?

Cepaea nemoralis, been a bit obsessed with these and their sibling species C. hortensis of late as I'm doing an Open University project about them.

Lovely fissile slates with nice alignment of mica, giving bright shiny surfaces!

Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).

Great quartz veins in the slate.

Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum) looks great against the shiny surface of the slate!

Fossils (I think) in the slate - not sure what of though, maybe trace fossils?

The next place we visited was the Valley of the Rocks. Bird sightings here included Gannet, Redstart and Raven.

Sheep's-bit (Jasione montana).

One of the wild goats that live at Valley of the Rocks.

I think this is the caterpillar of the Knot Grass moth (Acronicta rumicis).

Dodder (Cuscata epithymum).

The next day we went to Saunton Sands. While everyone else went in the sea, I went to explore Braunton Burrows! Bird-wise it was pretty quiet apart from some Linnets and Stonechats. Also spotted a Common Lizard!

Sea Stock (Matthiola sinuata).

Yellow-wort (Blackstonia perfoliata).

Common Restharrow (Ononis repens).

Sea-holly (Erynium maritimum).

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) butterflies were everywhere!

Male Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) on Traveller's-joy (Clematis vitalba).

A new butterfly for me, Wall (Lasiommata megera)! Yippee!

I think this is a Dor Beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius).

Another new butterfly for me, Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja)! I can't handle the excitement!

Sea Rocket (Cakile maritima).

I could wander Braunton Burrows for days, what an awesome place!

Weekend in Devon!

I didn't do any drawing over the weekend as I was away visiting friends in Devon. We had a super time! Our friends Andy and Ellie had moved to Barnstaple a few months ago to start new jobs and this was the first time we'd been to see them in their new home. I'm pretty jealous, they live right in the middle of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, so designated due to its range of wildlife-rich habitats and cultural heritage.Here are a few of the cool things that we saw:

This Bottlenose Dolphin was something of a local celebrity, hence the crowd of admirers. It had been hanging around near Watermouth for a while.

The Bottlenose Dolphin in front of our boat. We also saw a few Harbour Porpoise on this trip.

Lovely dark iris on this juvenile Herring Gull in Ilfracombe Harbour.

Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) in Ilfracombe.

Very pretty Sand Spurrey (Spergularia rubra) on the cliffs at Ilfracombe.

Saunton Sands had been invaded by Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita)! The highlight here though was a small flock of around 10 Dunlin which flew past, still in their breeding plumage :o)

Sea Spurge (Euphorbia paralias) at Braunton Burrows.

Lovely Hare's Foot Clover (Trifolium arvense) at Braunton Burrows.

Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillar on Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) at Braunton Burrows.

Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum) at Braunton Burrows. I did try a bit (once I had ascertained its identity), it was rather salty but not unpleasant.

Barricane Beach - I love how rockpools are like little miniature self-contained worlds.

Miniature rockpool landscape on Barricane Beach.

Geology time, yay! Barricane Beach looked pretty slaty to me, with the rocks showing pronounced slaty cleavage and a high mica content - the flat surfaces were quite reflective, showing that low-grade metamorphism had cause the platy minerals to align. I looked it up when I got home, apparently these rocks are the Upper Devonian Morte Slates. Nice!