Animal and birds in Weymouth and Devon

For a change, on Easter Monday (17th April), my friend decided to drive to Weymouth in Devon just for the day and invited a couple of friends and myself to join her.  It was a long trip from London and she definitely needed some company during the drive.

We wandered for a little while round the harbour when we first arrived and then headed for the beach.  Here we found Weymouth's obligatory donkeys, who were waiting patiently for someone to come and ride them.

In the background, near the edge of the sea, there is a little girl having a ride on one of the donkeys.

A carrion crow was wading through the sand - waiting for friends to join in with building some sand castles!

We stopped to have a cup of tea at a beach front cafe and it was just about warm enough to sit outside.  In the distance I could see a horse and rider carved on the cliff.

We only stayed a short while in Weymouth before moving on to a small nearby Devon village - the very pretty Sutton Poyntz - where my friend wanted to lay flowers on the graves of her parents and sister.  Before she did that, she led us round the back of the road and houses and along a narrow stream that ran through the back part of the village.

Here there were lots of pretty plants.

Euphorbia 

Arum lilies in front of an old mill wheel

Forget-me-knots

Back onto the small main road that ran through the village there was a very relevant road sign!

Swimming along the main stream that ran through the village was a female mallard.

Here she is with her partner mallard drake.

There was also a large hybrid mallard drake in the stream.

It was now early evening and swallows were flying around, showing the first signs of Spring.  Here one was sitting on a wire.  Apologies for the bad quality photograph, but it was very high up and the light was not great.

My friend left us at the local pub - The Springhead - which had a very relevant logo.

We sat outside as it was, surprisingly, warm enough to do so.  Here the Springhead's dog guards the front door!

 This is a view from the table where we were sitting of the willow trees that were hanging over the stream.

There was a real dog paddling in the water, which no doubt drove all the ducks away!

It was a great day out, but a very long journey, and I did not get back home until about 10.30 p.m.