In November I spent a week on holiday with my camera in self-catering accommodation overlooking the Exe Estuary in Topsham, Devon. We had a great time going bird watching at the local nature reserve, on boat trips along the estuary and travelling around the edge of the estuary by train.
On my first day it absolutely poured with rain, so I could not take many photographs. Fortunately, it dried up in the late afternoon so I visited RSPB Bowling Green nature reserve. At that time of day a large group of Redshanks had flown into the reserve to roost.
On another day I took the train round the estuary to Dawlish, passing through Starcross on the way. There I noticed that there was a fantastic view of the estuary from the station platform, which was right on the edge of the river. On my return journey I got off the train at Starcross and spent an hour looking at the birds wading about on the riverbed at low tide before catching the next train back to Topsham.
Here is a Turnstone standing in a pool of water at the edge of some seaweed.
There were also a couple of Curlew wandering around in the wet sand.
In Topsham itself, at low tide, Avocets were feeding on the riverbed near the Goat Walk - a high concrete path that ran along the edge of the river from the edge of the town to the road that led up to RSPB Bowling Green nature reserve.
I went on several boat trips along the estuary, but hard to take interesting photos as the weather was very overcast and difficult to get the birds in focus from a moving boat. Also, they tended to fly off when the boat came near to them. I was lucky with this Curlew.
Just along the road from the house where I was staying there was a ferry crossing that only ran during the summer or at weekends in the winter. I saw a Little Egret on the ferry ramp at the other side of the estuary. When I downloaded the photograph onto the computer, I discovered that there was a Kingfisher perching on the ramp behind the Egret - two birds for the price of one!!!
When I turned round I saw that a Pied Wagtail had landed on the ramp behind me and was able to get some photos of it before it flew off.
On one of the several boat trips along the Exe Estuary, I saw a large Black-backed Gull.
A beautiful Little Egret was standing on the riverbed in front of the Goat Walk in Topsham on another colourless afternoon.
On my last morning in Topsham, and just before I left the house, a Mute Swan was swimming along the river Exe. The little courtyard looked directly over the river, so I went outside and got a photograph of it just as it decided to fly away. Here it has just started running along the water in order to take off.
The sun was shining as I walked along the road at the edge of the river with my suitcase and bags on the way to the station. I came across two black swans that had been sleeping near the stone jetty. One woke up, while the other still had its neck curled into its body - though still with a beady red eye on show.
The alert black swan stretched out its wing and did some yoga exercises as I was standing there. What a lovely end to my bird watching week in Devon.
