A Quick Trip to North Devon and a bit of Birding!

We just spent the weekend in Ilfracombe, somewhere we haven't been for at least 35 years!

So we planned to explore the north coast and Exmoor a bit on the Saturday, the weather was horrendous, lots of rain, so going walking wasn't exactly on the agenda.

We went along the north coast, stopping at a reservoir first, where we saw only Herring Gull and a Coot! From there we took the coast road, stopping off at various places, Combe Martin providing us with our first Oystercatchers of the year.

We stopped for coffee at a 'private' deserted jetty in Woody Bay, watching the Gulls swooping around and were then treated to a distant view of 3-4 Dolphins passing through.

As the weather was so bad we saw very little wildlife, so headed inland to Wimbleball Lake, by which time the weather had improved and the rain eased off. Sadly there was little to see, a single Wigeon, Mallard, one Cormorant and the obligatory Herring and Black-headed Gulls.

Although a Kestrel did hover briefly between us and the shore line.

So that was day one.

Day two took us south and west out towards Westward Ho! We started at the Northam Downs Country Park and the Rivers Taw & Torridge Estuary. Although the sun was shining the wind was gale force and the wind blowing the car door back, nearly took my leg off! Even when we were walking to the car in Ilfracombe we were being blown about and out here on the exposed headland it was 10 times worse.

So we used the car as a hide, as it was difficult to hold the binoculars or camera steady in the wind.
As a result I managed a few shots;
Golden Plover settling down,

 Shelduck,

 Pied Wagtail,

 Curlew and an Oystercatcher.

In addition there were large 'Flings' of Dunlin (been looking up collective nouns again!) moving around, finally an Oystercatcher gave me a good close up;

Using a guide we found for the area on the excellent Devon Birds website (www.devonbirds.org) we made our way back towards Barnstaple, stopping at Appledore for the loo, but with the tide in there was little to see, just a few Gulls and Pigeon on the rocks.

We had a look at the Gull roosts on the river Torridge down in and near Bideford for winter gulls, but only Herring, Lesser Black-back and Black-headed were seen. If the wind hadn't been so fierce we may have investigated bits of the Tarka Way as the guide suggested but we opted not to this time.

We did make our way to Fremington Quay, this looked like a great spot and we stayed here a while, watching the Redshank, Little Egrets and Curlew.

But the star was this Spoonbill:

We had to walk just a short way to find it, after we were told by some other birders that they had seen it, trying to keep my camera still in the wind was nigh on impossible!

So apart from scenery that's it!
Scenery!