Dawlish Warren - 19 March 2012 A Sunny Day

A lovely place to walk on a nice day – easy too as it is fairly flat.
The Warren is a narrow spit of land between Dawlish and Starcross at the mouth of the river Exe. It is A Nature Reserve and famous for the birds which migrate to the area.
Whilst walking along and taking a photo of a pond -

We heard a very loud unusual noise but did nor see the bird or where it landed and continued our walk through the Reserve.

As we approached the estuary we could see Exmouth on the opposite bank.


Clear views of red cliffs and bright blue sea between Exmouth and Sidmouth.


We spotted a couple of people walking their terrier on the beach who we had spoken to earlier.
There was a very cold wind coming off the sea so we headed back to the shelter of the Reserve. Sheltered by beautiful sand dunes and I remarked to Mike that I hope the same fate as Sandbanks in Dorset would not befall this lovely part of our coastline. At Sandbanks there are just rows and rows of millionaire properties where once there were sand dunes. Such a pity.

Walking back towards the sun the sea glistened like silver below the heavy clouds.
We retraced our steps to the pond and could just see a very large bird in the reeds. Was this our noisy visitor?

Struggling through the undergrowth I managed to take a closer picture before he flew off -

A majestic if rather noisy Canadian Goose – all on his lonesome – for now. Sadly their vast numbers are  becoming a real problem in this country.

Having solved our little mystery we headed home.
5753 steps on my pedometer today – not bad considering I am still recovering.

P.S. Today - April 1st we went back to the Warren minus my camera as the battery was flat. Guess what ? That Canadian Goose has acquired a mate and there they were feeding not two feet away from us. GRRRRRRRRR!