The West Country Tourist Trail with a bit of birdwatching!

The last two years have seen myself and my fiance spending our annual holidays in fantastic birdwatching locations. This year, however, I came under some pressure to take my better half on a local holiday that wouldnt involve birdwatching everyday. With this in mind I decided that the West Country in June would fit the bill.

We set off at 05.30 in the morning on Sunday 6^th June and headed west. Our first stop was to be the wonderful stone circle at Avebury which, to my mind, has always been more impressive than Stonehenge. From Avebury we made further stops at Wells Cathedral and the ruined abbey at Glastonbury. We found a very nice bed and breakfast in Minehead for our first nights stay. On the way down just past Devizes we had already picked up three Common Buzzards.

Staying the next five nights at Combe Martin just outside Ilfracombe gave us a splendid base for exploring this part of Exmoor. We saw some wonderful places over the five days and I can thoroughly recommend Selworthy village, Porlock, The Doone Valley, Lynton and Lynmouth, Clovelly and Boscastle.

But what about the birds?!

There are two places that should be high on the birdwatchers itinerary when in this area. The first is Watersmeet just above Lynmouth and the second is Tarr Steps on the south of Exmoor.

Watersmeet

We ended up spending the whole day in the wonderful East Lyn valley where the East Lyn River and Hoar Oak Water meet and walking for miles. Grey Wagtails were in abundance and we managed to spot three Dippers during our walks. The whole area is very, very tranquil and alive with birds. Being early June, we had the lovely spectacle of seeing Grey Wagtail, Chaffinch, Robin and Marsh Tit all feeding young. There appear to be no predators in the valley and consequently when you come out of the National Trust restaurant with your food you are immediately set upon by Chaffinches who will land on your plate and start attacking your pie! We shared some very wonderful and mouth-watering food with these birds at our table in the grounds.

Tarr Steps

Another lovely river valley with the Tarr Steps prehistoric bridge over the river Barle near Winsford. Dating from 1000 BC, some of the stones weigh 5 tons and were said to have been placed there by the Devil to win a bet! A great valley again for Dippers and also Buzzards. The drive across Exmoor is very worth while as we saw Buzzards everywhere on our drive down and our return.

One thing that did amaze us during the week was the huge amount of Jackdaws that there are in this area. A local told us that they now outnumbered the gulls and they had had a massive population explosion. In recent years. Walking along with a bag of chips and being attacked by gulls is one thing but these crafty birds will gang up on you and one will divert your attention while the other will make a grab for your food!

I did get to visit a lovely RSPB reserve in the area that was pretty difficult to find. This is called Chapel Wood and gave us some very, very close views of a Common Buzzard.

A good trip and some lovely weather and, even though this wasnt a birdwatching holiday I did come home with and impressive species list.

Locations

Watersmeet

Tarr Steps

Chapel Wood RSPB Reserve

Graham Mee
South East Essex RSPB