Local Coastal Birds and East Midland Birds
'Colourful South-West Bunting'
Me, taken at Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve, after introduction by reserve warden to the cirl bunting, what it looks like, and what to listen out for. It has a distinct call but I can't remember it now. June, 2024.
The regular bird sightings are different here, compared to the East Midlands.
It was expected, but not to the extent I was expecting. There are birds I hadn’t thought I would come across, such as the Peregrine Falcon with its natural nesting sites, along with birds which are exclusive to the south-west, the cirl bunting being my favourite.
I do miss my Shepshed garden ‘locals’ a little though. You get used to them being around. The blackbirds that live off apples left for them by my dad; the dunnocks that hop about in the shadows looking for seeds; the robin that likes a garden sing; the wood pigeons that mimic youths by loitering on the fence or arguing amongst themselves. Once, a wood pigeon nested in my childhood-planted shoulder-height conker tree and it had two chicks and was very photogenic and pearlescent. Then, one day, its nest was squashed and there was no trace of it, nor its babes - very sad.
The Starcross estuary on my doorstep is sort of a garden, or at least serves the same sitting and watching and listening purpose that my parents’ garden did. It has its regulars as the tide goes out: your turnstones, your little egrets, your Canada goose V-formation fly-by, maybe a grey heron fishing, usually a dispersement of oystercatchers. All of whom are still new to me as regular sights. Sometimes you get a ‘rare’ bird like a greenshank (which I have seen twice) or a super fast speedster of a kingfisher (which I have also seen twice). Overall it’s a rich variety and properly keeps you looking, because you don’t know what you’ll see.
Birds are my original first love when it comes to photography. They helped to spur on my interest in cameras and lenses as well as gave me a connection with nature that I didn’t have prior. I had no interest in birds 4 years ago and now I have a completely distracting interest in birds.
My local nature reserve is Dawlish Warren, which has so far been a great photographic experience. Across the Exe is RSPB Bowling Green Marshes which gains a crowd of waders when the tide is high on the river. When the tide is low, they’re off out, back to the mud to find what has been left by the tide.
'Calm Before the Storm'
Me, of pigeon on nest in my childhood conker tree, incubating 2 eggs who then hatched. One day I went down the garden to see their progress, but there was nothing there and the wire mesh over the nest had been flattened. This photo has been my default computer background for 2 years now - I really enjoy the colours and the depth of field. August, 2022.
'Stuck in the Mud'
Me, of a Bar-tailed Godwit in the estuary - one of the coastal birds I would never see in the East Midlands. August, 2024.
