Our next stop was the RSPB’s Labrador Bay Nature reserve on the clifftops. As hoped we were treated to Cirl Buntings, male and female (another first for me), many interesting plants with weird and wonderful names and spectacular views. Also we heard Skylarks and a Greenfinch. Rita and I saw a butterfly not seen elsewhere which, since Mike was not around at that moment, will remain unidentified but was probably a Fritillary of some kind (bright orange, brown border, multiple black spots).
Broad-leaved Spurge:
Mike also identified, amongst many others, Stinking Camomile and Weasel Snout. It was a lovely place but the heat was bordering on the intolerable.
Then on to Coombeshead. It was only revealed en route that this was the home of legendary and ardent rewilder Derek Gow, two of whose books I have enthusiastically reviewed on this blog:
As one of the other guests Julie said, “Be still your beating heart!” He is entirely unafraid of being a controversial figure.
We had our picnic lunch in the pleasingly somewhat ramshackle barn and there was a bit of a delay in being shown around since the cattle were being tested for TB.
I loved this message, although as Mike said a “then” would have improved it:
I also liked these stencils on the tables:
And I really liked this Spotted Flycatcher:
We watched a Sparrowhawk execute a seemingly impossible brake and u-turn as it tried to hunt House Martins.
It was more than worth the wait for the tour. We saw Turtle Doves and Black and White Storks, breeding for eventual release. It was hard to capture but one of the White Storks was standing motionless, protecting her two young in a perfect image of parenthood.
They do not have developed syrinxes, so we heard them clacking their beaks to communicate.
The Adders were mostly hiding and the two Lynx were off limits, but we did get close to the Water Voles. It’s an extraordinary project – by 2022 they had released 30,000 of them.
We walked twice down to the Beaver ponds – they are captive in the loosest possible sense. I spotted a tiny Common Frog and again we enjoyed a huge variety of plants. In the evening apples were thrown into the water and one of the Beavers appeared in front of the hide and took his or her time enjoying them. Marsh Frogs were calling:
Later on there must have been hundreds of them such was the cacophony.
Great Burnet:
The dam:
The fabulously named Sneezewort:
All this by letting the Beavers do their thing and nature do the rest.
The cattle mentioned above were far from ordinary. The white bull seemed a solid slab of pure muscle and the one on the left with the amazing horns is a Heck, originally bred in a controversial attempt to bring back the extinct Auroch.
There are also half a dozen or so Water Buffalo. As Koshii said, there is ancient wisdom in those eyes.
Leave a Reply