Hare Time. Pt.2, Sun, Sea, Sand[stone]

A Little filthy twitching and a lot of looking for my own birds was on the cards, as I headed over to the East side, driving through some rather frisky rain to find sunshine [and an even friskier wind].

The wind I was expecting, and indeed hoping to help me, the rain less so [blimmin' met office], but it restricted itself to south of the Haldon Hills, so that was ok.

The LORP is an exemplar, in many ways. What can be done and what shouldn't be done.

But let's skip to the good bit;

Little Ringed Plover

Not a bad view...

And it was BOGOF day,

LRPs on the LORP

The lower LORP, from the NW corner;

What do you mean,

you 'can't see the LRPs'???

From Lime Kilns,

A triumph of, er, 'style' over

substance

As those looking carefully at the light in those photos will have noticed, the LRP photos are from much later in the day than the scenery shots. I did have them in view - though you needed a big scope to see them [for some reason, wild birds don't like wandering about close to obvious people and their dogs..??] - and was rather enjoying my lunch while doing so, sat down out of the wind.

With an afternoon to use, I'd planned to head over the river and the hill beyond to have a look at the sea between Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth. This was a nicely-sheltered stretch of shallow sandy bottomed sea, which had had Slav Grebe reported earlier in the winter and would at least be good for an RTD or two, mayhaps. Getting over there would require much-needed exercise, and you never knew what else might be about?

Ragged Robin.

Was not expecting this in March

The Patch is thattaway

Photo full of interest, this.

This picture beets

any of yours.

 

I'm not apologising.

 

And I was being serenaded by one of three RLPs I heard but didn't see on my loop.

To business. Viewing a decent chunk of sea from atop a cliff line is a little easier said than done, as the idea is to see lots of sea without risking an overly close encounter, so to speak.

So you need to know what you're standing on. Especially when it's going to be standing around for a while with a scope on a tripod.

Careful observation required, in the case of sandstone [emphasis on sand in places]. Can you see it?

 

That one won't be a headland for long...

 

If you look on the left, you'll see where rain has washed sediment off the cliff face, showing how weak it is. Further on, to the left of the sunlit section, you should see the gently curving fracture. This is fresh, with sharp edges, and parallel smaller fractures further right towards the end of the headland.

You can also see the line of posts, top left, which signs tell you not to pass beyond. That fracture there is the other reason why*.

North of Brandy Head [which is quite low, smugglers not being daft] I found a safe viewpoint.

Look to the left

Behind the post line.

Look to the right

Red-throated Diver

The close one. Two more further out were able to avoid photography, as was a female Eider [too close to Danger Point to see from further South and up-Sun, the fiend].

Three Fulmar!

Fresh cliff fall;

nice strata!

Pebblebed erosive contact

Roe Deer

An increasingly rare sight

Cutting back inland to White Bridge, I was able to get the LRP pics you saw up there [high tide helped quite a lot I suspect..]

It was a very nice day, if a bit bipolar [the Sun was strong and so was the wind, still with wintery teeth]. Would have been nice to get a grebe, but them's the breaks.

Be Seeing You...

[[* If you need to ask what the other reason is... Well, come on; It's a cliff edge!]]