Wolves Wild

A pair of wigeons off the water at Bowling Green Marsh RSPB Reserve, busy preening.

Bunches of mistletoe showing up in silhouette on trees otherwise denuded for the winter.

Male wigeon on the water on the RSPB Bowling Green Marsh, one of their reserves in the Exe estuary area.

The River Clyst, a short distance upstream from its confluence with the Exe. The weir and road bridge, seen from the beer garden of the Bridge Inn at Topsham, mark the normal limit of the Clyst’s tidal range.

A few days before these pictures were taken, heavy rains (and spring tides0 had led to lots for flooding. Road and rail links cut off. One such flood was at this bridge, which carries the busy main road from Exeter to Exmouth. The bridge was still showing the water-line.

The water was near its lowest level when the pictures were taken. Less of the weir is showing than is usual in a normal hjgh tide.

Birds I’d expect to see on exposed mud at low tide in the Exe estuary in winter: waders, gulls, perhaps some ducks. Near this particular stretch of mud there’s often been one or two carrion crows turning over patches of seaweed. The robin was a surprise.

Flowers flower earlier in the mild climate of south Devon. This bank of violets in the churchyard at Topsham, by the Exe estuary, were already out at the end of last month,