Wolves Wild

A line of tracks in the soft mud of the Exe estuary, left exposed by the ebbing tide.

A godwit stands at the edge of one of the pools in the RSPB Bowling Green Marsh reserve, carefully preening. Behind it, several of the mallards lying ashore keep busy with the same task.

The Exe estuary is littered with the wrecks of boats in all states of disintegration, which now serve as look-out points for the birds of the estuary and as food for they microorganisms which are the agents of their decay.

These ended up by the Turf, a pub located by the lock where the Exeter Canal starts from the tidal stretch of the estuary. It will originally have had what’s likely to have been a roaring trade from boat crews waiting for the right time of tide to use the lock between canal and river, and is now popular with people who have used the network of footpaths and cyclepath for an excursion through the five miles or so from Exeter city centre.

One moment the young shelducks were all piled in a heap at the end of the jetty, seeming to be fast asleep. The next moment, their parents had led them to the water, and they were swimming away along the river.

The Topsham shelduck pair guarding their ducklings, while they slept huddled up in a heap at the end of the jetty. If they had been there all night, the ducklings were getting a good lie in: they were still resting after ten that morning, and the tide was just beginning to go down.

The Goat Walk in Topsham is a narrow footpath by the Exe, giving wide views over the last stretch of the estuary as far as the river mouth and the sea beyond. Growing by the side of the path was a patch of rock samphire.