WARNING - This post is a long one!
My wife (Lindsay) and I had a 7-night break in mid-March, staying in a self-catering property on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. The property, 'Owls Brook', was in a wonderful location, adjacent to the owners' house, 'Batts Brook'. The owners have Barn Owls which nest in the eaves of their house, but were not present whilst we were there. The only owl heard was a Tawny - none were seen during our stay. The grounds of Batts Brook were extensive and, in one part, they kept four delightful Alpacas.
My wife (Lindsay) and I had a 7-night break in mid-March, staying in a self-catering property on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. The property, 'Owls Brook', was in a wonderful location, adjacent to the owners' house, 'Batts Brook'. The owners have Barn Owls which nest in the eaves of their house, but were not present whilst we were there. The only owl heard was a Tawny - none were seen during our stay. The grounds of Batts Brook were extensive and, in one part, they kept four delightful Alpacas.
The following will be an account of our stay, and will not entirely concern itself with wildlife.
Friday 17th March
Here's a photo of Owls Brook, taken from in front of the owners' house. You can see that it's in the roof-space of the property's detached garage. You may gather from the roof angle that it's an interesting shape inside!
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| Owls Brook - on 17th March, 2017 |
Whilst I was standing in this spot, I couldn't resist taking a shot of the owners' magnificent stained-glass window!
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| Stained-glass window - Batts Brook on 17th March, 2017 |
We had the ability to wander in the grounds, and here's a shot of three of the four Alpacas. Sadly, I omitted to get a decent capture of the fourth Alpaca, which was the most spectacular in appearance.
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| Alpacas - Batts Brook on 17th March, 2017 |
That night we dined just up the road in Doddiscombsleigh, at the famed Nobody Inn. This was an excellent place for dinner, and a real treat for the Malt Whisky lover as they must have had literally hundreds to choose from. I treated myself to a Highland Park 18 - the last time I was able to find this was around 15 years ago in Davos, Switzerland. To find out more about the fascinating village of Doddiscombsleigh, try Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doddiscombsleigh.
Saturday 18th March
Neither Lindsay nor I had a good night, as we'd not managed to get the pillow combination right - we're both rather sensitive to such things. Although we'd had fine weather the evening of our arrival, the forecast was anything but good for the rest of the week. We didn't have a very early start, mainly due to the bad night, but it was a real treat to open the Velux window blind to find a Great Spotted Woodpecker in the tree just outside the window.
I went out onto the small veranda, outside the door into the property and took a few photos of our surroundings. The hard-pruned tree in the fist image is the one that the woodpecker was in.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) (male) - Batts Brook on 18th March, 2017 |
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| Views from Owls Brook on 18th March, 2017 |
Also going on that day in Bovey Tracey was a small local produce market, with some very attractive foodstuffs on display. Lindsay and I couldn't resist, and bought enough pasties, cakes, etc. for generous picnics for at least two days! It seemed sensible, therefore, to head back to Owls Brook to put some of this stuff in the refrigerator for another day. We sat out on the stoep for a picnic lunch, as the weather had brightened up, and I took a few shots of a Marsh Tit which was visiting the feeder about 7 metres away.
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| Marsh Tit (Poecile alustris) - Owls Brook on 18th March, 2017 |
Our first stop was at the roadside, just before we reached Haytor. This was our first sighting of Dartmoor ponies.
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| Dartmoor Pony - near Haytor on 18th March, 2017 |
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| Haytor - on 18th March, 2017 |
Our next destination was the Soussons Stone Circle. Lindsay has a thing about stone circles, and this Iron Age circle had been recommended to us by the lady at the visitor centre. We arrived in torrential rain, but it eventually let up and we got out to have a quick look.
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| Soussons Stone Circle - on 18th March, 2017 |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) (female) - Owls Brook on 18th March, 2017 |
Sunday 19th March
I had a short session in the 'car hide' before breakfast, and here are a few from that session.
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| Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) - Owls Brook on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba) - Owls Brook on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) - Owls Brook on 19th March, 2017 |
There had been reports of a couple of Cattle Egrets near the church at Powderham and, as I had not seen one for a few years, we headed off in that direction. As we arrived near the church, Lindsay spotted some 'large white birds' in a field. I parked up and went to have a look. The first bird I found was an egret with its head down, looking a little the worse for wear (shown in the first image, below). It didn't look quite right, and then I twigged that it was probably a Little Egret. I have only ever seen Little Egret at the water's edge. Further on I found two more egrets and, to my dismay, they too were certainly Little Egrets, although the pale-looking bill on one (presumably juvenile) nearly fooled me.
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| Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) - near Powderham Church on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) - near Powderham Church on 19th March, 2017 |
The next stop was in Dawlish, where we had a wander around. We started by walking through the park that runs beside Dawlish Water. The park is well known for its Black Swans , but I didn't know that there were other interesting birds here. I hasten to add that these are not wild birds and, presumably, have been pinioned. Some of you might know that I love images with moving water - hence the first image, below! The sun made one of its rare appearances after I'd taken that first image.
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| Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) - Dawlish, on 19th March, 2017 |
Other than the Black Swans, there were two other species which I photographed. The first I believe to be African Goose which is not, strictly speaking, a species but is a breed of domestic goose which might (contrary to its name) have originated in China.
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| African Goose - Dawlish, on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) - Dawlish , on 19th March, 2017 |
Lunch time had loomed, and we'd planned to eat out this day, and have our picnic in the evening. However, Dawlish seemed to have little to offer other than pizza, burgers, and fish & chips, so we decided to look for somewhere out of town. We stopped at the nicely positioned Smugglers Inn. It was very busy, but the service was good, the food arrived quickly, and the whole experience was very enjoyable.
Lindsay kindly agreed on a return visit to Powderham after lunch. This time the Cattle Egrets were out in the open, although no nearer. They were in company with two Little Egrets, one of which is between the two Cattle Egrets in the next image. These were all taken at around 150 metres!
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| Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) - near Powderham Church on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Marsh Tit (Poecile alustris) - Owls Brook on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Wood Anemone (Anemone nemerosa) - Steps Bridge NR, on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Goosander (Mergus merganser) - Steps Bridge NR, on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Goosander (Mergus merganser) (male) - Steps Bridge NR, on 19th March, 2017 |
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| Goosander (Mergus merganser) (female) - Steps Bridge NR, on 19th March, 2017 |
Monday 20th March
I had my usual early morning session in the 'car hide' at Owls Brook, but it was dull and grey, so nothing special resulted.
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| Dunnock (Prunella modularis) - Owls Brook, on 20th March, 2017 |
As the rain had stopped, we set off for another place that Lindsay wished to visit, and that was the Bronze Age stone rows, cists, and cairns of Merrivale in the south-west of Dartmoor. We arrived at the car park and found water flowing everywhere. We picked our way across the start of the walk to the stones, but I was soon distracted by a pair of Wheatear. The distraction was compounded by a number of Meadow Pipits that were by the runnels of water, and on the rocks. I left Lindsay to find her own way to the stone rows whilst I tried to photograph the birds. Sadly, the Wheatear disappeared before I got any decent images, but I did manage a few reasonable ones of Meadow Pipit. I'm not sure but I think the Wheatear may be a female of the Greenland race. It also strikes me that this may be quite early for a female Wheatear.
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| Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe) (female) - Merrivale, 0n 20th March, 2017 |
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| Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) - Merrivale, on 20th March, 2017 |
We set off again in the rain, heading approximately north-east. The sun was out again by the time we reached Postbridge, and so we parked and walked down to view the famous clapper bridge here.
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| Clapper bridge - Postbridge, on 20th March, 2017 |
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| Rook (Corvus frugilegus) - Shapley Common, on 20th March, 2017 |
Tuesday 21st March
We woke up to rain, so what better day is there to visit the beach! We headed for Shaldon, on the other side of the Teign Estuary to Teignmouth. Parking in the large, but empty, car park nearest the headland, we noticed the Ode Cafe at the edge of the car park, and went to investigate - any time is a good time for a cup of tea as far as Lindsay is concerned. It turns out that this place has won all sorts of awards and accolades for its ecologically sustainable approach to catering.
We had one of the best ice creams I had ever tasted (we'd not been able to find one the previous day!), before we headed off to the beach. This took us through 'Smugglers Tunnel'. Our timing was way out - we got to the beach to find that it was approaching high tide, and there was very little left that we could walk on, and our intention to walk round the headland had probably become an impossibility a couple of hours previously!
We returned up through the tunnel and sat on some seats overlooking Teignmouth awaiting the 12h00 lunch opening of Ode Cafe. A dredger was busy clearing the channel into the harbour, and the local Pilot seemed to be engaged on some sort of exercise.
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| Dredger 'Mannin' - from Shaldon, on 21st March, 2017 |
We returned early to Owls Brook, stopping off in one or two places to look around. At one of these stops I photographed a rainbow, but I can't remember where!
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| Rainbow - on 21st March, 2017 |
That night we followed a recommendation to dine at The Teign House Inn, just a few miles from our base. The small group of youths playing the fool outside, who looked too young to be smoking, let alone drinking, didn't inspire confidence that our car would be intact when we returned to it. The service was friendly enough, but we were both disappointed with our meals. I had ordered hangar steak, although I was not familiar with this cut. What I had was so tough that several minutes of chewing at a mouthful still resulted in it being in one piece and had to be swallowed whole. I didn't complain as I was unfamiliar with the cut. However, now having read about it, I find that this is a far from tender cut, but needs careful cooking for it to be edible - it had clearly not had this care taken! Fortunately our car had remained unscathed.
Wednesday 22nd March
Today we'd arranged to meet up with friends Lynne and Roger, who had returned from a week on The Scillies on the Monday. They live in North Devon, so we'd agreed to meet in the middle, in Okehampton. As we had settled on a time of 11h00 to meet, we had a reasonable gentle start to the day.
Before we set off, I had yet another session in the 'car hide', so here's a couple from then.
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| Marsh Tit (Poecile alustris) - Owls Brook on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) (female) - Owls Brook on 22nd March, 2017 |
Roger and Lynne had to leave quite early as they had to be back in time to pick up their grandson from school, so we said our goodbyes at around 13h30. Lindsay and I popped back to get some shopping in Waitrose and then returned to The Dovecote as we'd seen they had super-looking ice creams.
I'd noticed that Meldon Quarry, a place that is known to many railway enthusiasts, but now defunct, was close to Okehampton. It is famous for its viaduct. We drove there and parked near to the dam that holds back the waters of Meldon Reservoir. A walk over the dam gave us splendid views.
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| Meldon Viaduct from Meldon Reservoir Dam, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| River Bovey, near Jurston, on 22nd March, 2017 |
From here we had a relaxed run towards Owls Brook. At one place we stopped so I could photograph Hound Tor in the distance.
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| Hound Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| Saddle Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| View to the west of Saddle Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| Teign Estuary from by Saddle Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (female) - by Saddle Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
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| Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) (male) - by Saddle Tor, on 22nd March, 2017 |
Thursday 23rd March
This was to be our last day, as we had to depart homeward before 10h00 on the Friday. We'd got several places we wanted to return to this day and one destination that we'd missed out on earlier in the week. Sadly, however, we woke up to an awful weather forecast of cold, wet, and windy all day.
I managed an early morning stint in the 'car hide' but the dull weather and rain didn't make for good results.
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| Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) - Owls Brook on 23rd March, 2017 |
We sat there patiently for over half an hour and were eventually rewarded with a break in the rain. I quickly set off for the nearby place where I had seen the bird in 2010. I was rewarded with the immediate sighting of a male Cirl Bunting, singing its heart out.
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| Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus) (male) - Labrador Bay on 23rd March, 2017 |
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| Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus) (male) - Labrador Bay on 23rd March, 2017 |
After this, there was precious little to do other than drive around in the rain. A stop near Saddle Tor resulted in an image that might convey the bleak situation.
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| near Saddle Tor, on 23rd March, 2017 |
Although the National Trust Brochure for this place shows three trails and claims that these are all waymarked, I found the signage to be appalling! A sign by the cafe indicated that the walking trails were down some steps in a corner. Descending the steps brought one into a courtyard with several doors. I went in the direction I thought I should, and ended up in the toilets. I then found the only other way out of the courtyard, and this took me to a path which led down to a gravel track, with no indication as to where the trails were or whether one should turn left or right.
Consulting the map, I managed to deduce that I should turn left. I carried on for a good ten minutes, only being able to discern that I had not lost my way by arriving at a bridge over the river. Here there was a way marker. This was the only one that I saw for the next half hour, despite having passed two trail divergences.
Shortly after leaving that first marker, the heavens opened, and I took refuge under a tree - I should have turned back at this point! After it stopped, however, I carried on and my determination was raised on two occasions by people saying that they'd seen Kingfisher here 'a couple of days ago'. The area by the weir looked as if it might be a good place for Kingfisher, but none was seen. After a while I continued - and then it started sleeting. I wasn't surprised by this as we'd had temperatures of 4 degrees for much of the afternoon (and down to 3 degrees at one point). It was time to start heading back. I got as far as the weir when the torrential rain started. Stupidly, I'd not brought a bag to put my camera in, so I took off my coat to wrap round the camera. I tried sheltering under a tree, but this time it made no difference. Eventually the final insult was dealt when a hail storm started, with hailstones bouncing off my bald pate.
Eventually, I made it back to the car, where I found Lindsay sleeping like a baby, totally unaware of the weather! I'd attempted a couple of frames of Grey Wagtail that I'd seen, but they were a total failure. All in all, it was a waste of time energy, and comfort.
That night we returned to The Nobody Inn for a farewell dinner.
Friday 24th March
The start to the day was a bit damp and misty and we were, therefore, not too sad to be leaving. In spite of some of the worst weather we've ever had on holiday, we'd had a splendid time.
We were ready to leave by 09h00 and so we left. The journey home was uneventful, and we were home in time for a late lunch, arriving in bright sunshine.
In conclusion, this was an area that we'd love to return to sometime. The scenery was wonderful and, in better weather or at a different time of year, the wildlife would be very worthwhile. Owls Brook, however, might not see us again. The location was wonderful and the owners, John and Teresa, were a real pleasure. Owls Brook itself was very clean and tidy, but Lindsay found it too cramped for her liking. I can understand where she's coming from, and suspect her attitude might be different if the weather had been better so that we could sit out, and the evenings a little longer. I might, however, return here 'solo' sometime as it would make a great base for some serious wildlife watching.
If you managed to work your way through all this post, thank you - you deserve a medal!
Thank you for dropping by. The next post will be shorter - I promise!
