What do you do now you have retired?
I’m often asked this question and
the answer is:”Much the same as before with a few extra disasters!”
One May week gives the flavour, with the disasters coming early. On
Friday evening, after setting up the Society’s stand at the Grammar
School’s Garden Fair, I had a phone call from Ian Stuart to confirm
that I was ready for a Heritage Coast Cruise next day. I wasn’t,
for my diary said Sunday and I had already arranged for Mike Lock to
take my place on a birding tram trip. And now he had to take my place
at the Fair as well. Good man that he is, he was ready for both!
A full boat and good weather as we left Exmouth before Ian steered us close to the expanding Kittiwake colony at Straight Point. Cruising through time, we passed the Budleigh Pebble Beds, the Otter Sandstones and the stacks of Ladram Bay, then High Peak and the conspicuous Cretaceous rocks above the Triassic towards Weston Mouth. Not everyone could find the perched Peregrine, and many missed a fast-flying Hobby, but all saw the Gannets, a surprising number of auks, and a more surprising Black-throated Diver. Historic references to a self-sufficient Branscombe and its potato plots, close inspection of the marvellous Chalk of Beer Head and a ‘plug’ for the Seaton Visitor Centre before the landslips of 1839 and 2008.
Monday brought another disaster when a sudden loud rattle and a splatter of oil led to car paralysis (and an eventual new engine). I failed, therefore, to reach Thurlbear, where David Allen and troops heard Nightingales and saw Grizzled Skipper and White Helleborine at its most south-westerly site in Britain, but thanks to a kind lady and an efficient garage I did reach Whitchurch Canonicorum for a talk to the W.I.
Next day it was back to Branscombe for a Society walk that combined a bit of BTO Atlas work with breakfast on the beach at Beer. Gannets were again at sea and Holly Blues and a Green Hairstreak in the Hooken, where Purple Gromwell was at its best. To the Axe Valley Heritage Museum in the afternoon for the opening of the new season and two new Lottery-funded displays on the salt industry and the history of Seaton Marshes. If you look at the caption in the bottom right hand corner you will notice that Fraser Rush is not doing what it says he is!
Thursday started with a talk to the Rousdon Estate’s Residents’ Association about local environmental initiatives, followed by a walk with them around the Estate to hear about their ‘Breathing Spaces’ application (it proved successful) and possible projects linked to it. It was back to Seaton in the afternoon for a Visitor Centre Trust meeting, concentrating on plans for a reception to mark the culmination of an art project with schools designing banners for display in town, and on merchandise to be sold for the Trust.
At the weekend it was time for a memorable day with the Mid Devon Natural History Society, who were introduced to the wildlife, conservation initiatives and hazards of the Undercliffs, and for another tram trip. The theme for this one was history around the estuary; hill forts and grazing plots, salt, slaves, and stop line pill boxes, a pioneering bridge and a listed loo, as well as the changes brought about by the Willoughby family in the 18th Century, by the arrival of trains in the 19th, and trams in the 20th. What further changes will the Wetland project make in the 21st as birds, climate change and rising sea levels make their mark on this ever-changing estuary?