Sidmouth Photographic Club

This walk was originally planned for the 2nd of August but the weather was so bad on that day that I had no other choice then postpone the walk. Unfortunately this was in the same week as the Folk Festival and many members had other commitments so there were only seven of us.

However, we were very lucky to meet Kim, the site manager of the project, at the beginning of the walk. I’ve asked her if she could spare 10 or 15 minutes to give a talk about the project and she kindly agreed and also took the group picture. She explained that at the end of August the new bridge was going to be installed and in September the estuary will be breached over a distance of 70 metres. This will be done in stages as it can only be done at low tide. It should have been done already but there were birds nesting in that area so that was delayed.

After the talk we made our way over the new footpath towards the seafront as it was time for a coffee. There is no better place for a coffee then at the seafront. After the coffee the sun came out and it was pretty warm. We were all very pleased to have postponed the walk.

We’ve made our way to the coast path and arrived at a new bird hide. There are five new bird hides build along the project. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were as a Big Egret came strolling along right in front of us!! I have seen many little Egrets but never a big one, and he was big. A beautiful bird. Everybody was taking loads of pictures of him or her.  After strolling around the project more pictures were taken and after a couple of hours everybody made their way home.

It was a very pleasant day and it was good it is on the doorstep as a few members went back to it for another walk. After the breaching of the coast path there will be more wildlife especially when the migrating birds are flying in for the winter!!

Tony