As I have often mentioned there is a massive amount of wild environments and opportunities close to home here in Devon. I love to be on the Cliffs over looking the sea and yesterday’s outing was to Budleigh Salterton and the coastal walk towards Ladram Bay. I had noticed a pair of Linnets there before and also a Kestrel which I suspected of having a nest on the cliff face. I managed to see and photograph both of those species but the highlight of the day were the Fulmars. They are magnificently beautiful and graceful. Fulmars are “tube-noses”. and related to the albatross. They never drink fresh water but take liquids from the sea food that they ingest. They have evolved to exude salts from a tube above the beak, a highly developed nasal tube. Hence the term “tube nose”. In the photo you can see this for your self. This bird was showning quite close to the top of the cliffs and hopefully will be sitting on eggs. I hope so because it will be a real chance to watch the development of the young.

I also took a fair few photos of the birds in flight but I plan to return and get better ones of that so I will leave you in suspense, perhaps later today as I plan to return.

I am always struggling to seperate the Shag from the Cormorantbut after a bit of study I am sure that this photo shows a Shag, the smaller of the two UK’s Cormorant species. I do like this image it shows a bird in it’s natural environment. The cliffs are very private places, you can only visit them if you can fly so when we look in we are observing a really wild habitat that is never intruded by man!
It was a fascinating day and I was able to see and get photo’s of Raven which was a surprise. They are distinctive with their “diamond” shaped tail shown in flight and can be confirmed by a very distinctive croaky call.