Labrador Bay...

It’s a while since I’ve seen a new bird, so I visited Labrador Bay this morning, an RSPB reserve just south of Teignmouth. There was no visitor centre or other amenities, just steep fields descending to the seashore, defined by thick hedgerows. The star attractions of the site are cirl buntings: a finch a bit like a yellowhammer, but with the head striped black and yellow… I saw one within a few minutes, posing on top of a hedge, then a flock of a dozen busily feeding on the ground.

Reading the RSPB website I understand that cirl buntings were almost extinct in England, but numbers are now on the rise again… at least in these coastal fringes of Devon. Having seen my buntings, I headed east along the coast, to Sidmouth…