There can be something so dreary about the short, damp days of November and we like to get away if we can. Last week we joined a four day Naturetrek holiday based in the South Devon fishing town of Brixham, looking for what wildlife the region can offer in mid November:

Our home for the trip was the friendly Berry Head Hotel, situated near the end of Berry Head Penninsula and looking across Tor Bay and out to sea:

A number of grey seals regularly lounge around in Brixham harbour and we could hear their ethereal singing all the way along the headland at our hotel:

I took a lot of photos of them:

Each of the seals has distinctive markings and can be individually identified by the Seal Project, a charity that monitors and protects the seals of South Devon.

A few purple sandpipers spend the winter on the harbour’s breakwater every year:

And several rock pipits were also poking around the seaweed on the breakwater:

Brixham still has a busy fishing port and a lot of the vessels are beam trawlers such as BM-15 below. The wheeled beam and some of the net has been hauled up here so that we can see it:

Not knowing much about fishing, I found this diagram below helpful in understanding what was going on:

A lot of rusty old beams from the trawlers are stored on a jetty off the breakwater and apparently these are still sometimes used:

South Devon is the best place in the country to see cirl bunting. In 1991 this species was on the absolute brink of extinction in the UK with just a hundred pairs remaining in South Devon. But since then there has been an enormous effort to turn their fortunes around. Happily, by 2016 there were 1078 pairs – mainly still in South Devon but also now including a small population further west in Cornwall where they have been reintroduced. Hopefully the number will be even larger when the next count is done. We went up onto Berry Head to see some cirl bunting coming down to seed that is put out for them:

Mike, our guide for the trip, has been birding in the region his whole life and had been the Devon county bird recorder for a decade. We met people he knew wherever we went which was very nice. He is also an artist and the bird illustrations in RSPB and other bird hides across the country are all his:

The four day Naturetrek holiday included three boat trips – one on the deep waters of the Dart estuary, the second on the shallow, muddy Exe Estuary and the final one around Tor Bay.

There are so many lovely rivers in South Devon. The Dart rises high on Dartmoor and then flows forty-seven miles through south Devon down to the sea at Dartmouth. But the last road bridge is at Totnes, six miles inland, and below there you will need to use a ferry to get across the river. The Lower Ferry operates between Dartmouth and Kingswear near the mouth of the river. It is basically an unpowered pontoon that is pushed and pulled along by a tug boat:

The Higher Ferry, slightly to the north, travels across the river on a cable:

The Mew Stone projects from the sea just beyond the mouth of the Dart. We saw a grey seal that had got itself a long way up the rock and would now presumably have to wait for a high tide to get safely back down again:

It did look a bit sad:

I was pleased to see a shag and a cormorant together on the Mew Stone so that I could revise the difference between them:

Gulls around the Mew Stone:

The Mew Stone presents quite a hazard to shipping and there are navigational buoys guarding it. The day after our River Dart boat trip we had distant views back to the rock from Slapton Sands and we were amazed and delighted to spot our old friend THV Patricia working on the Mew Stone buoys. We often see her maintaining the light vessel and buoys that guard the perilous Goodwin Sands back home and it felt slightly disorientating to stumble across her somewhere else:

Along with her sister ship, Galatea, she is operated by Trinity House, responsible for the lighthouses, light vessels and navigational buoys around the English and Welsh coast.

One day we caught the Higher Ferry across the Dart in the minibus and drove down to Slapton Sands:

It was the site of a terrible disaster in April 1944 when Exercise Tiger, a large-scale rehearsal for the Normandy Invasion, was taking place there. As well as there being a friendly fire incident where hundreds of men were accidentally killed on the beach, the rehearsal was also attacked by fast German E-boats. Four ships loaded with tanks and men were hit or sunk. The total death toll of American servicemen during Exercise Tiger was an appalling 946.

Start Point lies at the southern end of Slapton Sands:

Although it was a very windy day, we made a diversion to the exposed Start Point because we could see lots of gannets diving into the turbulent waters there.

The birds were after the garfish which gather at Start Point:

The gannets were not the only ones after the garfish though. As we stood and watched, we could see several Atlantic bluefin tuna surfacing as they hunted the garfish from below. The tuna are up to two metres long and have returned to UK waters in recent years after decades of absence. It was so exciting to see them – the highlight of the trip for me, although I am afraid that I didn’t manage to get a photo of them to show you.

From Start Point, we could see the remains of the village of Hallsands at the bottom the cliffs:

In 1891 the village had a population of 159, living in 37 houses and with a chapel and a pub called The London Inn. Most of the villagers depended on crab fishing on the sand and shingle banks out to sea that also protected the village from easterly storms. But in the 1890s it was decided to expand the Naval Dockyard near Plymouth and large amounts of sand and gravel were dredged offshore from Hallsands for the construction of the docks. But with reduced protection from its sandbanks, parts of the village started to get damaged by storms and, in 1902, the dredging licence was revoked. However, it was already too late. On 26 January 1917 a storm effectively destroyed the entire village and, by the end of that year, only one house remained habitable.

It was a very cold day for our trip up the Exe estuary. Around a thousand dark-bellied brent geese overwinter on the estuary, arriving there every autumn from Siberia:

The four geese in the centre of the photo below are juveniles with parallel white lines on their wings:

On the final day of the trip we had a most enjoyable trip around Tor Bay on a lovely sunny November day. We saw at least four great northern divers out in the bay:

And a peregrine falcon on the cliffs:

There is a mussel farm close to Brixham harbour, as well as this oyster farm further out into the bay:

I have a soft spot for herring gulls and we had a close encounter with quite a large group of them out in Tor Bay. The skipper threw some bread from the boat and in no time at all we were being hotly pursued:

It was an amazing sight:

Since they were keeping pace with the moving boat, it was easy to take photos of them in flight:

This adult had a very full crop:

A juvenile with the urban sprawl around Tor Bay:

There was some in-flight bickering:

But they were willing to put in a lot of effort just to claim a crust of white bread:

I have probably included more herring gull photos than I should, but it was a fantastic sight and I can’t make a decision on which to leave out:

We had had a great time in South Devon, seeing and learning a lot. Despite a poor weather forecast it actually scarcely rained at all and, although it was certainly cold and windy at times, we consider ourselves very fortunate. After the trip we headed even further west to Cornwall to spend a few days with one of our daughters and her family who have recently moved to the lovely town of Perranporth on the north coast.

It had already been a boat-heavy week with three boat trips and an admiration of the Brixham fishing fleet, but we rounded this off with a visit to the excellent National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. They have so many interesting vessels on display there, presented in a user-friendly way:

But all this was a long way from home. It was a seven hour drive back, which featured good road conditions and only three short stops. A lengthy journey indeed but one that, with a daughter now in Cornwall, we will be doing more frequently in the coming years:

This week we did the November tour of the thirty dormouse boxes in our wood. This was the last tour of the year and wraps up my first full year of monitoring the dormice on my own, with Dave in support as scribe and helpful general assistant.

Looking back at my records, I see that last November there were no dormice left in the nest boxes, all presumably having gone down to ground level to hibernate. This November, however, we found eight juveniles. This may be an indication that the temperatures until now have been relatively mild and/or that the summer has been a really good one and the dormice have unusually had second broods. If so, it would probably be these second brood juveniles that are still around to finish fattening up before hibernation.

This week dormice were found in nests in seven of the boxes, but an additional seventeen boxes also contained empty dormouse nests. This means that, now at the end of the season, twenty-four of the thirty boxes had dormouse nests in them and a further two had yellow-necked mice nests. In contrast, by November last year, only ten of the boxes had dormouse nests and two had yellow-necked nests. I would say that this year has definitely been a good one for dormice

The starling murmuration is one of the UK’s most iconic winter wildlife spectacles. In the autumn starlings from Northern Europe arrive to overwinter here and greatly bolster the ranks of our own resident birds. During the day they spread out to feed but then, as dusk approaches, birds from a wide area will fly back to congregate at a safe roosting spot. Studies have shown that the birds can fly as far as thirty miles to get back to their roost before dark. This is often in reedbeds, where the surrounding water makes it more difficult for predators to reach them while they sleep. Some of the sixty-one piers dotted around the UK’s coastline can also provide a similar safe haven for them.

One of our sons has recently moved to Brighton and one evening this week he ventured out to capture the Brighton piers’ starling murmuration on his phone:

Sometimes the starlings arrive and disappointingly shoot straight in to roost. But other times, especially if the day is mild and calm, they will first put on an amazing aerial display, creating mesmerising patterns whilst flying in absolute synchrony.

Once they have finished their sky dancing, they settle down under the pier to roost up for the night:

We have wrapped up warm and tried to see starling murmurations several times over the years but have mostly been unsuccessful. We were once at Ham Wall RSPB reserve in Somerset when literally hundreds of thousands of starlings streamed past us but sadly went straight in to roost in the reeds without murmurating first. Ham Wall is a famously large starling roost where numbers vary but have apparently got up to a million birds at times.

My most successful attempt was at Otmoor RSPB reserve near Oxford in December 2019. I have no idea how many starlings were involved but it was a very magical wildlife experience:

We do have a small murmuration here in East Kent at Stodmarsh Nature Reserve near Canterbury where there is a sizeable reed bed. I would like to attempt to see that this year.

As we now approach winter, the trail cameras have started to fog up with condensation at times. Nevertheless they have managed to come up with some pretty good stuff this week. A sparrowhawk takes a bath in the wood:

And another sparrowhawk is appearing a lot in the meadows at the moment:

And I’ve been seeing and hearing tawny owls in the meadows too:

I would love to know where they nest.

Always a pleasure to see the kestrel that was ringed in the meadows in 2019:

Here she is out hunting nearly an hour before it got properly light:

It is a relief to see her right eye is now back to normal because, in early October, there was something very wrong with it indeed:

The magpies are still eating wasps:

And working through the remaining acorns on the holm oaks:

We don’t often see meadow pipits in the meadows but there have been a few around recently:

The badgers should be slowing down about now and going into their winter torpor. However, they are still prepared to expend some energy on play fighting:

There are four of them although it is quite unusual to see all of them together at the moment:

This is not the first time I’ve seen the foxes carrying Bonio-style dog biscuits. Presumably someone is feeding them these down in the village:

On one sunny, still morning I was amazed to spot a common darter at the wild pond. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so late here before:

One evening this week there was apparently a chance to see the Northern Lights. We would absolutely love to see them and went out before bedtime to have a look. The skies were clear but sadly there was no sign of any colourful lights. We did get a bit distracted by a very bright Jupiter and four of her moons though. She actually has 95 moons but Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are the largest:

I am going to wrap up this week by mentioning our visit to the Cavell Van which has been put on temporary display at Dover Marine Station – or Cruise Terminal 1 as it is now called:

After arriving at the Naval Pier at Dover in 1919, Edith’s coffin was put onto a horse-drawn hearse which, together with a military guard, processed along Dover sea front lined with throngs of people who had come to pay their respects:

She then spent the night in Van 132 at Dover Marine Station:

Van 132 subsequently went into mainline service until she was retired in 1967 and left to rot away in obscurity:

However, happily she was eventually rediscovered and, after fundraising and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, was renovated in 2009.

It was no doubt an enormous endeavour to return the Cavell van to Dover from its normal resting place at Bodiam Station. The effort was certainly worthwhile though, as large numbers of people had come to see her at this time of Remembrance.

There is no doubt that 1066 was a turbulent year in British history. It all started in January when King Edward the Confessor died childless. King Harold was crowned shortly afterwards but his brother Tostig, Hardrada the Norwegian King and William, the Duke of Normandy, all claimed the throne instead.

Harold defeated Tostig and Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire on 25th September which just left William contesting the crown. William landed with his army on the south coast of England on 28th September and Harold and his exhausted army marched south from Stamford Bridge to confront them.

The two armies met on 14th October 1066 in a field seven miles northwest of Hastings at the present-day town of Battle and the fighting lasted from 9am to dusk of that day.

This week Dave, the dog and I stayed at the very edge of this battlefield in an English Heritage cottage:

The cottage looks out over the field where around 14,000 soldiers fought nearly a thousand years ago and where the course of British history was radically altered:

Harold and his men were positioned at the top of the hill where Battle Abbey now stands, using their large shields to form an impenetrable wall. The Normans were at the bottom, in the foreground of this photo:

This drawing from an information board is of the same view on 14th October 1066:

It is estimated that there were somewhere between 6,500 and 10,000 deaths on this field that day.

Towards the end of the afternoon, King Harold himself was killed:

The battle was a decisive victory for William the Conqueror, who was crowned king soon afterwards, marking the end of Anglo Saxon rule in Britain. In 1070 William founded an Abbey at the top of the field where Harold fell as a memorial to the Battle of Hastings and as an atonement for all the men who were killed on 14th October 1066.

Much of the surrounding land was then preserved as the Abbey’s great park, resulting in it being grazed but unploughed for a very long time, probably since the medieval period. This has allowed yellow meadow ant colonies to flourish in some parts of the battlefield, within enormous anthills that have been there for hundreds of years:

In the nearby village of Crowhurst, the Crowhurst Yew is a living witness to those tumultuous times in 1066. This tree is thought to have been planted around 700AD and would have already been three hundred years old when William and his army passed by on their way to the Battle of Hastings a thousand years ago:

This ancient 1,300 year old yew is growing in the graveyard in St George’s Church in Crowhurst in Sussex. In a ridiculous and confusing coincidence, there is another ancient yew growing in another St George’s Church graveyard in a second village called Crowhurst, but this time in Surrey. Both trees are called ‘The Crowhurst Yew’ but the Surrey yew is much older at 4,000 years old:

Whilst we were staying in Battle, we decided to spend a day in Romney Marsh, seeing some of the distinctive churches there. The most iconic of them all is the tiny Church of St Thomas Becket which stands in solitary isolation out on the marsh:

We had to collect the enormous key for the church from its closest house:

And walk to the church across wet, sheep-grazed fields:

Although the church itself dates back to the 12th century, the interior of the church was restored in the 18th century and was surprisingly fitted out with white box pews and a triple-decker pulpit:

The Church of St Augustine in Brookland was also very memorable with its detached wooden bell tower and its strange stable-door style entrance:

The amazing 12th century Norman lead font in the church is still in use today:

We visited four Romney Marsh churches in total:

Now that it’s November, most National Trust and English Heritage properties in the area are closed during the week. Bodiam Castle, however, was fully open and looking fabulous in the November sunshine:

In the centre of the photo below is the castle gatehouse, the top floor of which is an important maternity roost for Daubenton’s and Natterer’s bats.

I was surprised to see that visitors are allowed to walk through the rooms in which the bats roost, including during the summer when the bats will be breeding:

Bat droppings on the top floor of the gatehouse:

We saw Egyptian geese on the battlements:

And a load of enormous carp in the moat. Presumably they are fed because they were very interested in any human peering in at them:

The weather forecast for our stay in 1066 Country had been pretty poor, but actually we were quite lucky with the early November weather. As we walked the dog in some of the many woods in the area, there were plenty of rich autumnal colours to admire:

It is always a bit nerve-wracking taking the dog with us on holiday because she is generally quite anxious of things. But we are conscious that she is getting older and find ourselves wanting to spend as much time with her as we can.

I have mentioned quite a few churches already in this post but will finish with one more. St Mary’s in Battle has installed a river of poppies cascading from its bell tower for tomorrow’s Remembrance Sunday:

Community groups, schools, care homes, and residents worked together to produce this memorial and I think that they should all be really proud of what they have produced.