First light on the Exe

Swans continue to flourish on the Exe and the Teign in recent years. Now in pairs on the marshes and beginning to nest build and to defend territory.
I set off at first light  today, on a clear morning break from the run of January storms.
Predicted calamitous events fail to materialise. The white Christmas and Blizzards of autumn just fairy tales. Looking at the Express Newspaper rag bag of nonsense is a mistake at any time of the year.
As the sun comes up over the horizon great flocks of bird-life bring a feather-wind orchestra to life. Flocks of plover and lapwing, geese and curlew, mallard and widgeon, shoveller and golden-eye are all to be seen, but from over the other side of the canal are many more unseen varieties that add to the ballad of song.

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Turf Locks

Flat bottom barge no longer afloat

No smoking Gun

These images are of a place where my father shot wildfowl and chose, once upon a time, to try and encourage me to take up the sport. My introduction was brief and wholly wasted. The birds were flying too high on that early morning, and home-bound on the way back to the parked car, the 4/10 shotgun I was carrying discharged downwards into the tarmacked lane creating a small crater, sending a shower of grit and shot into the air. My finger had been resting on the trigger (mistake), The gun had been pointing earthwards (good). My father was lost for words and kept his thoughts to himself (thankfully).
Today my visits to this RSPB reserve remind me of him and the old days, when the place was open to those who asked permission from the landowner Mr Mortimore.  

Water meadows that fatten birds as well as cattle viewed through a curtain of reeds

Jeremy Corbyn has just bowled Mr Putin one great googly of a ball that will have rocked the soviet chair with laughter or sent shivers of dread down the soviet leader's spine, because the scenario is misleading (All politics is misleading is it not) and I see a glimmer of hope for Corbyn the pacifist and strategist.
Trident without the missiles may not be so stupid as it sounds ?  It may have already slipped into obsolescence.  Trident superseded ?  “Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd”
The new undersea warfare may be one of unmanned submersible drones - stationed into every 1000 square mile sector of ocean to reveal, engage, locate or destroy those obsolete manned ocean submarines.  41 Billion = Approximately !
My dad never hunted duck and geese with an unloaded shotgun. To go out into the cold wind with a pretend gun and play hide and seek would have been quite dotty. My mother would get no bird to cook and dads friends would have pulled his leg without mercy.  But today imagine the new weapon of choice - the aerial drone flown by the sporting wild-fowler remotely pursuing the bird in flight and testing the skills of the sportsman on a level playing field so to speak.

Flooded lane so far and no further for the low slung Morgan 4/4

No wildfowlers here today

Ponies, potholes and the Dartmoor Hunt

At the outset my aim was to catalogue the sadly neglected roads here in South Devon but the lure of the Moors overtook that agenda. A chill January wind from the North West threatens cold weather ahead.   Road maintenance savings, like NHS savings, can only be a false economy.

Another dangerous pothole 

  

Parking not suitable for the BMW driver

At Hey Tor

Looking south towards Ashburton

At Grimspound

The climb up to Grimspound

Driving onto the moor via Bovey Tracey to Widdecomb then passing Grimspound on towards Princetown then heading back via Holn where the Dartmoor hunt was meeting at the Forrester Inn. I was fortunately wearing the right drab gear for a hunt and my camera went unnoticed. 

Dartmoor Hunt meet

Making a few announcements

Almost ready for the off

Heading down towards the bridge

Haldon Plantation where the Nightjars clap and churr at dusk

Big toys and little toys

Still a small boy and given the freedom to roam the seaside town and countryside where I grew up I soon came to the realisation that toys are not essential so long as freedom was there to enjoy a choice.
Included in the list was the catapult, the air rifle, roller skates, box-cart, canoe, swim fins, model aeroplanes and chemistry set. I was lucky enough to have them all and another I only now dare admit to:  I.E.D.s that had the potential to do grave harm to life and limb. Fortunately, common sense demanded they were used with discretion.
I was led to believe that the best years of life are the early years, but I think quite the opposite to be true in my case. Not always so but in the latter years the toys are bigger, bolder and give the freedom to roam further and faster.
They include the open top sports car, the sailing dinghy, the cameras and the freedom to use them all as and when the mood is moved.
My most recent toy; an upgraded camera and today the early shoot of  dawn, yet to show the benefits of an instruction manual running to five hundred pages.

Sunrise over Teignmouth Golf Course