Day 13A: Unexpected wildlife

As I mentioned before, sometimes I choose places to visit because they look geographically interesting on the map, then other things surprise me and catch my interest. Today was an example. I started at...

Start point

It's another Devonian peninsular with a lighthouse.

My route along Start Point. Taking the road on the way down,
back along the high central rocks.

At first, I didn't think I was going to see much as it was very foggy...

There is a lighthouse in the background somewhere!

The sea was very calm on this side of the peninsular - the reflection effects mixed with fog give a weird scene.

Can you make out what is what?

But as we got closer and slightly lower, the fog cleared a bit.

The sea was much rougher on the windy side:

You can make out the transition between rough and smooth sea.

and what was the surprise? Well, it was the gulls. A huge flock was circling around the cliffs and there must have been lots of fish around as one after the other the gulls dived into the water. It was an amazing sight as they folded their wings back and became almost torpedo-like a split second before they hit the water.

I made this picture by putting together three rapid shots.
The splash in the middle frame is from another gull.

These are frames I put together from a movie clip I made.
The gull doesn't hit the cliff in the last frame, a branch blocked my view.

For more action-gull photos, click the Wildlife on holiday page.

Slapton Ley

This is another geographically "weird" place I had targeted. A spit grew out from one side - sand and shingle being pushed along the coast, and then it joined up. On one side is the sea (salt water) and the other is a fresh water lake.

Slapton Ley from the hillside

and from the "ley" itself.

While in Torcross, which is at one end of the "Ley," I had my second duck attack of the holiday...

Blackpool sands

Next stop was a lucky accident. I saw a nice bay as I was driving by and pulled in.

Yes, the sun actually came out for a few minutes today!

and the second surprise of the day - another wildlife one - there was a seal really close to shore. I was amazed how it didn't get swept on the beach by the large waves.

As this entry is getting rather long, I'm going to split it into two parts.