What to see in May!

This month brings the beginning of the wild flower season and there is a wonderful variety to be found. An Exmouth speciality is a gorgeous mauve and white flower with the weird name of Bithynian vetch. It is a tiny flower but very beautiful and it grows by the zig- zag path at Orcombe, see if you can find it. Sadly this wonderful wild flower is rapidly disappearing because of lack of management.

A walk at Dawlish Warren can be fabulous with a truly huge variety of plants to be found. There is a very beautiful little flower the Sand Crocus that flowers at Dawlish Warren and nowhere else on mainland Britain. The tiny flowers emerge towards the end of April, beginning of May and although there are usually thousands of them they can be quite difficult to find. Sand Crocus are small plants just a few centimetres tall and nestled in the short rabbit grazed turf, appear as wonderful, pale blue stars. If you go specially to see them it is best to telephone the Dawlish Warren Visitor Centre to check that they are in flower. There are many other plants coming into flower now and a walk at the Warren will not disappoint you.

It is during May that the hedge banks are at their best and the lanes around the estuary and along the Jurassic Coast will be a riot of colour with the stars of the show being Red Campion, Greater Stitchwort and Cow parsley. You may find patches of the incredible Early Purple Orchid and individual plants of pretty Common Vetch and Fumitory. The hedge banks at this time rival even the best of herbaceous borders. If you work hard you can find up to one hundred and fifty plants in flower this month.

Butterflies should be very evident on warm sunny days and wherever Lady's Smock flowers grow you can find the beautiful and delicate, Orange Tip butterfly. The males has bright orange tips to its wings while the female is very cryptically coloured, in order to hide while laying eggs on the flowers. Painted Ladies from Africa and Clouded Yellows from the Mediterranean are two very brightly coloured butterflies, these will be arriving on our shores this month.

Shoals of Mackerel will be coming close inshore at this time to feed on Sand Eels. The Mackerel in turn, are preyed upon by Dolphins, always keep an eye out for these much loved but sadly declining creatures. I have seen them very close inshore, just a few metres off the beach at Sandy Bay and Exmouth. Dolphins are regularly seen from the boat on Stuart Lines 'All Day Wildlife Cruises' from May to September.

Sea birds are nesting all along the coast also you may be lucky enough to find a Peregrine Falcon nesting high on the cliff. Peregrines are becoming much more abundant now because of the rigorous protection afforded them. Ospreys can be seen this month feeding at low tide on the estuary. When the tide is high they may be spotted in tree-tops at Powderham or Bowling Green Marsh. At Bowling Green and Exminster Marshes keep an eye out for rare and unusual birds. Waders such as Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint may turn up but my favourite is the gorgeous Garganey. These very handsome little ducks are migrating north from Africa, stopping off here to feed and occasionally staying to breed.

The Hairy Dragonfly, I know it is a funny name but it is a rare and extremely beautiful creature, with a stronghold on Exminster Marshes. Its long thin body marked with blue, black and yellow help to identify it but look closely and you will see brown hairs covering the thorax.

These are just a tiny few of the wonders of the Exe Estuary and Jurassic Coast that you can find this month.

THINGS TO SEE AND DO IN MAY

* Wild flowers are bursting out everywhere attracting butterflies of many kinds, it is good time to visit Dawlish Warren and anywhere along Jurassic Coast especially Durlston Country Park.

* Swallows and Martins arriving along the coast with other spring migrants such as Swifts, Cuckoos, Whitethroats and many more.

* Reed and Sedge Warblers will be singing from the reed beds at Buddleigh Salterton on the Otter Marshes and Exminster Marshes.

Rod Lawrence