The estuary is right at the core of the North Devon Biosphere reserve. It is tidal well above both Barnstaple and Bideford, the tides often concentrate birds on shoreline mudbanks as the tide comes in and then again on sandbanks which are exposed as the tide drops. The estuary covers a a very large area (approx 100 square kilometres) and has many different areas of interest.
Birding the Taw and Torridge estuary in January provides a great opportunity to kick-start your New Year list with good numbers and variety of Wildfowl, Waders and Gulls. It’s also guaranteed for Spoonbill and Little Egret. Peregrines regularly hunt along the estuary.
https://www.devonbirds.org/places-to-go/taw-torridge-estuary/
Devon Birds sightings
https://www.devonbirds.org/?s=taw+estuary&id=4361&post_type=birdsighting
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The North Devon Biosphere is a place where people and nature come together in our world-class environment of dunes, grassland and moors, towns and villages, and coast and sea. We are proud to be a UNESCO World Biosphere and our mission is to connect people and nature to inspire a positive future today.
https://www.northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/
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This is an intricate, complex and varied landscape within a dramatic valley, which contrasts with the surrounding open, elevated farmland. Woodland and slopes combine with bends and spurs in the valley to hide views onward and create constant surprises. Tightly wooded sections unexpectedly open out to display wide vistas across the valley. Around Eggesford, the steep valley sides and mixture of broadleaved and coniferous woodland is evocative of continental Europe. Elsewhere, tranquil parkland gives the valley a soothing atmosphere.
This area comprises the main valley of the River Taw, plus its tributary valleys, including the River Bray, River Mole, Crooked Oak Stream, and Mully Brook. The area forms a rough ‘T’ Shape, surrounded by areas of higher land. The Codden Hill and Wooded Estates and the South Molton Farmland lie to the north, Witheridge and Rackenford Moor to the east and the High Culm Ridges to the west. To the south is the High Taw Farmland.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/north-devon-area/taw-valley
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policies/landscape/devon-character-areas
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This is a flat, sky-dominated landscape with strong sensory characteristics. The habitats within the mosaic (dunes, beach, saltmarsh, mudflats and farmland) each have unique qualities of pattern, colour and texture which are juxtaposed in different combinations. The salty smell of mudflats and the sea are ever-present, as are the calls of birds. Within the dunes, the landscape feels disorientating, and has a strong sense of enclosure, isolation and wilderness. This contrasts with the open views towards the surrounding settlements, and the time-depth associated with the strip fields at Braunton. The estuary settlements have a strong maritime character, with historic quays and impressive bridges.
This area comprises the estuary of the Taw and Torridge Rivers, and a small margin of land on either side. Northam Burrows and the dune system at Braunton Burrows are also included in the area. This area is distinctive for its flat topography and the dominance of the sea and estuary. To the north are the North Devon Coastal Downs and the North Devon Downs, to the east (beyond Barnstaple) the Codden Hill and Wooded Estates, and to the south the Taw Valley, High Culm Ridges, Torridge Valley and the Bideford Bay Coast.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/north-devon-area/taw-torridge-estuary
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policies/landscape/devon-character-areas
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An elevated, open landscape with long views to Dartmoor and/or to Exmoor. Within the patchwork of pastoral fields are extensive areas of rough Culm grassland and heathland. These Culm ‘moors’ have a strong sense of remoteness, even wildness, which is accentuated by the relative lack of settlement and the wind-sculpted trees and hedgerows; they give an impression of how large areas of Devon might have looked before agricultural improvements such as drainage, ploughing and fertilizers. The presence in the landscape of numerous clusters of prehistoric barrows adds to this sense of history and changelessness. The strong textures of plantations, beech hedgerows, heathland and grasses contrast with the smooth improved agricultural land which surrounds them. Patches of colour in the landscape change with the seasons – golden, brown and green grasses, purple heather and bright yellow gorse.
This area comprises elevated land between the Taw Valley (to the west) and the Cruwys Morchard Wooded and Farmed Valleys and the Exe Valley (to the east). To the north is a gradual transition into the South Molton Farmland, and to the south a gradual transition to the lower and more intensively-farmed Crediton Rolling Farmlands.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/north-devon-area/witheridge-and-rackenford-moor
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policies/landscape/devon-character-areas
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
Lose yourself in a wide open landscape amid one of the rarest habitats in the world. A sense of space and timelessness greets the visitor stepping out on to the largest surviving area of culm grassland in Devon.
Culm grassland is a rare habitat comprising distinctive wetland plants, sustained by acidic clay soils, light grazing, and high rainfall. This combination of environmental conditions with low intensity land management, largely unchanged since prehistoric times, maintains the site's wildlife richness.
Unbroken views, as far as the edges of Dartmoor and Exmoor, reach across a diverse array of wet pastures, heaths, bogs and mires, scrub and fringes of woodland. This may lend an impression of vast ancient emptiness, but in the last century over 90% of culm grassland has been lost.
Much of what remains is to be found fragmented across north Devon. Rackenford and Knowstone moor is of crucial value as the most extensive remnant still in existence today. Devon Wildlife Trust works to protect, re-create and link together isolated culm grassland sites through the Working Wetlands and North Devon Nature Improvement Area projects.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/rackenford-and-knowstone-moors
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This Standing Stone has been variously known as the “Knowstone”, the “Beaples” stone or just as a “boundary” stone, a “marker” stone and a “rubbing” stone. It is not a Parish boundary stone, as the Parish boundary runs several hundred metres to the south, but it did lie on the Beaples Barton Estate land and was most likely to have been a “rubbing” or “tether” stone for bulls and horses working on the farms in the area.
As a Standing Stone, it could be seen from Exmoor and was mentioned in a book on Ancient Exmoor by Hazel Eardley Wilmott. There was a myth that, on certain moonlit nights, the stone would turn around and the fairies would dance around it, and if it was removed, then all the fairies would disappear.
https://www.knowstone.org.uk/beaples-stone
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A private nature reserve supported by a sustainable enterprise.
We’re restoring patches of culm grassland on our own land, with the help of Devon Wildlife Trust. Culm grassland is the name for the type of species rich grassland that used to cover this whole area for miles around, providing a habitat for many birds and animals which are now endangered and sequestering carbon by turning vegetation into peat.
Anna and Pete who own Bulworthy Project are now looking further afield and, along with 3 other trustees, they have applied to register a charity, which will be known as Bulworthy Trust. This charity will acquire land to create a nature reserve on. This will be owned and managed by the trust which will be independent of Bulworthy Project.
Bulworthy Project Rackenford EX16 8DL
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A Devon Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve
Thirteen fields of wildflower-rich Culm grassland make up this smallholding which has remained unchanged for decades.
About the reserve
Meshaw Moor is what many parts of mid and north Devon would have once looked, smelt, felt and sounded like.
It's patchwork of small irregular shaped fields are bounded by hedges. The fields themselves are classic Culm and flower-rich hay meadows. So rich is Meshaw's crop of summer flowers we often harvest its seed and use it to restore grasslands elsewhere.
https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/nature-reserves/meshaw-moor
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The rolling ridges and plateaux of the Culm extend across north-west Devon and north-east Cornwall, reaching from the foot of Dartmoor in the southwest and the edge of the Cornish Killas in the west, to the spectacular Atlantic coast of cliffs and sandy beaches in the north. North-eastwards they meet the Exmoor landscape and stand high above the Devon Redlands. The open, often treeless, ridges are separated by an intricate pattern of small valleys forming the catchments of the Rivers Taw, Torridge and Mole. This is largely a remote and sparsely populated landscape.
http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/4292167?category=587130
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