James Chubb

Don’t forget what’s on our doorstep!

Writing a week in advance of publication can sometimes have its drawbacks, and in this case I have been caught off-guard by a stubborn ship.

It would seem I spoke too soon, and we will have the company of Napoli for a few more weeks now.

Never one to let negativity creep into my work, I was really pleased when the advice from East Devon District Council and the Maritime Coastguard Agency was that East Devon’s beaches were very much open as normal, asking instead for people to observe simple common sense and keep alert for small amounts of oil on the beach.

As I must have said many times before within these pages, my favourite beach pastime is rockpooling and this is an activity which you should also take a little more care with at present.

Rockpools are in many ways a window into the marine world, and this is very much the case at the moment.

As water quality reports continue to return from the Environment Agency with good results, so the life in our rockpools seems unaffected by the Napoli.

But, as well as trapping a host of interesting sea life, rockpools can also trap floating mess as the tide retreats, so parents should accompany children while rockpooling just in case.

This is hardly an onerous task – many times when leading public rockpooling events it’s the dads who drag their children over to the event, as a thinly disguised excuse to go competitive crabbing with the other fathers. Sexual stereotype perhaps, but backed up by boatloads of anecdotal evidence.

The East Devon Coastal Festival will be returning this August but, before we get to that littoral feast of fun, we are in the middle of a week of heathland celebration with East Devon Heath Week.

This is something the RSPB, Clinton Devon Estates, the East Devon AONB team and myself at the district council organise each year as a celebration of arguably our most valuable local habitat and, if you’ve not been along to one of the events before, I urge you to do so in volumes equalling those of tortoiseshell-gate.

As Exmouth locals, you should be so rightfully proud that one of the UK’s most important habitats can be found right on your doorstep, literally for some of you really lucky individuals. As with many things that we live among and around, it is all too easy to take things for granted and I fear most people look at the pebblebed heaths as a convenient place to take the dog for a good run. I am not disputing that in the slightest, but it is so much more than that, too!

Heath week events run through the week to provide expert guidance around various heathland sites at a time when they are at their very best. The bell heather is in full bloom now, casting a deep purple hue over the heath, and, on a warm dry day (if we ever get one of those this summer), the air is full of small insects busily collecting nectar from the flowers.

This amazing wealth of insect life supports many beautiful birds, such as the stonechat and the elusive Dartford warbler, a bird that in the early ’70s numbered in single figures in this country. And because the soil is acidic and very poor in nutrients, there are some very interesting plants here, too, which feed upon the insect life as ferociously as any of the birds!

The sticky beads of sundew glisten as a sinister treat for passing flies, attracted to their sweet smell and then stuck fast for digestion. The leaf of the plant curls over itself, engulfing the hapless fly, and the nitrogenous nutrients from the insect’s body are transferred to the plant.

Another plant carnivore is the pitcher plant, which can be found growing in some of the wetter flushes of the commons.

These stunning plants develop large upright leaves which hold water just like a vase. The leaf is so well developed that it even has a little lid, protecting its deadly contents from evaporation.

Again, a meaty liquid is used to entice flies which slip on a carpet of fine hairs, causing them to fall down the tube into the water below, where their bodies are again decomposed for the plant’s use.

My personal favourites, when visiting heaths, are the reptiles. Adders and common lizards can be found basking in the early morning sun if you know where to look for them.

Explore a heathland ride too boisterously, and all you will see are the disappearing tails of lizards retreating into the bushes, but take your time and wander slowly around a site, and you can hope to see much more from these charismatic little creatures.

Reptile rambles, pond dipping and hosts of other events will be running through the week, so make sure you pick up a leaflet from the tourist information centre and come along to see what all the fuss is about.