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The East Devon Coast is a beautiful location for a day on the beach. That is, if you don't mind cobbles instead of sand and an energy sapping walk to get away from the few access points (which therefore tend to be rather crowded and worth the effort to leave behind). One early summer morning we set out our beach stuff near to the Nothe, a chalk cliff about a mile east of Branscombe, and settled down to relax, read a book and perhaps take a few photographs. Later in the day (even though it was early June) we even risked frostbite by taking a quick plunge in the calm ocean waters that had been inviting us in all day. |
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A pair of Shelducks circled overhead, wheeling from the cliffs out to sea, occasionally settling on the water. They appeared to be quite frantic in their activity so we began to pay attention.
The shelduck is a large duck with almost goose-like characteristics. It is not uncommon in Britain and uses many coastal areas for nesting each spring. Its plumage is shared by both male and female and includes contrasting areas of black, white and chestnut. |
| Close by we heard frenzied cheeping coming from the undergrowth at the base of the cliffs. Then, as we watched, a pair of chicks emerged and began to cross the pebbles, apparently on their way to the shore.
We began to guess what was happening, for the adult pair were now floating on the sea a good way offshore. Was this the shelducks' equivalent of learning to swim by being thrown into the deep end? |
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A close up of one the chicks shows how well camouflaged they are against a background of chert pebbles. Their constant cheeping, however, seemed to give away their position far too easily. With telephoto lens mounted we followed them across the sixty yards or so of beach that includes several storm ridges. Difficult enough for us to walk over, this terrain was surely very hostile to these chicks. But they kept moving in a general direction of the shoreline. |
| On this day the sea was quite calm and must have looked inviting. By this time it is possible that the chicks could both see and hear their parents even though they were floating far off the strand. As they surmounted the last storm ridge of cobbles and pebbles, the chicks must have finally realized what their instinct had been telling them. |  |
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A calm day it may have been but the surf along the shoreline was still quite active and for a tiny chick must have been potentially very dangerous. Each chick ventured into the surf several times, only to be rebuffed. Then the stronger of the two finally breached the incoming wavelets and this seemed to inspire its sibling to take the plunge.
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| By now the parents were so far offshore we couldn't make them out, even with binoculars. But we watched the chicks as they swam ever so surely toward the horizon. |  |
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The shelducks didn't reappear so we have to assume that the chicks made it out to rendezvous with their parents and all lived happily after.
Perhaps the chicks grew up to show off their handsome plumage to future beachcombers? |
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Unfortunately there may not have been a happy ending. Herring gulls (such as this specimen photographed above nearby Sidmouth where they are considered aggressive, dive-bombing pests) are known to feed on Shelduck chicks as they progress from nest to adulthood. Shelducks are careful parents, however, and form social groups not unlike kindergartens with a few female birds taking care of many yearlings while the rest fly off to an annual get together on a rock in the North Sea named Heligoland. |
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