Saturday 27th February 2010 Walking the Dog Roger Daltrey
I walked along the river walk towards Exeter Cathedral, getting a soaking on the way but enjoying two Kingfishers that allowed close views. I took an hour to look around the Cathedral, after paying my £5 to get in.
After having met two dog walkers along the path, who actually were carrying their dog's pooh in a small black plastic bag, a thought that reoccurred over the year, came to me. Why do some dog walkers have to throw their dog pooh bags into the hedges? It happens everywhere. At Durlston Country Park in Dorset, near to Swanage, the town I love and used to live in, up to thirty bags of doggie pooh would be found by the wardens there on an average day. I still cannot understand the psychology of the dog walker, obviously by no means all of them I know but not an exception unfortunately, who picks up their dog's faeces, deposits it into a lovely sometimes colourful little plastic bag and then chucks it supposedly out of sight but they rarely manage that. It is OK to be seen picking it up but not carrying it around. Strange and extremely annoying. There are those who place their pooch’s pooh in the bag and leave it by the side of the path for someone else to carry. Why not just flick the doo doos into the hedge using a stick without the plastic!?
I digress!
On returning to Exeter Youth Hostel via the river cycle path, I found the hostel closed and my plan to cycle to Powderham and then onto Dawlish Warren needed revision. Well, not giving up, I walked and eventually circumnavigated the RSPB reserve there, Exminster Marshes RSPB Reserve.
Also I got as far as the Brent Geese flock at Powderham and I found the Red-breasted Goose [144]. Lucky really, as I had just met a lovely couple, Malcolm and Sylvia from Launceston, Cornwall, who were looking for the bird and we had just swapped phone numbers in case one of us did actually find it. Well just as I approached the Brent geese flock in a field next to the sea wall path, I saw the Red-breasted Goose and almost immediately a dog chased into the flock and over the railway line they all flew to the far side of the field. When Malcolm and Sylvia arrived the flock was still a good distance away and the Red-breasted Goose was not on view. Then, after about an hour, another group of Brents flew in that had been hidden by the railway embankment and there it was! good views for all and a good one for my Green Birding bird list. Only the fourth one I had ever seen, my first being at Slimbridge many moons ago.
So, after saying goodbye to the lovely couple and promising that I would visit them at their home when I cycled through their town, I walked back to Exeter Youth Hostel, seeing a couple of Little Egrets and the fifth Kingfisher of the day on the way.
21.86 miles walked! 602 feet elevation up 592 feet down
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