Up to 400 bird watchers headed for the Berry Head nature reserve in Brixham this week to see the very rare Sardinian warbler. The bird, blown off course while heading back to the Mediterranean for the winter, is thought to be a female. The bird’s call is distinctive, fast and rattling.
Park manager Nigel Smallbones, of the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust, is quoted by This is South Devon website: “It has created a lot of interest. This is only the third or fourth sighting ever on the UK mainland, although they have been spotted occasionally on the Scilly Isles. It may have been brought here unexpectedly by prevailing winds. There were hundreds of people here at the weekend, trying to catch a glimpse and take pictures.”

The Sardinian warbler birds are visitors to the Mediterranean, but are also common in Turkey and Northern Asia.

Source: This is South Devon

The Independent website has published an interesting list of little known coasts, woodlands and gardens in their This Britain section. Of particular interest to English Coast of course is the coastal list:

1. Rathlin Island (Northern Ireland)
2. Isle of Eigg (Scotland)
3. Silecroft, Cumbria
4. Arnside, Cumbria
5. Llandudno Pier (Wales)
6. Skomer Island (Wales)
8. Clevedon Pier, Somerset
9. Watchet, Somerset
10. Wembury, Devon
11. Pednevounder Beach, Cornwall
12. Brownsea Island, Dorset
13. St Nectan’s Glen, Cornwall
14. Pagham Harbour, West Sussex
15. Minnis Bay, Kent
16. Horsey Beach, Norfolk
17. Bempton Cliffs, East Yorkshire
18. Spurn Head, Yorkshire
19. Low Newton-by-the-Sea, Northumberland
20. Isle of May (Scotland)

We recomend visiting the Secret Britain page for full details of each location, although some of the above are already included on the main English Coast site so we will link in to those pages soon.