Wildlife

Seaton ‘between high mountainous hills (it) has a sheltered situation and the environs in point of picturesque beauty and varied rides are equal, if not superior, to most of the coast’

Rev John Swete,
Travels in Georgian Devon
describing a visit probably on 2nd August 1794

These ‘mountainous hills’, Haven and White Cliffs, to the east and west of Seaton are part of the soft vegetated cliffs that make up the Special Area of Conservation that runs from Sidmouth to West Bay. This SAC includes the great Bindon and Hooken landslips of 1839 and 1789-90. The Bindon Landslip was studied by the pioneer geologists and has an important place in the history of science, by virtue of the rational explanation the geologists produced.

The combination of landslips and history, together with classic geology, superb landscape, rich biodiversity and huge educational value, helped this Dorset and East Devon coastline to achieve World Heritage Site Status, but the cliffs are not all that the environs of Seaton have to offer.

The estuary of the River Axe is small but of sufficient importance for birds to have two Local Nature Reserves; fresh water marsh at Seaton itself and salt water marsh higher up at Colyford. These LNRs, managed by East Devon District Council, are now well watched and bird species are recorded around the estuary. 238 species have been recorded. David Walters (davidwalter@eclipse.co.uk) produces a fortnightly newsletter and an annual report about the estuary’s birds.

The salt marsh is an unusual habitat for Devon and has its own specialities like the rare Beaked Tassleweed and a range of obscure invertebrates, while Seaton has good dragonflies around its ditches including one of only two Devon sites for the Ruddy Darter.

The cliffs and estuary are also rich botanically and flower enthusiasts will have opportunities to visit some of the best plant communities, on the calcareous soils of Beer Head and of Goat Island (part of the Undercliffs National Nature Reserve), and on the salt marsh along the estuary. Volume 16 of the famous ‘New Naturalist Series’ enthuses about the magnificent flora of the coast between Beer and Branscombe with species characteristic of the chalk adding to the excitement of the maritime plants like Rock Sea-lavender, Rock Spurrey and Portland Spurge.

In the Undercliffs eight species of orchid benefit from English Nature’s management which also encourages many thousands of Autumn Gentians. Behind and below Goat Island is a fine example of plant succession, for after the great landslip, the Chasm, which had formed overnight, was bare and “too much resembled a gravel pit”, whereas now it is mature ash/maple woodland.

The Geology of the Sidmouth District by R.A. Edwards and R.W. Gallois (2004) briefly explains sheet 326 and 340 of the British Geological Survey. It includes reference to the Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group, exposed between Sidmouth and Axmouth; the Jurassic Lias Group, rich in ammonite fossils, that first appears two miles east of Seaton; and the Cretaceous Chalk and Greensand which, except at Beer, overlies the earlier rocks. David Allen (2000) described the ‘Wild Flowers of the East Devon Coast’ and Donald Campbell (2006) wrote ‘Exploring the Undercliffs’ for the World Heritage Coast Trust and English Nature. With further biological riches such as the Pink Sea-fan, many sponges and a large unusual sea squirt on reefs at Beer Home Ground and Eastern Heads, the National Nature Reserve could well be extended out to sea as well as up the estuary.

A final rich habitat is provided by the rock pools below White Cliff where the range of creatures can be found, as described and illustrated in ‘Rockpooling on Broad Ledge’ by Colin Dawes (2006).

With our varied terrains of cliffs, sea, seashore, estuary, river and marshes we have an enormous variety of flora and fauna.

These will be accessed and interpreted via remote web cams, underwater video, interactive DVD displays, samples, storyboards, leaflets and guided walks.