Colyford Common LNR

Colyford Common is an important wetland site on the Axe estuary. Being regularly flooded by high tides, this salt marsh has a very unusual flora and fauna, supporting many locally rare and nationally important species.

How to get there

Take the A3052 from Exeter towards Lyme Regis. Drive into the village of Colyford and turn right at the Post Office along Seaton road. The entrance to the nature reserve lies on the left, opposite Popes Lane, just through the village. Please do not park in the gateway.

A boardwalk has been constructed from the gate to the viewing platform, as this site can become completely flooded by a very high tide. Visitors are asked to keep to the boardwalk to minimise disturbance to the wildlife using the common.

What to see

In the winter months the Axe estuary is alive with hundreds of waders and waterfowl. The viewing platform at Colyford Common offers fantastic views across the upper reaches of the estuary and surrounding saltmarsh.

Little egrets fish in the creeks and lagoons on the estuary, while large black and white shelduck can be seen grazing on the Local Nature Reserve.

Meadow pipits feed amongst the tussoky grass on the common, flying up onto the overhead wires if startled. Occasionally they are joined by the much rarer water pipit.

In the summer, shortwinged coneheads – a rare type of bush cricket – can be heard singing in the long grass along the edges of the ditches. Listen out for their long, drawn out calls giving the nature reserve an almost Mediterranean feel.

While walking along the boardwalk to the viewing platform, have a closer look at the life in the ditches on Colyford Common. Because the common is flooded by the sea on a high tide the ditches and pools around the reserve are full of saltwater invertebrates called isopods. These relatives of woodlice can be seen whizzing about in the water looking like miniature spaceships.

This strange combination of seashore life surrounded by a grassy field is part of what makes the common so attractive to birds.