Dawlish Warren
Dawlish Warren is a seaside resort near the town of Dawlish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon in England. Dawlish Warren consists almost entirely of holiday accommodation and facilities for holiday-makers especially caravan sites.
Lo ...
in south
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, England. It is part of the
Exe Estuary
The Exe estuary is an estuary on the south coast of Devon, England.
The estuary starts just to the south () of the city of Exeter, and extends south for approximately eight miles to meet the English Channel (). The estuary is a ria and so is la ...
Special Protection Area
A Special Protection Area (SPA) is a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds. Under the Directive, Member States of the European Union (EU) have a duty to safeguard the habitats of migratory birds and certa ...
, and sits on a
sand spit
A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due to ...
which runs across the mouth of the estuary. It is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of it is a local nature reserve.
The Dawlish Warren nature reserve provides a major roosting site for wading birds and migratory waterfowl, and serves as a habitat for the endangered petalwort (''
Petalophyllum ralfsii
''Petalophyllum ralfsii'', the petalwort, is a liverwort of the order Fossombroniales.Crandall-Stotler, B.J., Stotler, R.E. and Long, D.G. 2009. Phylogeny and classification of the Marchantiophyta. Edinburgh Journal of Botany, vo. 66, no. 1, p. ...
''), a
liverwort
The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ...
. It is also one of only two sites in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
Romulea
''Romulea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1772. It is distributed in Europe, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa.rare vagrant
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s have been recorded at Dawlish Warren, including
elegant tern
The elegant tern (''Thalasseus elegans'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It breeds on the Pacific coasts of the southern United States and Mexico and winters south to Peru, Ecuador and Chile.
This species breeds in very dense colonies on coa ...
(''Thalasseus elegans''),
lesser crested tern
The lesser crested tern (''Thalasseus bengalensis'')Bridge, E. S.; Jones, A. W. & Baker, A. J. (2005)A phylogenetic framework for the terns (Sternini) inferred from mtDNA sequences: implications for taxonomy and plumage evolution. ''Molecular Ph ...
greater sand plover
The greater sand plover (''Charadrius leschenaultii'') is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "greater sandplover" or "greater sand-plover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Gre ...
(''Charadrius leschenaultii''),
semipalmated plover
The semipalmated plover (''Charadrius semipalmatus'') is a small plover. ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' a bird found in ravines and ri ...
sand lizard
The sand lizard (''Lacerta agilis'') is a lacertid lizard distributed across most of Europe from France and across the continent to Lake Baikal in Russia. It does not occur in European Turkey. Its distribution is often patchy. In the sand lizard' ...
s (''Lacerta agilis'') have also been spotted at the reserve, as a result of re-introductions.
A rare dune grassland habitat can also be found in the nature reserve, and as a result is a candidate
Special Area of Conservation
A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and a ...
. The Nature Reserve also contains one of the main tourist beaches in
Teignbridge
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot.
Other towns in the district include Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred.
...
. Despite the emplacement of considerable quantities of protective
rock armour
Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...
at its lower end, the warren has been subject to erosion by the sea for over a hundred years.
The
Teignbridge District Council
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot.
Other towns in the district include Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred
Tei ...
owns and manages the seaward parts of the nature reserve, which is open to the public, while the
Devon Wildlife Trust
The Devon Wildlife Trust is a member of The Wildlife Trusts partnership covering the county of Devon, England. It is a registered charity, established in 1962 as the Devon Naturalists Trust, and its aim is to safeguard the future of the county's ...
maintains the Inner Warren and the saltmarsh, which are not open to the public. The Inner Warren is leased to the Warren Golf Club.