A superb trip to Powderham Castle.

Monday 7th August 2023.

My family making its way up to the Castle courtyard.

On Day 3, I took the family to Powderham Castle, near the village of Kenton and as being a member of English Heritage, we did get a bit of a discount on our entrance fee and with the five of us getting in for £70, I have to say, it was worth every penny. That might sound a little steep but the grounds are amazing and the guided tour by a chap called Peter was simply excellent. The owners of the Castle and grounds are the Courtney family and we got to listen on how they came to be from the 17th century onwards. Of course, it also had its typical Castle ghost! Ha ha!

You can just make out the House Martins settling in on the eaves of the Castle and also a few flying birds.

We were lucky with the weather too with some high clouds and then plenty of sunshine where it came out quite warm at times. However, the weather closed in later in the afternoon and rain arrived for a short time. The warm weather brought out the Wasps too, which was a bit of a pain in the Courtyard while my wife was trying to eat her Scone and Jam! 

A Grey Heron by the large pond near the Castle grounds. Photo by Russ Smith.

As expected, the grounds had plenty of wildlife to keep me entertained and probably the most notable sighting was the large gathering of House Martins on the roof of the front entrance to the Castle. There were at least a 100+ birds resting on the walls and roof of the Castle and occasionally, they all took off at once over the grounds, but always returned to the same roof top. Several Swallows also flew over the main courtyard as well as a couple of Swifts.

Some of the Fallow Deer within the grounds. Again, all these photos were taken only using my mobile phone.

Before our guided tour through the Castle, we had a quick drink from the cafe and then took a walk around the Castle garden, admiring not only the gorgeous Roses and other plants, but the Deer park opposite that held several large herds of Fallow Deer. In the distance was the northern end of the Exe Estuary and a large lake nearer the Castle held a large herd of Canada Geese and both Grey Heron and Little Egret on the lakes edge. Before we checked out the Castle Chapel, the beautiful gardens held a Hummingbird Hawk-moth of which I managed to grab some film footage from my mobile. A Silver Y moth was seen later in the day in the gardens of the Farm Shop.

I found this Queen Buff-tailed Bumblebee near the Farmshop.

There was a variety of butterflies on the wing around the gardens that included a female Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Large & Small White, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and best of all, my first Green-veined White of the year. After the guided tour, we took a walk to the Animal Park where I saw several Migrant Hawker dragonflies on the wing, with one individual somehow just missing my head. Just glad I ducked in time. Finally, I got to see my first Buzzards of the trip down here with at least two seen soaring low overhead. We passed some nice bit of woodland and meadows within the grounds and the potential for wildlife here is immense. I would love to work in a place like this, but I would be too busy looking at the wildlife. 

Above, film footage of the Hummingbird Hawk-moth in the Castle gardens. Below, one of two Little Stints on Farlington Marshes, Hampshire, today. Photo by Chris Geary.