I remember it well !

July 1985, and four very young and keen birders head West to Dawlish Warren and the chance to see a Lesser Crested Tern. Fortune was on our side as the bird was on view from the main hide and we had good but distant views through our 'top of the range' fledgling twitcher scopes. That was over 23 years ago now and that intrepid quartet were Marcus and Andrew Lawson, Pete Morris and myself the driver. If my memory is correct Andrew and Pete spent the night in the local pub up the hill corrupting a very young Marcus at the time whilst I slept in the car roughly to the left of where the photo below was taken. I remember seeing the zig zag wandering trio return to the area opposite the car where they settled down in the local sheltered accomodation, yes a 'shelter' with their Millets special sleeping bags! The scene in the morning that I have a slide of somewhere was entitled 'Dawlish Dossers'.
The reason for my visit this time though was a brief stop to see the Semipalmated Sandpiper that had been present for a few days and luckily I got great views. My birding skills also allowed me successfully fail to see an Osprey fly overhead and a Wryneck that was hiding away in the scrub.

Incredibly you can see the semi palmations, webbing between the toes in the photo above. A very grey bird but a cracking bird to see at such close range. Despite only a few visits over the years to Dawlish I've managed to see Great spotted Cuckoo, Lesser Crested Tern, Surf Scoter and another Semi pee, Semipalmated Plover in virtually the same spot as the Semi pee Sand, a great place.
with the rain now lashing down we headed off to our cottage for the week, just a mile from Rame and with a fantastic view (Rame Church is in the far left of the picture). This really was a great place to stay with stunning views of Badgers, Foxes and a few nights a cracking Tawny Owl was on view on the back fence from the kitchen or in the trees outside the bedroom.