What lives here: wildlife on a Devon estate

The dawn chorus from March is loud enough that guests mention it, usually in a slightly startled way. Owls at night, all year. Woodpeckers you hear long before you see. Herons on the water, which never stops being a small event.

Kingfishers, if you are patient and lucky. Otters occasionally, mostly as tracks. Dragonflies from June in numbers that surprise people.

Deer at the edges at dusk. Badgers, mostly as evidence. Bats over the water on summer evenings, which is the easiest wildlife-watching there is because they come to you.

Be still, be early, and be quiet — in that order. Twenty minutes sitting in one place at six in the morning will show you more than three hours of walking about. Most people have never tried it and are surprised by how much is happening.