A Trip Down the Coast to Look for Sanderling.

 It was beautiful sitting on the edge of the dunes at Saltfleet on the Lincolnshire Coast, looking out over the beach.  The dunes shelter us from the mild westerly breeze and the blue sky is scattered with fair weather clouds.  Behind us, old saltmarsh, glistening and wet from the morning tide stretches back to the village and caravan sites.  In front the beach reaches out to the receding tide. the occasional breaking wave visible beyond the slope of the beach.  A narrow strip of steel grey sea met the sky with a large windfarm visible beyond Spurn Point.  To our left was the saltmarsh with a bird filled creek enticingly visible on its edge.  Beyond was Donna nook range with seals visible through the bins resting up on the sand bank.  Earlier I had enjoyed photographing confiding sanderling on the tide edge.  A flock of dunlin and another of shelduck flew south while the calls of curlew echoed over the marsh. 

Sanderling

oystercatcher 

dunlin 

shelduck

gulls

golden plover

culew

redshank

seals

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A Very Muddy Plodge on the Beach Looking for Sanderling.

 It was a beautiful day yesterday (unlike today) so I decided to walk out to the tide line from Buck Beck car park to look for small waders, especially sanderling.

Cleethorpes was very busy when I arrived with a real holiday atmosphere, however, I did managed to get parked.  Donning wellies, I headed out across the marsh towards the beach, but not before photographing a common darter in the dunes.  I was amazed at how much the marsh has grown up in the relatively short time since I was here last.  Where last winter it was bare mud with the occasional clump of samphire it is now covered with a rich saltmarsh flora with sea aster about to come into flower to succeed the sea lavender which is now gone over.  As soon as I came out through the dunes onto the beach I could see that the tide was a long way out.  When I got to the old wreck that I enjoy photographing and which  often remains submerged, the tideline was still several hundreds of yards away and some creeks would need to be crossed.  Wary of how quickly the tide can come in I opted to walk along the haven outflow and look for waders there.  There were oystercatcher, redshank and ringed plovers, including juveniles as well as a bar-tailed godwit.  I saw no sign of sanderling, though.  Perhaps they were right on the tideline or maybe it is too early for them yet. I nearly came to grief, however, when I suddenly hit a very soft patch of mud and nearly lost my wellies.  I suddenly became aware of how far out I was and what an expensive mistake it would have been to fall over with a small fortune in camera gear around my neck.  Spurn point and the Humber forts looked spectacular in the bright sunlight and through the lens they looked close enough to touch.

Eventually I made it back safely to hard ground and wandered back through the dunes past the lagoon which often holds little egret; a common gull was the only bird today, though.

It felt like being on holiday on such a warm late summer day with large numbers of people and families enjoying a day at the seaside.  It will only be a few short weeks, however, before it will be cold, bleak and empty down here.  I can't wait.

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Common Darter

                                                    Common Darter

                                                        Black-headed Gull

                                          Ringed Plover and Juvenile

                                                        Ringed Plovers

                                                        Ringed Plovers

                                                            Bar-Tailed Godwit

                                                           Common Gull

                                                        Haile Sand Fort

                                                    Haile Sand Fort

                                                    Haile Sand Fort

Beach Combing at Cleethorpes.

During March we enjoyed a couple of walks on the beach at Cleethorpes and also along Anthony's Bank to the Fitties Yacht Club.  We had low tides and so were able to get right out to explore the wrecks near the Buck Beck outflow.  Pussy willow and blackthorn blossoms were in full swing and we found our first coltsfoot in flower.  The beach is always fascinating and close up images of shells fascinate me, especiall at wide - angle to show the habitat: Haille Sandfort on occasions.  Similarly the dunes and saltmarsh always make rewarding beach combing expeditions, in this cares huge pieces of driftwood which would make wonderful garden sculptures, but would need a lorry to transport them home.  I wonder where they originated?