Sunday 16 June 2013

Good Views of Marsh Harrier at Donna Nook.

Although warm it was yet another overcast day.  It being Father's Day my choice was a visit to Donna Nook for some possible landscape photography with son Thomas and then fish and chips at Mablethorpe.  After an early sandwich lunch we loaded up the polo and all three of us went round to Heather's cousin, Yvonne,s to pick up Jet the hound who we regularly walk.  Once at Donna Nook we walked along the dune edge to Pye's Hall and then beyond to the end of the dunes.  I had memories here of a washed up tree that I thought might make a good foreground for photography but it had gone!!  We get some huge tides along our coast but I don't suppose I had appreciated how big; enough anyway to float a tree on and off the dunes.  At Horseshoe Point they other day I photographed a large piece of driftwood that I an sure I photographed at Humberston Fittes last year, several miles up the coast.  Although there was very little other activity we had wonderful views o fa marsh harrier being driven off by two aggressive oystercatchers; presumably it had strayed too close to their chicks.  In the drain we also saw little egret, mallard and shelduck, and skylarks were singing above the marsh. There were plenty of rabbits grazing the marsh and we enjoyed wonderful views of two hares running along the beach.
Donna Nook is the site of flood control works.  A second sea bank has been constructed behind the drain, the plan being to breach the sea wall and allow this area to flood, thereby decreasing the pressure on other, more sensitive, stretches of coast.  It is expected that the area will folld completely on 80 tides during the year and partially on many others.  It is expected that this is going to create new wildlife habitats akin to Frieston RSPB reserve, near Boston and shingle banks had been built up.  The wall should be breached sometime during the summer of 2013.  Should be interesting, especially as this is the site of one of the UK's major wildlife spectacles when hundreds of Atlantic grey seals come ashore to give birth in November and December each year.
Thomas and I finished off an excellent day photographing the sunset from Anthony's Bank in Cleethorpes.

Donna Nook Bombing Range.
Donna Nook Bombing Range.
Thrift or sea pink, Donna Nook.
Jabba the Hut, Mablethorpe.
Sunset Cleethorpes.
Sunset, Cleethorpes.

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