Careering Through Nature: lincolnshire

Sunday, 8 December 2019

The Seals of Donna Nook

When you go to a nature reserve in quest of a certain species, you expect it to be difficult. You expect to have to cover a lot of ground while being super stealthy in order to catch a glimpse of something a long way away, and produce a blurry "record shot" of the creature involved.

Donna Nook is completely counter intuitive to that. In order to find a seal, you merely park, ascend a short track over the dune, and the bloody things are literally sleeping right under your nose in their hundreds, making no attempt to move away from the crowds.

The pups are entirely unprotected by their parents, who seem to spend their time further away doing big belly slides on the mud while occasionally chasing after each other in a desultory fashion. Apparently they understand the fence, and what its for, and any human jumping over is subject to immediate attack, which I would not fancy being on the end of.

Amongst these huge inert bodies, there were lots of small brown wading birds that I couldn't identify, but these birds were not the reason why it was the busiest nature reserve I've ever been to.

No everyone was here to see the seals, the easiest wildlife experience possible, these largely immobile sacks of blubber in many colours.

Wonderful things.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.12.19

Sunday, 19 October 2014

Trip to Saltmarsh-Theddleford Dunes

A rare trip further afield today, as I managed to hitch a ride to the Lincolnshire coast and enjoy a long walk in sea air.

Or rather I was dumped by my parents while they went for a sit at Sutton on Sea, while I, abandoned in a land I did not now, tried to make my way across to them.

My walk started at Rimac, the curiously industrially named area of Saltmarsh-Theddlethorpe Dunes where a ship of that title was wrecked in the 1800s. The walk to the sea - seemingly 5 miles out at this point, was not recommended by a passer by, and so I instead set off among the dunes, past little ponds and odd little clumps of late flowers amidst the hawthorn and brutally spiny sea buckthorn.

The notice boards said insect life was in short supply now, and indeed I only saw a couple of red admirals and a small tortoiseshell, but there were a lot of common darters still on the wing. Above me three echelons of pink footed geese sailed high overhead emitting their honks, much higher pitched than the canada geese calls I'm used to. But there weren't many birds in the dunes, aside from a few birds popping out of the long grass to make no headway into the strong wind - meadow pipits possibly.

The route was occasionally difficult, but it was a fabulous day for walking.

Eventually, past Theddlethorpe, the dune path runs out and you are forced out on to to marshy margins of the beach. Initially the golden sands are a long way off, but eventually the marshy margins run out and you find yourself on a vast sandy expanse peppered with the odd black backed gull (sadly, no wading birds), and with a flood tide limit of crushed razor shells and plastic human detritus, a problem that seemed to increase as I neared Mablethorpe.

Eventually I baled out of the beach, and found myself at a real "Kiss me quick, squeeze me slowly" part of Mablethorpe North End. This, however, was nothing compared to the town centre, which was Skegness like in its awfulness. Luckily we just drove through there.

We made our way to Huttoft, where a solitary pale wader skimmed the waves - a sanderling possibly - and I rescued a stranded, flapping whiting, before rewarding myself with an utterly superior mint choc chip 99!

What a splendid day!