Saturday 28 January 2017

Great Dunes


It’s good to live by the sea, especially near a great bay.  I hear there are lots of seabirds offshore and know the best places to find them.  At Blackpill there are just a few and I need to go east along the shore, escaping the confines of Gower, to see what's out there. 


On the other side of the bay, beyond the old docks at Swansea, are great sand dunes, which I'm told are the most extensive in the UK. Designated as part of  a national nature reserve, these dunes are wonderful in summer, but attract few visitors at this time of year. It's ironic how often places so close to major industrial areas attract wildlife. Port Talbot steel works and a new gas-fired power station are just a short distance away, and from the top of a high dune I look down on the incoming tide. I'm alone save for skylarks, meadow pipits and linnets. There's no wind; it's one of those raw days when everything is grey. Flat light is good for sea-watching and I can see for miles, and there are lots of birds out there on the water.

The beach here is mostly undisturbed, and I see nobody save for a lone fisherman in the far distance. I walk the tide line chasing sanderlings, but can’t catch them up.  On the firm sand and amongst the small pools by the sea's edge, running pied wagtails move in exactly the same way, but are looking for different things to eat.

  

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