Tuesday 2 March 2010

Full to the brim

The safari is still in quiet mode but Frank is now allowed three five minute walks each day until his drains (yuk) come out. So we are a bit restricted on Patch 1 to how far we can get, without running, in two and a half minutes. However, this morning there was a first – the first fresh cobweb of the year – just a single strand but a definite sign of ‘spring’ spider activity.
Patch 2 is a little easier if weather conditions allow. This morning Patch 2 suffered from a very thick fog which took a good while to clear, we didn’t get a chance to get out until the high tide.
Today the lunchtime high tide was the highest for over a decade at 10.3 metres. So we had a short drive towards the town centre to have a look at where it reached on the new seawall at St Chad’s Headland. The calm, sunny, mild weather was due to a high pressure system (1025mb) and this has the effect of reducing the sea level by somewhere in the region of 10 – 20cm (4 – 8 inches) with barely a swell at the top of the tide. Put it this way if today’s weather was a raging south-westerly with a ‘low’ pressure of around 940mb I wouldn’t have been standing there to take any pics as I would have been under water! About 75 + ‘our’ 10 – 20 cm higher + a good bit more for the wind surge equals well over a metre higher than in the picture = almost coming over the wall and certainly up the steps and onto the ‘Headland’. Thankfully all was serene.
Lots of lumps of driftwood were floating around, after being picked up from the estuaries and beaches by the exceptionally high tide, looking like something far more exciting from time to time. One such log can be seen near the sea wall.Back at Patch 2 part of the seawall there was a lovely male Pied Wagtail that sadly wouldn’t stay still enough for a photo. A Sea Slater provided welcome invertebrate interest.
Out at sea no more than 100 Common Scoters floated about on the gentle swell and close in shore there were a few Black Headed Gulls. Disappointingly that was yer lot!
With a very high tide comes a very low tide and last night’s sunset over the vast expanse of beach was a real beaut.There were 18, yes, one eight – eighteen - blokes out digging Lugworms. Literally thousands of silhouetted gulls were also way out on the exposed mudflats in the failing light so no way of finding an odd one out.
Where to next? More of the same until the weekend hopefully without pre-work fog.
In the meantime let us know how foggy it’s been in your outback recently.

3 comments:

Forest the Bear said...

Cracking day you had there in Blackpool...loving that sunset.

Nice to see that Frank is on the mend!!

Warren Baker said...

Lovely last photo Dave. Glad you kept your feet dry. :-)

Craig said...

Hi Dave,

Very pleased Frank is on the mend.

best wishes,
Craig