There's something special about autumn gales, and I don't just mean the prospect of rare birds!
Walking down North Wall at lunchtime, listening to the reeds whispering in the wind as swallows battled into the teeth of a north-westerly blow or gulls soared effortlessly south , pushed along by the gale, I knew something special in store. I could hear it. A distant rumble, almost like thunder.
Approaching the beach, the rumble grew louder and I began to see spray splashing up above the dunes. Then they came into view. The white horses rolling up the shore and crashing into the shingle before retreating with a whoosh back from whence they'd come. As each wave peaked and began to break, the wind whipped the spray off the crest , blowing it back out to sea.
Two photos I took a few years ago of waves breaking on the shingle, because I haven't got my camera today
There is something magical about watching a stormy sea from a safe distance. It's strangely relaxing. Certainly awe-inspiring. Maybe even reflective. I took full advantage and strolled to the sluice just above the tideline, watching various gulls and young gannets sailing past on outstrecthed wings.
These are some of the reasons why Saving our Sealife is a key strand of the Letter to the Future.
I didn't see it, but the king eider was still around, spending much of the day around the rigs at Sizewell. I missed the great skuas and black terns offshore too. And the two pectoral sandpipers that returned to the Scrape at 4.30 pm having not been seen since a two hour stay yesterday. I missed the little stints and sanderlings as well, but did enjoy watching a snipe and dunlin on South Scrape, two pintails on West Scrape, little egrets and grey herons, and the usual mix of lapwings and ducks on the Scrape. And the great spotted woodpecker on the feeders outside the tearoom. I had three great crested grebes on Island Mere last night too.
Oh, and the red deer rut viewpoint opened on Westleton Heath about an hour ago. It's open Saturdays and Sundays until 17 October, from 3.30 pm to dusk and is free.