Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Blakeney wildlife

One of the places we took a trip to while up in Norfolk a few weeks back was Blakeney Point. We got on one of the several seal-watching boats that sail out of Morston Quay and head up for the point. On the way we were smothered in a huge wave of migrating hoverflies that hit the east coast. One of the local guys running the trip was very pleased with his pile of hoverfly corpses at his feet. Needless to say Weedon's World of Nature strongly disapproves of this behaviour.
Blakeney is an excellent place for close-up views of...

...Common (Harbour) Seals and a few of the larger...

...Grey (Atlantic) Seals.
There is also a Sandwich Tern colony on the Point.

Some of the constant stream of boats got a wee bit too close to the seals and terns for my taste, but the creatures mostly ignore the tourist visitors. We got an hour or so on-shore and bustled about (though not near the seal and tern areas). My children went and looked at a dead seal (not photographed), while I tried to photograph Grayling butterflies. Here was my best shot.

I strongly recommend anyone who is up in North Norfolk to go on one of these trips to have a good old gander at the seal colony.

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