Donna Nook’s Hidden Wetland Wonderland
I’d had a trip to Donna Nook cancelled due to the storm earlier this year, so most of the seals on the famously large colony on the Lincolnshire coast had given birth and gone. But so had the crowds. Speaking to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust chap who was watching the beach made me glad that I’d missed the hordes.
He retold the tale of the lady who had painstakingly made fish pie, lobbed it over the fence for the seals and was indignant when they didn’t eat it. Turns out, seals aren’t keen on broccoli.
He then went on to tell us about the lady who had asked whether the seal pups weren’t in fact cold, and had then gone on to write a letter of complaint about the lack of facilities for said pups and suggested that they should be providing them with blankets.
In fact, the general public were so stupid and disconnected from any brain cells or empathy that the Trust had to have somebody watching this stretch of the beach 24-7…
“Because of people poking them with sticks and shooting them with air rifles”
The Hidden Coastal Jewel
Judging by the bun-fight that was ensuing in the car park after seeing the seals, I think most people came, walked by the seals, gott back in the car and went home, or shopping.
If they’d ventured on foot a few hundred yards in the opposite direction, up a steep little incline, they’d have been rewarded by a breath-taking view of a wonderful wetland stretching out in front of them. I didn’t know it was there, so what a brilliant bonus! Even better, nobody else was around to disturb the birds!
There were more Lapwings than you could count – Teals, Curlews, Skylarks, Egrets, all maner of wading birds and even a Peregrine Falcon above! – my first ever sighting!
The early bird does indeed, catch the worm, but it means you also avoid the hordes. Long live 4am weekend alarm calls.
