New Year’s Day walk to Stone Point
After what has seemed like forever, today was my first opportunity to wander by the sea in good light for a while and the first time since I completed my move to the Essex coast in early December. A moderate north westerly made me wonder whether I would see my top of the list target birds for the day but as it was 1st January, I couldn’t fail to add a substantial ticks to my count for the year. The ubiquitous Turnstone was the first to show as I made my way north from the end of the promenade at the Naze Tower. There seemed to be a massive turnout of families picking over the shingle strewn sand as I descended the steps to the beach, hopeful that they would uncover fossilised sharks’ teeth on the recently uncovered sand. The Turnstones could be seen working their way through the ‘moonscape’ of the London Clay pools of the lower beach, picking up stones, probably to uncover small crustaceans and molluscs. As I walked northwards, I couldn’t help but be concerned for the ...