The Norfolk Spring Tides are the biggest and best tides for witnessing the thousands of birds feeding on the mudflats, being pushed closer to shore. During a Spring Tide most if not all of the estuary is consumed by the sea and submerged underwater. Out on the mud and sand flats you’ll see thousands of wading birds feeding at low tide, as the tides rises, the mud and sand flats disappear underwater and the birds are suddenly forced to move closer into shore by the incoming sea.
There a few places in the UK where you can experience the sights and sounds of nature any better than the North Norfolk coast during the Spring tides that start in earnest from this month onward and for me herald the onset of Autumn and Winter.
They live in some of the harshest environments in the UK, once a year the heather there turns this wonderful colour, showing off the moorland habitat to its best. A true specialist of this environment, the Red Grouse is cruelty killed each year, forced from the ground by beaters, taking off in a blind panic and into the guns of paid shooters from a day they name the “Glorious Twelfth”
The Dippers in the Peak District have been incredibly active over the last few weeks, they are normally early nesters and have two broods per year but with this month’s glorious weather giving the feeling its summer it seems to have spurred the Dippers on even more and they are already mating and checking out nest sites and building new ones.
There a few places in the UK where you can experience the sights and sounds of nature any better than the North Norfolk coast during the Spring Tides that start in earnest from this month onward and for me herald the onset of the Autumn and Winter months. As the incoming tides submerge the whole area it pushes thousands of waders closer to the shoreline.
My love of the Dipper started as a small boy, I’d catch two buses from my home with my bag packed with cold toast and a flask to get to Lathkill Dale, in the Peak District. Once I got there I’d sit and watch these incredible birds play out their lives before me. Over the years they’ve always brought a smile to my face with their charismatic bobbing or dipping movements which I’ve always viewed as the bird ‘Curtsying’ for you.
The Cairngorm national park in Scotland is a truly stunning, spectacular landscape with snow capped peaks and breathtaking scenery. Many areas of this pristine environment are untouched by the hand of man giving it that truly wild feel, and its home to some of the UK’s most specialist wildlife.
Finland is one of Europe’s last places of true wilderness, its also the most forested country in Europe with around 70% of the land being covered with trees. Most forests are coniferous and reach so far north that they lay on the same latitudes as Alaska or Central Siberia. Finland is also known as the “Land of a Thousand Lakes”. Most of these lakes are small and shallow but cover vast areas of this amazing country.
