Beginnings?

Sunday was a day of sleety showers and occasional sunny spells. Dr T left first thing heading back to South Wales via a cultural stop in Birmingham. In the afternoon I left Gus at home when I went to Leighton Moss. As I passed through the dip at Far Arnside, the sun was just breaking out of the cloud, and I stopped to have a look at the Bay. There is a high vantage point here on the limestone cliff-top, and below there was a party of redshanks feeding.

On the mudflats where the redshanks are, I have been keeping an eye on the small green clumps of Spartina that have a precarious hold. Could they be the beginning of a resurgence of the salt marsh that disappeared from here over a decade ago? Locals remember when the marsh was extensive along here to Silverdale. But then as the salt marsh grew on the other side of the Kent channel and Grange-over-Sands became Grange-over-Grass, the marsh on this side eroded away. In this ongoing cycle of erosion and accretion, the salt marsh should eventually return to Silverdale and Far Arnside, and Grange will have its "Sands" back.

After this I spent an hour or so at LM, and was hopeful that there would be a spectacular starling murmuration over the reedbeds. There were several marsh harriers that were looking hopeful too, and perhaps it was their presence that deterred the incoming flocks from settling, veering away to roost perhaps at Silverdale Moss.