Breathing Space

The village of Wrabness sits on a low hill on the southern shore of the River Stour, just tentatively dipping its toes in the muddy waters of the estuary. A few boats rise and fall with the tides as gnarled oak trees stand patiently watching the scene.

You can wander east or west along the strand, sometimes on a raised bank, or else on picking your way along the muddy foreshore; in places you'll be on the edge of a farmer's field and at times there's a sandy beach beneath your feet.

Wrabness has its own Nature Reserve too, though a rather strange one it must be admitted. It's on the site of what was once a wartime military base and the perimeter road can still be followed. Although there are plenty of paths and tracks a lot of the land is fenced off, both to contain a few grazing stock in summer as well as to keep some areas safe for wildlife. There are probably more dog-walkers than naturalists to be found here, though as we discovered, the dog-walkers were full of information about what could be found there.

But mostly we came here to wander along beside the estuary on this bright and breezy day and breathe deeply on the early spring air.  

The river breathes too; twice every day it gulps in a huge draught of sea-water, the river levels rise, boats bob at anchor and birds move towards the shore. Then the water sighs out again and leaves wide expanses of mud and stranded boats.

If you were a worm and you'd worked out a way to live a cheerful and blameless life submerged in the waterlogged mud, you might expect that you could enjoy an untroubled existence - but no. Birds with beaks specially designed for the purpose come to probe the mud and feed at every low tide - Dunlin, Godwits, Plovers, Curlew and Knot just won't leave a worm alone.

As the tide rises huge flocks of birds take to the air. It's difficult to identify them at this distance, but they are possibly Knot - or possibly not! There you are - a birdwatcher's joke!

Parts of Ragmarsh Farm have clearly seen better days and there's a feeling of much of the area being neglected, marginal land. That actually suits a lot of wildlife as well as the eccentric human visitors who are in on the secret. We only saw one other person along the estuary-side in about two hours during the morning and a handful more in the afternoon.

We did come across this rusty gear, though I'm not sure what it might have been part of. 

You may remember walking along here with us in September 2020. Part of the bank of the estuary has changed since then as a tree has tumbled over the edge, along with some fencing wire; the result of winter storms. Nothing is ever completely permanent on the living, shifting edge of the land.

The weekend boating shacks on the other hand looked a bit smarter than we remembered and a few burnt-out shacks had been replaced.

One of the paths had also been destroyed by the winter storms so we had to walk back, the way we'd come, along the "beach"; no great hardship on a sunny afternoon. 

A bird list:   Kestrel, Carrion Crow, Rook, Magpie, Jay, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Dunnock, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Green Woodpecker, Long-Tailed Tit, Great Tit, Black-Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Shelduck, Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Moorhen, Pheasant, Brent Goose, Curlew, Redshank, Knot, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Great Crested Grebe, Grey Heron, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Little Egret,  (also possible Short-Eared Owl).

Animals: Fox.

Take care.