 Glasson Marsh, Sunderland Point and Heysham Power Station, from Tithe Barn Hill | On Tithe Barn Hill the wind would rip my jacket from my hands and send it flying. Gulls circle in a louring sky. We look north north west across Glasson Marsh and the Lune Estuary toward Sunderland Point and Heysham Power Station. Ancient and modern, the coast about Morecambe Bay reveals layers of history. Cockersand Abbey once stood on an islet in a solitude of salt marsh, Santa Maria de Marisco, Our Lady of the Marsh. New Year's Eve saw incessant rain so we drive here through floodwaters and the marshes are awash, reed-fringed ditches brim full. |
Cockersand Abbey, a Premonstratensian foundation, is now a ruin with only a chapter house. Masonry from the time of the dissolution of the monasteries has been seized and reused in scattered farmsteads. And possibly in houses built on Sunderland Point.
Echoes of Walney Island and Furness Abbey. South Walney looks out upon an alternative source of energy with wind-farms out in the Irish Sea. Ancient and modern, Walney Island has a sense of solitude with Barrow in Furness in the distance and a faint outline of the Lake District Fells beyond. Solitude is welcome, being harder and harder to find these days.
Echoes of Walney Island and Furness Abbey. South Walney looks out upon an alternative source of energy with wind-farms out in the Irish Sea. Ancient and modern, Walney Island has a sense of solitude with Barrow in Furness in the distance and a faint outline of the Lake District Fells beyond. Solitude is welcome, being harder and harder to find these days.
From Tithe Barn Hill we head for the Lancashire Coastal Path. Marsh Lane seems uncertain of itself and is soon more marsh than lane. Pastures are flooded and so is the track. Walking into a cold wind and ploughing through mud is tough going. Let's try another way of reaching the coastal path. As we drive the lanes toward Cockersand Abbey we're looking for Whooper Swans and we stop at each glimpse. Whooper Swans are winter visitors, a highlight of the Lancashire coast and we found them here on 29 December 2019 (see link). I remember a splendid sunset over the Irish Sea
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On that day Plover Scar was crowded with oystercatcher and a few dunlin. Today, the sea is rough and birds are to be found inland, on flooded pastures. There are only a half-dozen Whooper swans. I've seen many more here in previous years. We live in times of a biodiversity crisis and nature depletion. So a wildlife spectacle is to be cherished. Walking along Slack Lane from Abbey Lighthouse Cottage we're enjoying glimpses of swirling flocks of birds, wings glinting black and white in the sunlight. They settle and we stop to study them, trying to make out what they are.
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On that day Plover Scar was crowded with oystercatcher and a few dunlin. Today, the sea is rough and birds are to be found inland, on flooded pastures. There are only a half-dozen Whooper swans. I've seen many more here in previous years. We live in times of a biodiversity crisis and nature depletion. So a wildlife spectacle is to be cherished. Walking along Slack Lane from Abbey Lighthouse Cottage we're enjoying glimpses of swirling flocks of birds, wings glinting black and white in the sunlight. They settle and we stop to study them, trying to make out what they are.
A swirling flock scintillates in sunlight. Birds alight at some distance, beyond floodwater on green pasture fringed with reeds. Colour is beguiling and inconstant as sunlight on a winter's day. Lapwing but perhaps other species too. Something flushes the flock and birds rise to show rounded black and white wings. On the ground Lapwing show warmer colours. Lapwing and Golden Plover often feed and roost together and I feel sure we're seeing both.
Coastal salt marsh and estuaries are excellent for winter birding. Here life is most abundant. Waders that breed in the uplands over-winter on the coast. I saw Dunlin here in December 2019 and Golden Plover should be here too. In winter they're found in flocks but their spring and summer breeding plumage is more distinctive. Naturalist Jeff Holmes confirms identification from my images.
Golden Plover is deep in my heart and will head my 2025 year-list, on New Year's Day. I remember Golden Plover of other seasons, other places. Up on Luskentyre we spied eggs barely hidden in rough grass. When a Golden Plover appeared out of dense mist we followed plaintive cries all along the ridge. One icy winter's day on Kenfig sand dunes we found a dead bird, frozen and beautiful with intricate and subtle hints of gold.
So, here on New Year's Day I give you Golden Plover, to be cherished. And the thrill of exploring salt marsh and coast- I almost forgot the hare.
Sunderland Point, Villages by the Sea with archaeologist Ben Robinson is a programme which gives something more of the history of the area, the changing fortunes of Sunderland Point and Glasson, once flourishing ports on the Lune Estuary, serving Lancaster. Sunderland Point is a wildlife haven but in 1690 it was granted a legal quay and Quaker Robert Lawson with a consortium of ship owners developed Sunderland Point as a thriving port, a 'one stop shop' for sailing ships with a forge, a rope makers, warehouses -everything needed for navigation. In 1687 The Lamb, was the first ship to make the transatlantic voyage to Jamaica, for tobacco, rum, sugar and the first cotton to arrive in England bound for Lancaster. It saw the beginnings of the cotton industry. Around 1736 some 29,000 enslaved people passed through the port at Sunderland Point. From 1750 the port began to decline and Glasson assumed pre-eminence, becoming the third most important port on the west coast after LIverpool and Bristol.
The Lawson family were Quakers, not the only family who must have felt conflicted by the wealth to be earned through the slave trade and the accompanying moral opprobrium.
Perhaps in our times there's a comparable dilemma. We understand enough about Climate Change to know we need to change the way we live but are we all willing to do so?
Coastal salt marsh and estuaries are excellent for winter birding. Here life is most abundant. Waders that breed in the uplands over-winter on the coast. I saw Dunlin here in December 2019 and Golden Plover should be here too. In winter they're found in flocks but their spring and summer breeding plumage is more distinctive. Naturalist Jeff Holmes confirms identification from my images.
Golden Plover is deep in my heart and will head my 2025 year-list, on New Year's Day. I remember Golden Plover of other seasons, other places. Up on Luskentyre we spied eggs barely hidden in rough grass. When a Golden Plover appeared out of dense mist we followed plaintive cries all along the ridge. One icy winter's day on Kenfig sand dunes we found a dead bird, frozen and beautiful with intricate and subtle hints of gold.
So, here on New Year's Day I give you Golden Plover, to be cherished. And the thrill of exploring salt marsh and coast- I almost forgot the hare.
Sunderland Point, Villages by the Sea with archaeologist Ben Robinson is a programme which gives something more of the history of the area, the changing fortunes of Sunderland Point and Glasson, once flourishing ports on the Lune Estuary, serving Lancaster. Sunderland Point is a wildlife haven but in 1690 it was granted a legal quay and Quaker Robert Lawson with a consortium of ship owners developed Sunderland Point as a thriving port, a 'one stop shop' for sailing ships with a forge, a rope makers, warehouses -everything needed for navigation. In 1687 The Lamb, was the first ship to make the transatlantic voyage to Jamaica, for tobacco, rum, sugar and the first cotton to arrive in England bound for Lancaster. It saw the beginnings of the cotton industry. Around 1736 some 29,000 enslaved people passed through the port at Sunderland Point. From 1750 the port began to decline and Glasson assumed pre-eminence, becoming the third most important port on the west coast after LIverpool and Bristol.
The Lawson family were Quakers, not the only family who must have felt conflicted by the wealth to be earned through the slave trade and the accompanying moral opprobrium.
Perhaps in our times there's a comparable dilemma. We understand enough about Climate Change to know we need to change the way we live but are we all willing to do so?
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