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Project Noah Nature School
Haematopus ostralegus
These sluice gates are now normally left open to allow the tides to change naturally. The pool was originally created to retain water at low tide for shipping waiting to enter the harbour and also when not occupied to use the water at low tide to flush out the navigable channels. With the increasing size of ships the trade has moved to the south coast with its deeper water and the area has been designated as a large nature reserve. In a recent storm the entire town was flooded and I have not been back yet to see if any changes have been made to the habitats. The area supports 10s of thousands of wintering seabirds normally.
Sluice-controlled sea-water pool.
Spotted on Nov 18, 2019
Submitted on Nov 21, 2019
4 Comments
Thank you both, perhaps I should move it to the first position. I have added to the description a recent disastrous event which took place there last week when we had heavy torrential rains in the area at high tide with mud being washed down from the hills above and the water and mud had nowhere to go and engulfed the whole town so we have to stay away for a while to let them clean up. I understand the main road is now open again but not sure about all the properties which had their ground floors inundated.
Love these birds and agree with Machi - click N° 3 is the best one...
I love photo 3 Malcolm! The red eyes are startling
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated