High Tide at Walton-on-the-Naze

28th November 2023

When visiting Walton-on-the-Naze beach it is customary to get there an hour or two either side of high tide as the waders are then pushed closer to the beach before settling down for high tide roost. However what we did not bargain for today was an exceptionally high tide to such an extent that when we arrived the waves were not only crashing on to the beach at Stone Point, but were also crashing on to the dunes, and access along the beach on the way to Stone Point was blocked by water-filled gullies flowing from the sea on to the saltmarsh.

Also the particularly high tide not only had an effect on access to the beach and Stone Point but also the number of waders present, so instead of the usual Ring Plovers, Grey Plovers, Curlew, Redshank, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Sanderling and Turnstones all we saw in the two hours we were there were Sanderlings and Turnstones and a single fly-by Redshank. Where had all the 100+ Ringed Plovers gone?

At least the Turnstones are always reliable and although present on the beach they were uncharacteristically very skittish, so these shots were taken on the small saline lagoon opposite the John Weston reserve.

I always love photographing Sanderlings but they can be a bit of a challenge as they can run so fast.

These weren't quite as tame as usual but looked fantastic in the beautiful light.

But the star of the show today was a particularly confiding Rock Pipit which was happy to perform just 10 yards in front of us during our lunch break.

What an absolute poser!!!