Donna Nook - There's a banana on the horizon

07th December 2008

A fantastic day today.

I left home at 04.30am for the 2 1/2 hr trip over to the Lincolnshire coast. A quick stop for a coffee at Ferrybridge then I met up with Nigel Blake at 7am. Nigel kindly showed me the ropes today which was invaluable, a big thank you to Nigel.

We arrived at the Stonebridge car park at 07.15am which was almost full! Wrapped up and with gear safely in the rucksack we began the 45 min walk to the outer sandbanks.

Dawn was a rather miserable affair with light showers and overcast skies but an hour or so later the sky cleared and we enjoyed sunshine for the rest of the day. The opportunities are endless and with some patience great images are possible. We spent time on the waters edge as well as lying flat in the sand to get eye level with the seals. There was also a dozen or so Sanderling on the shoreline who also provided some good photographic opportunities.

Hundreds of pictures later two weary photographers made their way back to the car park, stopping en route to capture the twilight sky and flocks of Knot.

Much to our delight a 'burger van' was in situ to allow us to stock up on energy supplies - it didn't touch the sides.

We left at around 5pm after a wonderful day.

Donna Nook is a National Nature Reserve and occasional bombing range for the RAF; it stretches for over 6 miles along the Lincolnshire coast. Annually and in late autumn hundreds of grey seals come onto the Donna Nook sandbanks to give birth to their pups.

The bull seals arrive first and set up territories to wait for the females to arrive. When the cow seals do arrive they are herded to harems by the bulls where they will give birth to single cream coloured pup.

It provides a unique opportunity to photograph these wonderful mammals.