Sandwich Bay

A holiday - just the one day - but what a perfect day it was. We set off early and arrived at Sandwich Bay before the crowds, spending the morning inching our way along this stunning stretch of shingle and dune, full of plants that I don't normally see, including the largest population of Sea Holly that I've ever come across and a small patch of the very charismatic Yellow Horned-poppy. Unfortunately, there are also quite a few non-native invasive species too - though the flowers of the Japanese Rose smelt divine and the Sea Buckthorn was attracting mobs of young starlings.

It was a great site for invertebrates too, though again the strong sea breeze made it very difficult to get any decent macro shots. A Grey Bush-cricket was moderately obliging, and as it was sitting on the shingle at least it didn't sway about. The brightly coloured chrysid wasp on the Fennel flowers was a different matter and most of my shots were decidedly blurry! (see extras)

In the early afternoon we headed into Sandwich for a dose of history and culture. It's one of the Cinque Ports and is a delightful town full of beautiful old buildings - in fact Strand Street is supposed to have one of the largest number of half-timbered buildings of any street in Britain. We then dropped in at Pegwell Bay Country Park to get a brief view of the saltmarsh at the north end of Sandwich Bay before an easy journey back to Peterborough.