April 12, 2023 • 21 mins
Experience life on Blakeney Point in Norfolk as it transforms throughout the year. From the mass arrival of seal pups in winter to the noisy feathered-frenzy of summer, discover how a remote stretch of shingle coastline is home to some of the UK's most unique marine wildlife.
Production
Host: Michelle Douglass
Producer: Michelle Douglass
Sound editor: Jesus Gomez
Discover more
Please follow our seal-spotting guidance
nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/nature/wildlife/seal-spotting-guidance
Find out more about visiting Blakeney National Nature Reserve
nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/norfolk/blakeney-national-nature-reserve
Read about the Sea Mammal Research Unit’s work
www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk
Follow the National Trust Podcast on your favourite podcast app. If you'd like to get in touch with feedback, or have a story connected with the National Trust, you can contact us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk
Production
Host: Michelle Douglass
Producer: Michelle Douglass
Sound editor: Jesus Gomez
Discover more
Please follow our seal-spotting guidance
nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/nature/wildlife/seal-spotting-guidance
Find out more about visiting Blakeney National Nature Reserve
nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/norfolk/blakeney-national-nature-reserve
Read about the Sea Mammal Research Unit’s work
www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk
Follow the National Trust Podcast on your favourite podcast app. If you'd like to get in touch with feedback, or have a story connected with the National Trust, you can contact us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the National Trust
podcast. I'm Michelle Douglasspodcast producer and wildlife
enthusiast at the NationalTrust. Today, we're traveling to
Blakeney Point on England's EastCoast to discover how a
seemingly inhospitable four mileshingle spit is famous for one
of the UK's biggest andfluffiest natural phenomenons
(00:29):
every winter.
But in this special episode,we're following Blakeney
National Nature Reserve throughevery season to uncover the
sights, spectacles and secretsof life on this rugged and
unique landscape.
And just as a heads up, this isnature at its fullest, so at
times things get a little bitgritty.
(00:55):
Every year in deepest darkestwinter, this flat unassuming
pebble shoreline becomes thestage for one of the UK's
greatest shows.
Visitors peer from ferries tocatch a glimpse of the scene.
Phones held high and camerasclicking to capture the action
unfolding on the beach.
The coastline is packed witharound 4000 plump, white coated,
(01:19):
impossibly fluffy, seal pups.
It's Grey Seal pupping season.And Blakeney Point in Norfolk is
one of the world's mostimportant sites for the
Charismatic marine mammals.
But what most people don't getto see is the story behind this
spectacle each winter.
(01:40):
Blakeney National Nature Reserveis not only part of a designated
area of outstanding naturalbeauty, but a remarkable
conservation success story.
And the best way to discoverwhat makes this place so unique
is to journey through a year onthis remote stretch of coast
through the eyes of the peoplewho look after work and even
live out here through thechanging seasons.
(02:05):
This story really starts on acold February day.
I'm in a land rover with rangerDuncan Halpin and I'm feeling a
little nervous about theessential but grisly job we're
here to do.
DUNCAN HALPIN (02:20):
We're driving along Blakeney Point. There's
about three miles of shinglestretching out in front of us,
salt marsh gleaming an almostgolden colour in the low
sunlight and then the North Sea,which is looking almost
temptingly blue.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (02:37):
Duncan pulls up the land rover and attaches a
trailer to the back. We're metby a hardy band of rangers and
volunteers here to help with thetask.
The kit we'll need for the jobis handed around the group. It's
pretty basic. A pair of glovesand some thick black bin liners.
Then we set off.
(02:57):
We've come a little bit backpast the dunes to the marshes.
DUNCAN HALPIN (03:01):
There is a great example of why we doing it just
up here.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (03:03):
The annual seal carcass clear up is vital
conservation work here atBlakeney. Sadly, not all the
seal pups born during puppingseason will make it beyond the
first few crucial weeks of life.
DUNCAN HALPIN (03:16):
A very... ripe carcass in front of us, let's
say, and you can actually seeall the little rat prints coming
down from the burrow and thenaround the carcass. So the rats
in that borough have just beenfeeding on this carcass. So
they'll just be able tomultiply.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (03:32):
If the carcasses were left here, they'd
provide food for the ratpopulation to grow. And too many
rats could threaten the hugecolony of Terns that in a few
months will also use Blakeney astheir breeding grounds since
rats will eat bird eggs and evenchicks.
So this grim task of removingthe seal carcasses is actually
(03:52):
clearing the way for newwildlife to thrive here.
They've got a good chance ofsurvival, but sadly, this one
didn't quite make it.
DUNCAN HALPIN (04:00):
Yeah, absolutely. That's just part and parcel of
nature if you like.
During the pupping, themortality here runs at something
like 5% which is quite lowreally.
Places I've worked in the pastlike the Farne Islands, some
years the mortality for pupsthere can be up to 40%. The
majority here will go on to livehappy, healthy seal lives.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (04:23):
Blakeney Point's abundance of space and
food makes it a palatial andpopular pupping site.
Grey Seals spend most of theirlives at sea, but during
breeding season, they comeashore for a dramatic and
intense life cycle played out ina few short weeks as Dr. Debbie
Russell, Deputy Director of theSea Mammal Research Unit at
Saint Andrews Universityexplains.
DR DEBBIE RUSSELL (04:48):
Grey Seals they pup in autumn and winter.
The females give birth to asingle white coated pup. We call
it lanugo the coat.
The females lose over a third oftheir body weight, giving the
pup the milk.
So after weaning the femalescome into estrous, which means
they're ready to mate with amale.
Male seals, which we call bullshave a group of females that
(05:09):
they will try and mate with.
There may be kind of one bigmale, one beach master that
tries to basically control theaccess to any of these females.
You can often identify the kindof older males by the scars that
they have.
The pups are left on the colonyalone.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (05:25):
First seal down and starting to push any
squeamishness aside. I team upwith a fellow newbie to scour
the beach for more carcasses.
SUE GREGORY (05:34):
Hello, my name is Sue, I'm a volunteer.
I'm really interested in sealsso to be able to come out,
actually be with like mindedpeople who also love seals and
be able to talk seals is really,really good.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (05:51):
In fact, if you're a seal super fan, like
Sue, the clear up even offers anintriguing lesson in anatomy.
SUE GREGORY (05:58):
Oh, here's my first dead seal. There's not much of
it left and there's some nicebones!
So that's a scapula. Theshoulder bone, that's the
humerus. So that's the longupper arm bone.
Oh dear. It's smelly.
There we are.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (06:17):
The team spends the next few hours
spreading out and sweeping thebeach.
The clear up is physically hardwork, picking up carcasses and
heaving the heavy bags over thesand dunes to the trailer and
then doing it all again andagain until finally, operation
seal clear up's complete.
CHRIS BIELBY (06:43):
Pretty much the last of a grizzly haul,
shattered now!
I'm Chris Bielby, I'm thecountryside manager for the
Norfolk Coast and Broads.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (06:51):
And now what happens?
CHRIS BIELBY (06:52):
So they will be taken back to our yard at Priory
Farm in Blakeney and we have aspecialist contractor who's
brought a skip and they willthen go in the skip with a
special lid put on top and thenthey will take them away and
dispose of them suitably.
You'd think that doing this job,the atmosphere would be really
sombre, but actually everybody'sbeen fairly upbeat.
When the Tern colony arrivesthis will be so important.
(07:13):
Really pleased to get that done.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (07:16):
After the beach clean up, Blakeney Point
stays relatively quiet for therest of winter.
Then as the freezing weathermelts away in the sunshine, this
coastal and salt marsh habitatbursts into life.
Spring has arrived and rangersand volunteers begin to prepare
for the next big naturalspectacle of the year.
But before things get busy,there's still time for the
(07:39):
Blakeney team to enjoy theseason at a more relaxed pace.
If you're an inlander at thistime of year, you might get out
and about hiking or biking tosee the natural world in full
bloom.
But if you live along the NorthNorfolk Coast, like National
Trust volunteer, Sue Gregory,you might prefer to take a
(08:01):
different mode of transportaltogether for a nature safari
with a unique perspective.
SUE GREGORY (08:07):
This morning I'm going to record some of the
sounds and describe some of thesights as I go kayaking in the
harbour at Blakeney.
It's middle of May. It's justsuch a lovely morning.
Coming north, I can see the oldlifeboat house on Blakeney
Point, that iconic bluebuilding.
(08:29):
We have the entrance to theClyde Channel and then just
looking around the east hillsand the pines.
I've now just kayaked across tothe Blakeney Point and I'm just
sitting very quietly over somemarsh which is flooded and I'm
(08:50):
now starting to see birds.
I've just had a flock of OysterCatchers fly over the top of me.
There were a couple of gullsthat were obviously stalking
their nests and they've justseen them off.
Other birds I've heard were aCurlew and this is an area where
(09:12):
it's quite good to seeSpoonbills.
I just had a little Tern goright in beside me and pull out
a little sand eel and it's stillmanaging to squeak with it's
food in it's beak.
It's just so nice to sit andfloat, but I'll have to put in
(09:35):
some effort and then I'll gohome for breakfast.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (09:40):
Over the next few months, the number of ground
nesting migrant seabirds turnsarriving at this globally
important site to breed keepsgrowing.
It's summer on Blakeney Pointand by now from shoreline to
June, this baby boom beach is afrenzy of noisy feisty families
(10:00):
of the feathered variety.
All this action on the beachrequires 24 hour conservation
care such as patrols to keepaway predators, population
counts and informing the public.
So Ranger Duncan Halpin leavesall his home comforts to head
off grid.
Moving into an old bluecorrugated metal life boat house
where he and two assistantrangers spend eight months of
(10:22):
the year hanging out with somevery rowdy neighbours.
DUNCAN HALPIN (10:26):
My favorite part of the job is probably living on
the point over summer beingliterally stuck amongst the
wildlife.
That's an incredibly rewardingexperience.
Summer on the point is anamazing time. There's again,
huge concentrations of life anda riot of noise. We have up to
(10:47):
3000-4000 Sandwich Ternsnesting. They have a really,
really distinctive call which itreally is the sound of summer on
this bit of coastline.
Little Terns are one of the UK'srarest seabirds. They're the
smallest tern in the UK and theymake this almost squeaky. I
think it's a bit like a squeakydog toy call as they fly over.
(11:09):
We do get the occasional ArcticTern. The Arctic Tern has the
longest known migration of anyanimal. At the northern reaches
of their limit, they willeffectively fly pole to pole
every single year.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (11:21):
Other sights of summer at Blakeney include an
abundance of colourful coastalbutterflies and splash in the
right puddle on an evening andyou might see the sea sparkle
with blue bioluminescence.
As the long days of summer drawto an end the landscape changes
again, the thousands of Ternstake off from their breeding
(11:41):
grounds to head to warmer climesforming part of the great late
summer migration in UK skies.
As colder weather creeps intothe fresh water marshes eels
begin their epic and mysterious4000 mile migration back to the
Sargasso Sea where they breed asingle time before they die.
And rangers have migrated fromthe remote lifeboat house to the
(12:05):
familiar comforts of theBlakeney Ranger Hut. Autumn is
here and the coastline flaunts aseasonal look all of its own.
DUNCAN HALPIN (12:15):
There are definitely seasons on the point,
but they're different to- well,what I call the mainland.
There's no trees, you know,turning into autumn colours, the
greens on the salt marsh fromplants like Samphire and Sea
Purslane and Shrubby Sea Blite
They all start to change in latesummer into the traditional
autumn colours that's theoranges, the bronzy colours.
(12:37):
And the salt marsh just takes ona completely different hue,
which when the light shining on,it just has this golden edge to
it. There's a nervousanticipation in late October
waiting for the first Seal pup.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (12:55):
It's winter, mid December. The UK's in the
grip of a deep freeze, but theicy expanse of coastline and low
winter sun in Norfolk's big openskies look beautiful and I'm
just arriving at the Blakeneyranger hut for an event I've
been looking forward towitnessing for myself all year.
Duncan. Hello. Lovely to see youagain.
DUNCAN HALPIN (13:17):
Hello there. Last time you were here we were doing
the seal clear up. But let's gosee the spectacle.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (13:31):
We've just got out the jeep.
As we've been approaching today,at first, it was little velvety
heads of seals popping up fromthe waves and then the further
that we got towards thecolonies, it was these huge
balls and then we started seeingthe babies, little white furs
with their huge eyes and nowwe've reached a dense part of
(13:52):
the colony and we're going tolook at how Duncan conserves and
tags these seals to help themand to help the spectacle keep
happening every year.
What's going on now duncan?
DUNCAN HALPIN (14:05):
What we're gonna do is we're gonna try and spray
some pups with some markerspray.
It'll come out when they moult,but it'll allow us to track that
pup up to when it does start tomoult. We're trying to get good
data for the Sea Mammal ResearchUnit.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (14:19):
The rangers on the ground work like spraying
the pups with paint to identifythem all feeds into a big study
monitoring the health of the UKseal population. As Doctor
Debbie Russell from the SeaMammal Research Unit explains.
DR DEBBIE RUSSELL (14:33):
Blakeney actually used to be a very small
colony.
20 years ago there was less than100 Grey seal pups born at
Blakeney.
And now it's likely there'sabout 5000 pups born at
Blakeney.
It used to be that the number ofseals that were born was
estimated through ground counts.But the size of the colony
essentially prohibits that. Soour work now is to do so by
(14:55):
aerial survey.
There's an airplane with thehole in the floor where there's
two cameras and as they go overthe colony, they're taking
multiple pictures and we stitchthem together and count the pups
that are on them.
Grey Seals have historicallybeen hunted at very high levels.
There has also been times whereGrey Seals have been culled as a
(15:16):
result of potential interactionswith fisheries.
So there was a much reducedpopulation which is now kind of
recovering
And potentially expanding beyondwhat it would have been. So, the
UK probably has about 36% of theworld's Grey seal population.
And in Europe, the UK has thevast majority of Grey Seals. So
(15:36):
it really is an incrediblyimportant area for Grey Seals.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (15:49):
Going up and tagging pups on the bottom.
Isn't the easiest conservationtask.
DUNCAN HALPIN (15:58):
It's a difficult job to get close to the pups.
The mums are very defensive andthen you add in the bulls that
are on the beach.
It's all about having a look,seeing what the situation is and
then getting it done as quicklyas possible to avoid disturbance
and avoid the possibility ofgetting bitten as well.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (16:13):
So, what kit do we have to do this
conservation work?
DUNCAN HALPIN (16:18):
We've got a bag of marker spray here and a
healthy can do attitude.
I'm gonna mark this pup with ablue and yellow mark. Hopefully,
if it doesn't run away!
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (16:41):
Almost ballet like, Duncan quickly nips in and
out to spray the babies. But thesuper protective mums move
surprisingly quickly. They 24stone or 155kg bulks lunging
towards the imposter teethbared.
After Duncan's done thisdelicate dance, about a dozen
more times enough pups have beentagged for the day.
DUNCAN HALPIN (17:03):
It's not a disturbance free procedure, but
the study zone is a very smallpart of the colony. So the
benefits sort of outweigh thenegatives. We managed to spray a
few seals and we can go away andleave them in peace now.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (17:19):
I've just left Duncan and I'm off to meet
two of volunteers who've beenlooking after Blakeney for the
whole year. Looking beyond theseals. I can see two figures and
that must be Hanne and Sue. Hi!
SUE GREGORY (17:34):
Hello!
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (17:37):
How does it feel being back here?
SUE GREGORY (17:39):
Oh, it's absolutely fantastic. The seal colony, in
my opinion has expanded thisyear. I'm not quite sure whether
we're at the peak at the moment,but I suspect we may be.
HANNE SIEBERS (17:49):
Hello. I'm Hanne Siebers. I've been volunteering
with the National Trust for fiveyears. I go out here as often as
I can.
I find it uplifting, healing andI have absolutely no need for
going away on holiday. Best ofall, I am National Trust
(18:12):
Property photographer.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (18:14):
So, can you give us some of your top tips?
HANNE SIEBERS (18:17):
If you want to photograph seals, you have the
rules like for any wildlife.Nature comes first.
It is of course differentbecause I am privileged. I am
right in the middle of therookery with a long lens, I can
zoom in. I try to capture a sealnot looking directly into my
(18:44):
lens.
We have two pups here, they havejust been sprayed one yellow,
one gold with a bull guardinghis territory and the cow next
to the pups. I have a nicebackdrop with the roaring sea.
I get down on my knees to be onthe same level as the seals. I
(19:12):
use my long lens and a wideaperture. I get that shot now.
And this is really Blakely Pointfor me.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (19:24):
A beautiful but a freezing day on Blakeney
Point might be time to head backfor a cup of tea now.
When we started with the clearat the start of the year, it was
a little bit sad, a little bitgritty but coming back and
seeing just as far as the eyecan see fat, healthy, gorgeous
(19:47):
seals doing their thing,expanding their colony. It just
goes to show what conservationcan do somewhere like Blakeney.
DUNCAN HALPIN (19:54):
It's a real success story here, seeing so
many seals and the numbers goingup year on year. It's a great
reward for the work we do.Having such a massive
concentration of life in what isquite a small space is just
astounding.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (20:17):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the
National Trust podcast. We hopeyou've been inspired by this
programme and please remember tofollow our guidelines for the
best safest and most disturbancefree ways to enjoy the seals and
other wildlife at BlakeneyPoint.
For more information, follow thelinks on this episode's show
notes where you'll also findadvice about how to photograph
(20:40):
seals responsibly withoutgetting too close.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,keep listening for a brand new
series of the National Trustpodcast launching in May, which
will be packed with moreimmersive audio adventures.
And don't forget to follow andreview us on your favourite
podcast app or head tonationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts to
(21:02):
browse our full back catalogueof audio programmes.
For now, from me, MichelleDouglas. Goodbye.
GENERIC (21:16):
Nature is amazing, but it's in crisis. Go wild for
nature. Once a week. If we worktogether, our skies will be full
of bird song again, air will befresher and safer and rivers
will be clean. Head to save ourwildisles.org.uk for inspiration
(21:38):
and ideas. So you can make adifference. Love nature and act
now to help save our Wild Isles.
Hello and welcome to the National Trust
podcast. I'm Michelle Douglasspodcast producer and wildlife
enthusiast at the NationalTrust. Today, we're traveling to
Blakeney Point on England's EastCoast to discover how a
seemingly inhospitable four mileshingle spit is famous for one
of the UK's biggest andfluffiest natural phenomenons
(00:29):
every winter.
But in this special episode,we're following Blakeney
National Nature Reserve throughevery season to uncover the
sights, spectacles and secretsof life on this rugged and
unique landscape.
And just as a heads up, this isnature at its fullest, so at
times things get a little bitgritty.
(00:55):
Every year in deepest darkestwinter, this flat unassuming
pebble shoreline becomes thestage for one of the UK's
greatest shows.
Visitors peer from ferries tocatch a glimpse of the scene.
Phones held high and camerasclicking to capture the action
unfolding on the beach.
The coastline is packed witharound 4000 plump, white coated,
(01:19):
impossibly fluffy, seal pups.
It's Grey Seal pupping season.And Blakeney Point in Norfolk is
one of the world's mostimportant sites for the
Charismatic marine mammals.
But what most people don't getto see is the story behind this
spectacle each winter.
(01:40):
Blakeney National Nature Reserveis not only part of a designated
area of outstanding naturalbeauty, but a remarkable
conservation success story.
And the best way to discoverwhat makes this place so unique
is to journey through a year onthis remote stretch of coast
through the eyes of the peoplewho look after work and even
live out here through thechanging seasons.
(02:05):
This story really starts on acold February day.
I'm in a land rover with rangerDuncan Halpin and I'm feeling a
little nervous about theessential but grisly job we're
here to do.
DUNCAN HALPIN (02:20):
We're driving along Blakeney Point. There's
about three miles of shinglestretching out in front of us,
salt marsh gleaming an almostgolden colour in the low
sunlight and then the North Sea,which is looking almost
temptingly blue.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (02:37):
Duncan pulls up the land rover and attaches a
trailer to the back. We're metby a hardy band of rangers and
volunteers here to help with thetask.
The kit we'll need for the jobis handed around the group. It's
pretty basic. A pair of glovesand some thick black bin liners.
Then we set off.
(02:57):
We've come a little bit backpast the dunes to the marshes.
DUNCAN HALPIN (03:01):
There is a great example of why we doing it just
up here.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (03:03):
The annual seal carcass clear up is vital
conservation work here atBlakeney. Sadly, not all the
seal pups born during puppingseason will make it beyond the
first few crucial weeks of life.
DUNCAN HALPIN (03:16):
A very... ripe carcass in front of us, let's
say, and you can actually seeall the little rat prints coming
down from the burrow and thenaround the carcass. So the rats
in that borough have just beenfeeding on this carcass. So
they'll just be able tomultiply.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (03:32):
If the carcasses were left here, they'd
provide food for the ratpopulation to grow. And too many
rats could threaten the hugecolony of Terns that in a few
months will also use Blakeney astheir breeding grounds since
rats will eat bird eggs and evenchicks.
So this grim task of removingthe seal carcasses is actually
(03:52):
clearing the way for newwildlife to thrive here.
They've got a good chance ofsurvival, but sadly, this one
didn't quite make it.
DUNCAN HALPIN (04:00):
Yeah, absolutely. That's just part and parcel of
nature if you like.
During the pupping, themortality here runs at something
like 5% which is quite lowreally.
Places I've worked in the pastlike the Farne Islands, some
years the mortality for pupsthere can be up to 40%. The
majority here will go on to livehappy, healthy seal lives.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (04:23):
Blakeney Point's abundance of space and
food makes it a palatial andpopular pupping site.
Grey Seals spend most of theirlives at sea, but during
breeding season, they comeashore for a dramatic and
intense life cycle played out ina few short weeks as Dr. Debbie
Russell, Deputy Director of theSea Mammal Research Unit at
Saint Andrews Universityexplains.
DR DEBBIE RUSSELL (04:48):
Grey Seals they pup in autumn and winter.
The females give birth to asingle white coated pup. We call
it lanugo the coat.
The females lose over a third oftheir body weight, giving the
pup the milk.
So after weaning the femalescome into estrous, which means
they're ready to mate with amale.
Male seals, which we call bullshave a group of females that
(05:09):
they will try and mate with.
There may be kind of one bigmale, one beach master that
tries to basically control theaccess to any of these females.
You can often identify the kindof older males by the scars that
they have.
The pups are left on the colonyalone.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (05:25):
First seal down and starting to push any
squeamishness aside. I team upwith a fellow newbie to scour
the beach for more carcasses.
SUE GREGORY (05:34):
Hello, my name is Sue, I'm a volunteer.
I'm really interested in sealsso to be able to come out,
actually be with like mindedpeople who also love seals and
be able to talk seals is really,really good.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (05:51):
In fact, if you're a seal super fan, like
Sue, the clear up even offers anintriguing lesson in anatomy.
SUE GREGORY (05:58):
Oh, here's my first dead seal. There's not much of
it left and there's some nicebones!
So that's a scapula. Theshoulder bone, that's the
humerus. So that's the longupper arm bone.
Oh dear. It's smelly.
There we are.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (06:17):
The team spends the next few hours
spreading out and sweeping thebeach.
The clear up is physically hardwork, picking up carcasses and
heaving the heavy bags over thesand dunes to the trailer and
then doing it all again andagain until finally, operation
seal clear up's complete.
CHRIS BIELBY (06:43):
Pretty much the last of a grizzly haul,
shattered now!
I'm Chris Bielby, I'm thecountryside manager for the
Norfolk Coast and Broads.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (06:51):
And now what happens?
CHRIS BIELBY (06:52):
So they will be taken back to our yard at Priory
Farm in Blakeney and we have aspecialist contractor who's
brought a skip and they willthen go in the skip with a
special lid put on top and thenthey will take them away and
dispose of them suitably.
You'd think that doing this job,the atmosphere would be really
sombre, but actually everybody'sbeen fairly upbeat.
When the Tern colony arrivesthis will be so important.
(07:13):
Really pleased to get that done.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (07:16):
After the beach clean up, Blakeney Point
stays relatively quiet for therest of winter.
Then as the freezing weathermelts away in the sunshine, this
coastal and salt marsh habitatbursts into life.
Spring has arrived and rangersand volunteers begin to prepare
for the next big naturalspectacle of the year.
But before things get busy,there's still time for the
(07:39):
Blakeney team to enjoy theseason at a more relaxed pace.
If you're an inlander at thistime of year, you might get out
and about hiking or biking tosee the natural world in full
bloom.
But if you live along the NorthNorfolk Coast, like National
Trust volunteer, Sue Gregory,you might prefer to take a
(08:01):
different mode of transportaltogether for a nature safari
with a unique perspective.
SUE GREGORY (08:07):
This morning I'm going to record some of the
sounds and describe some of thesights as I go kayaking in the
harbour at Blakeney.
It's middle of May. It's justsuch a lovely morning.
Coming north, I can see the oldlifeboat house on Blakeney
Point, that iconic bluebuilding.
(08:29):
We have the entrance to theClyde Channel and then just
looking around the east hillsand the pines.
I've now just kayaked across tothe Blakeney Point and I'm just
sitting very quietly over somemarsh which is flooded and I'm
(08:50):
now starting to see birds.
I've just had a flock of OysterCatchers fly over the top of me.
There were a couple of gullsthat were obviously stalking
their nests and they've justseen them off.
Other birds I've heard were aCurlew and this is an area where
(09:12):
it's quite good to seeSpoonbills.
I just had a little Tern goright in beside me and pull out
a little sand eel and it's stillmanaging to squeak with it's
food in it's beak.
It's just so nice to sit andfloat, but I'll have to put in
(09:35):
some effort and then I'll gohome for breakfast.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (09:40):
Over the next few months, the number of ground
nesting migrant seabirds turnsarriving at this globally
important site to breed keepsgrowing.
It's summer on Blakeney Pointand by now from shoreline to
June, this baby boom beach is afrenzy of noisy feisty families
(10:00):
of the feathered variety.
All this action on the beachrequires 24 hour conservation
care such as patrols to keepaway predators, population
counts and informing the public.
So Ranger Duncan Halpin leavesall his home comforts to head
off grid.
Moving into an old bluecorrugated metal life boat house
where he and two assistantrangers spend eight months of
(10:22):
the year hanging out with somevery rowdy neighbours.
DUNCAN HALPIN (10:26):
My favorite part of the job is probably living on
the point over summer beingliterally stuck amongst the
wildlife.
That's an incredibly rewardingexperience.
Summer on the point is anamazing time. There's again,
huge concentrations of life anda riot of noise. We have up to
(10:47):
3000-4000 Sandwich Ternsnesting. They have a really,
really distinctive call which itreally is the sound of summer on
this bit of coastline.
Little Terns are one of the UK'srarest seabirds. They're the
smallest tern in the UK and theymake this almost squeaky. I
think it's a bit like a squeakydog toy call as they fly over.
(11:09):
We do get the occasional ArcticTern. The Arctic Tern has the
longest known migration of anyanimal. At the northern reaches
of their limit, they willeffectively fly pole to pole
every single year.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (11:21):
Other sights of summer at Blakeney include an
abundance of colourful coastalbutterflies and splash in the
right puddle on an evening andyou might see the sea sparkle
with blue bioluminescence.
As the long days of summer drawto an end the landscape changes
again, the thousands of Ternstake off from their breeding
(11:41):
grounds to head to warmer climesforming part of the great late
summer migration in UK skies.
As colder weather creeps intothe fresh water marshes eels
begin their epic and mysterious4000 mile migration back to the
Sargasso Sea where they breed asingle time before they die.
And rangers have migrated fromthe remote lifeboat house to the
(12:05):
familiar comforts of theBlakeney Ranger Hut. Autumn is
here and the coastline flaunts aseasonal look all of its own.
DUNCAN HALPIN (12:15):
There are definitely seasons on the point,
but they're different to- well,what I call the mainland.
There's no trees, you know,turning into autumn colours, the
greens on the salt marsh fromplants like Samphire and Sea
Purslane and Shrubby Sea Blite
They all start to change in latesummer into the traditional
autumn colours that's theoranges, the bronzy colours.
(12:37):
And the salt marsh just takes ona completely different hue,
which when the light shining on,it just has this golden edge to
it. There's a nervousanticipation in late October
waiting for the first Seal pup.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (12:55):
It's winter, mid December. The UK's in the
grip of a deep freeze, but theicy expanse of coastline and low
winter sun in Norfolk's big openskies look beautiful and I'm
just arriving at the Blakeneyranger hut for an event I've
been looking forward towitnessing for myself all year.
Duncan. Hello. Lovely to see youagain.
DUNCAN HALPIN (13:17):
Hello there. Last time you were here we were doing
the seal clear up. But let's gosee the spectacle.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (13:31):
We've just got out the jeep.
As we've been approaching today,at first, it was little velvety
heads of seals popping up fromthe waves and then the further
that we got towards thecolonies, it was these huge
balls and then we started seeingthe babies, little white furs
with their huge eyes and nowwe've reached a dense part of
(13:52):
the colony and we're going tolook at how Duncan conserves and
tags these seals to help themand to help the spectacle keep
happening every year.
What's going on now duncan?
DUNCAN HALPIN (14:05):
What we're gonna do is we're gonna try and spray
some pups with some markerspray.
It'll come out when they moult,but it'll allow us to track that
pup up to when it does start tomoult. We're trying to get good
data for the Sea Mammal ResearchUnit.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (14:19):
The rangers on the ground work like spraying
the pups with paint to identifythem all feeds into a big study
monitoring the health of the UKseal population. As Doctor
Debbie Russell from the SeaMammal Research Unit explains.
DR DEBBIE RUSSELL (14:33):
Blakeney actually used to be a very small
colony.
20 years ago there was less than100 Grey seal pups born at
Blakeney.
And now it's likely there'sabout 5000 pups born at
Blakeney.
It used to be that the number ofseals that were born was
estimated through ground counts.But the size of the colony
essentially prohibits that. Soour work now is to do so by
(14:55):
aerial survey.
There's an airplane with thehole in the floor where there's
two cameras and as they go overthe colony, they're taking
multiple pictures and we stitchthem together and count the pups
that are on them.
Grey Seals have historicallybeen hunted at very high levels.
There has also been times whereGrey Seals have been culled as a
(15:16):
result of potential interactionswith fisheries.
So there was a much reducedpopulation which is now kind of
recovering
And potentially expanding beyondwhat it would have been. So, the
UK probably has about 36% of theworld's Grey seal population.
And in Europe, the UK has thevast majority of Grey Seals. So
(15:36):
it really is an incrediblyimportant area for Grey Seals.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (15:49):
Going up and tagging pups on the bottom.
Isn't the easiest conservationtask.
DUNCAN HALPIN (15:58):
It's a difficult job to get close to the pups.
The mums are very defensive andthen you add in the bulls that
are on the beach.
It's all about having a look,seeing what the situation is and
then getting it done as quicklyas possible to avoid disturbance
and avoid the possibility ofgetting bitten as well.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (16:13):
So, what kit do we have to do this
conservation work?
DUNCAN HALPIN (16:18):
We've got a bag of marker spray here and a
healthy can do attitude.
I'm gonna mark this pup with ablue and yellow mark. Hopefully,
if it doesn't run away!
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (16:41):
Almost ballet like, Duncan quickly nips in and
out to spray the babies. But thesuper protective mums move
surprisingly quickly. They 24stone or 155kg bulks lunging
towards the imposter teethbared.
After Duncan's done thisdelicate dance, about a dozen
more times enough pups have beentagged for the day.
DUNCAN HALPIN (17:03):
It's not a disturbance free procedure, but
the study zone is a very smallpart of the colony. So the
benefits sort of outweigh thenegatives. We managed to spray a
few seals and we can go away andleave them in peace now.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (17:19):
I've just left Duncan and I'm off to meet
two of volunteers who've beenlooking after Blakeney for the
whole year. Looking beyond theseals. I can see two figures and
that must be Hanne and Sue. Hi!
SUE GREGORY (17:34):
Hello!
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (17:37):
How does it feel being back here?
SUE GREGORY (17:39):
Oh, it's absolutely fantastic. The seal colony, in
my opinion has expanded thisyear. I'm not quite sure whether
we're at the peak at the moment,but I suspect we may be.
HANNE SIEBERS (17:49):
Hello. I'm Hanne Siebers. I've been volunteering
with the National Trust for fiveyears. I go out here as often as
I can.
I find it uplifting, healing andI have absolutely no need for
going away on holiday. Best ofall, I am National Trust
(18:12):
Property photographer.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (18:14):
So, can you give us some of your top tips?
HANNE SIEBERS (18:17):
If you want to photograph seals, you have the
rules like for any wildlife.Nature comes first.
It is of course differentbecause I am privileged. I am
right in the middle of therookery with a long lens, I can
zoom in. I try to capture a sealnot looking directly into my
(18:44):
lens.
We have two pups here, they havejust been sprayed one yellow,
one gold with a bull guardinghis territory and the cow next
to the pups. I have a nicebackdrop with the roaring sea.
I get down on my knees to be onthe same level as the seals. I
(19:12):
use my long lens and a wideaperture. I get that shot now.
And this is really Blakely Pointfor me.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (19:24):
A beautiful but a freezing day on Blakeney
Point might be time to head backfor a cup of tea now.
When we started with the clearat the start of the year, it was
a little bit sad, a little bitgritty but coming back and
seeing just as far as the eyecan see fat, healthy, gorgeous
(19:47):
seals doing their thing,expanding their colony. It just
goes to show what conservationcan do somewhere like Blakeney.
DUNCAN HALPIN (19:54):
It's a real success story here, seeing so
many seals and the numbers goingup year on year. It's a great
reward for the work we do.Having such a massive
concentration of life in what isquite a small space is just
astounding.
MICHELLE DOUGLASS (20:17):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the
National Trust podcast. We hopeyou've been inspired by this
programme and please remember tofollow our guidelines for the
best safest and most disturbancefree ways to enjoy the seals and
other wildlife at BlakeneyPoint.
For more information, follow thelinks on this episode's show
notes where you'll also findadvice about how to photograph
(20:40):
seals responsibly withoutgetting too close.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,keep listening for a brand new
series of the National Trustpodcast launching in May, which
will be packed with moreimmersive audio adventures.
And don't forget to follow andreview us on your favourite
podcast app or head tonationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts to
(21:02):
browse our full back catalogueof audio programmes.
For now, from me, MichelleDouglas. Goodbye.
GENERIC (21:16):
Nature is amazing, but it's in crisis. Go wild for
nature. Once a week. If we worktogether, our skies will be full
of bird song again, air will befresher and safer and rivers
will be clean. Head to save ourwildisles.org.uk for inspiration
(21:38):
and ideas. So you can make adifference. Love nature and act
now to help save our Wild Isles.
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