Winter Magic On The Wild Essex Coast

Andrew Fallan shares his expertise in Essex wildlife with us, sharing his views on the conservation and environmental issues that we face in the county and across the country

- Andrew Fallan

FOR most people, the prospect of getting up obscenely early, before the sun has even risen, on what should be a lazy Sunday morning, then making a beeline for a bleak stretch of coast and standing around in sub-zero temperatures is not really their idea of fun. It’s not exactly my idea of fun either, yet one weekend this time last year, my wife had decided that she wanted to dispense with our usual Sunday morning routine – easing ourselves into the day with TV and cups of tea – in favour of heading to Tollesbury, which is just down the road from us. Here, at the crack of dawn, she hoped to be in prime position for what, fingers crossed, promised to be a beautiful and quite spectacular sunrise.

I don’t think I had ever watched the sun come up before, so at the appointed hour, it was with a keen sense of anticipation, coupled with a certain reluctance to leave the cosy cocoon of my bed, that I donned my cold-weather gear and ventured out into the uninviting darkness. However, as we made the short journey to the coast in the frigid early-morning air, with the temperature around -5°C, I had no idea that what we were about to witness would be quite so magical.