Norfolk Coast: bordering Britain's largest marine embayment, the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty provides a safe haven for almost half a million birds each winter. Joe Surgent explores the region's rugged coastline

Geographical, Dec, 2007 by Joe Surgent

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Peering between tree trunks across the reclaimed salt marsh and dark-brown mudflats that border Ken Hill, I train my eyes intently upon two orange blobs on the horizon. These incongruous flashes of neon, nestled amid the sludgy autumnal landscape of the eastern shore of the Wash, are the targets of RAF Holbeach, one of two RAF weapons ranges situated within the European Marine Site that borders and overlaps with the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). I've just been reliably informed that a plane is about to drop its payload between them.

Sadly, despite my best efforts and some intense focusing with the binoculars, the mid-morning haze proves too thick to penetrate. But Peter Rushmer, project manager for the Wash and North Norfolk Coast European Marine Site Management Scheme, assures me that 'on a clear day, you can watch the planes dipping out of the clouds, dropping dummy bombs fitted with a charge that emits a puff of smoke to show where it has hit. That way, there are no big explosions and they don't seem to disturb the wildlife.'

Once we're sure the aerial display is over, we continue walking through the woods. Earlier, Rushmer had told me that this was one of the AONB's more remote areas, despite the fact that we're following one of the many footpaths that help to make up nearly 300 kilometres of public rights of way within its boundaries.

'You see why I described it as less accessible?' he asks me now. 'There's no nice sandy beach and fewer facilities than elsewhere along the coast. And it's predominantly agriculture, so it isn't as attractive to holidaymakers.' It's difficult to understand why, because it's precisely this agricultural backdrop the old farm buildings and windmills, and the fields unfurling along the undulating coastline--that constitutes a major part of the AONB's appeal

FAR AND WIDE

Designated in 1968 after five years of deliberation by the National Parks Committee (NPC), the Norfolk Coast AONB covers 453 square kilometres, including nearly 100 kilometres of coastline. But despite its name, the area includes much more than just the seashore, as Tim Venes, manager of the Norfolk Coast Partnership, tells me. 'When people speak of the AONB,' he says, 'they just think of the North Norfolk Heritage Coast, but it's actually a lot more diverse, covering a far greater expanse.

'When the area was designated, it was originally going to be a smaller area (from Hunstanton to Overstrand), but the county council at the time wanted all of the Norfolk coast to be included in the AONB. It was eventually agreed that the highly developed parts of the region would be left out--for example, the caravan parks on the cliff tops.'

As a result, the towns of Cromer and Sheringham, and the coastline between them, as well as the villages of Mundesley and Bacton, were excluded from the designation, creating small pockets of unprotected and developed land across the AONB. The NPC also decided to create two outliers to the main area--one to the east and one to the west. The western outlier includes part of the Sandringham Estate and some of the Wash mudflats, as well as coastal marshes and lowland heath. The eastern outlier comprises a dune system that stretches from Sea Palling to Winterton--on Sea and the low lying marsh and farmland behind.

With the AONB's lengthy coastline, it isn't surprising that saltwater habitats are among the region's most common landscape features. Salt marsh, one of the UK's most pressured habitats, makes up six per cent of the AONB. Created by the buildup of marine sediment, salt marsh is globally rarer than rainforest, according to the UK Sustainable Development Commission, and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan estimates that the UK needs to create 100 hectares of new salt marsh every year just to keep pace with the area lost to land pressure and erosion.

Wells, located in the centre of the AONB, is home to the region's oldest salt marsh, formed around 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The salt marsh along the Norfolk coast is vital to the surrounding landscape. The tussocks of grass and vegetation help to form a natural defence against flooding by the sea, soaking up water during a rising tide, preventing erosion of the sea walls behind them and protecting surrounding farmland.

It also attracts numerous bird species, which have become one of the biggest draws for visitors to the region, particularly in the area around the Wash. The UK's largest marine embayment, the Wash is the second largest expanse of intertidal sand and mudflats in the country, and it serves as a year-round feeding ground for a huge variety of birds.

Nearby reed beds are home to a healthy community of marsh harriers, a species rarer than golden eagles in the UK. And during winter, nearly 40 per cent of the world's pink-footed goose population--almost 120,000 birds--visit the mudflats, flying in from Iceland and Greenland. More than 400,000 birds visit the Wash annually, making it one of the UK's most important estuaries for birdwatching.