Sherbert Sunset

I’m not sure what to hope for from tonight’s sunset. The tide and weather forecast suggest we should be lucky, but the brooding clouds threaten otherwise. Still, arriving at West Shore, the sky miraculously seems to clear and my spirits lift. 

G sets off on his power walk along the prom, while I set off across the beach towards the water, rapidly finding myself in low tide mud and wetness. At first, I’m focusing on gulls and oyster catchers, feeding or bathing in the shallow waters, but I want to walk the full length of the beach to catch the sunset from the castle rocks below the Orme, and across the Ganol Outfall drainage structure. It’s further than I think. 

By now the show has started with initial reds and orange; rich, saturated colours, golden light beaming on the water from the near-vanished sun. Then colour drains, leaching away into the palest sky, catching bands of clouds in primrose strips. 

But of course, it’s far from over, and almost imperceptibly the sky turns pink, graduating from a pale horizon, through gold to near-magenta, then to purple-grey - all this reflected perfectly in the millpond-flat sea. I watch this sherbert water-coloured scene in wonder as flocks of seabirds fly over to roost on off-shore sandbanks, leaving smudged reflections in the golden sea. 


It is this final stage that makes the main, with the initial colour burst across the outfall as an extra, and a collage of its graduated colour changes.


Thank you so much for the response to my Chaffinch/Brambling quandary yesterday. Overall, I think the chaffinch marginally wins, but I’m pleased that most acknowledge the difficulty in identification!