Rossall Beach Lancashire UK Painting Rob Miller
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| En plain air oil painting of Rossall Beach Lancashire by Rob Miller RSA Rossall and Cleveleys is a great place to paint en plein air with excellent views and a wonderful habitat for wildlife. God cafes and easy parking I vastly prefer the natural elements of this place to the resort part of Blackpool but each to their tastes. |
The sand and shingle beach beyond the new sea defences at Cleveleys is known as Rossall Beach
Rossall Beach is a wilder, more natural landscape, where the top section of beach is shingle and there's always a dry section against the wall - on all but the roughest of stormy days.
Natural Sea Defence
These natural sea defences are considered to be the most stable of the Wyre coastline. The natural high sandy, shingle beach is the best possible form of sea defence and dissipates the energy of the sea beautifully.
As the coastline gently curves inwards, the very high top sections of the beach stay dry at high tide in all but the worst of the high tides.
The beach material is naturally graded by the sea with the biggest of the pebbles in the higher reaches of beach, filtering down to smaller ones as you approach the golden sand that lays beyond.
At a glance it looks like quite an inhospitable environment, but it's actually a rich resource for wildlife, and supports many sea birds all through the year - indeed many seabirds use this beach to refuel when they stop off on their migratory flight paths around the world.
Interesting Wildlife
As a testament to how clean the water is, seals are often seen, their black heads bobbing along, but binoculars are usually needed to pick them out them from a swimming gull, and you need to be quick! Occassionally an odd one ends up on the beach too.
Particularly at the northern end of the beach, around the Rossall Promenade car parking area and heading further north to Fleetwood, you’ll find many interesting things on the strandline (the highest point where the tide turns).
It’s a rich environment for wild life with the invertebrates that are found on the beach providing an ideal menu for sea birds.
Sanderlings, Turnstones and Knot can often be seen in large numbers, along with flocks of Oystercatchers with their distinctive long bright orange beaks and legs.
Don’t forget the resident population of gulls, who stand facing into the wind, peeping with their plaintive cries and waiting for anyone to feed them!
Looking after the Beach
Rossall Beach Residents & Community Group look after this area of beach.
They hold monthly community beach cleans for members and the general public to join in with. There are full details on their website - anyone is welcome to join the group and join in.
The Waterfront Rangers at Wyre Council have worked with this group to Adopt the Beach through the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). Part of the MCS work is to monitor what is washed up by the tide, and petition utility companies and manufacturers to change their practices and stop the rubbish getting into the sea in the first place.
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