The last visit here was in a hideous midwinter gale a couple of years ago, but the weather in early March is crisp and clear with hardly a breath of wind. The tide is out and the gulls, oystercatchers and redshanks work the shallow pools and channels along this huge stretch of beach that sits below the golf course and saltmarshes. At a wide stream that courses down through bands of sand and pebble, there is no way across to continue on below Titchwell Marshes. So we walk up the stream and stumble upon a small herd of common or harbour seals Phoca vitulina, most lounging on the sand banks and a couple nosing about a large pool that has formed above the beach crest. Mothers still have attendant young and all briefly raise their heads to spy on yet another lot of irritating gawpers before flopping down to sleep some more; these animals do idle contentment perhaps better than any other.