Country diary: two porpoises arc through the water beside us

Dungeness, Kent: White-flanked with backs the colour of the sea, it looks like they're grinning as they move splashlessly in pace with the boat before steering away towards FranceIt is still before dawn, although light comes earlier in this liminal place, which is neither land nor sea, but a little bit of both. Utter flatness, only the futuristic hulk of the power station in the distance, twin lighthouses and a huddle of fishermen's huts interrupting the long stretch of the land. I'm at Dungeness to meet Simon Ginnaw, an ecologist who leads regular monitoring trips out into the seascape on his friend Jason's fishing boat. Continue reading...