Winter Sunset at Mudeford Quay

A few photos taken last Tuesday, when it was cold, but before the snow came.
I drove home via Mudeford Quay as the light was falling and I felt a need to be beside the sea, if only for a few minutes.

The setting sun cast a soft pink light on the Needles and the chalk cliffs on the westernmost end of the Isle of Wight.

This is the place where the waters of the River Stour and the River Avon rush out of Christchurch Harbour and into the sea, through a narrow channel called The Run. On Tuesday evening, the tide was coming in. As tidal waves met the waters from two full, flooded rivers, the sea churned and surged over  sandbanks just off shore.

Seabirds congregated on a spit of sand, sometimes taking off to fly over the turbulent waves, looking for fish.

The wooded cliff top at Highcliffe.

Looking across Christchurch Harbour, towards Hengistbury Head.

Calmer waters along the shoreline at Stanpit.......

....where seagulls were settling on sheltered water, not long before the sun went down.