English: Sluice outlet. View west across mudflats that glint in the late afternoon sunshine. Further seawards, the marsh pastures > 908439 - 908447 turn into saltmarsh. Sediments deposited by the sea have built up into a skim of mud and silt and, over the years, evolved into saltmarsh. The middle and upper levels of the saltmarshes at Holkham are covered with plants such as sea aster and sea lavender. http://www.holkham.co.uk/naturereserve/saltmarsh.html One of the footpaths leading into the Holkham Nature Reserve can be accessed from the A149 east of Burnham Overy Staithe. The first section of the path leads through marsh pastures which were reclaimed in the 18th and 19th centuries, beginning at Burnham Overy in 1639 and ending with the construction of the sea wall at Wells in 1859. Up until the 1940s this area was used for grazing sheep and cattle but due to modern farming methods the water table of the marsh had to be lowered; as a consequence the old grazing marshes dried out and became much less attractive for wildlife. In recent years, however, a system of dams and water control points was developed in order to again raise water levels - where the reclaimed land meets the saltmarsh the path passes the sluice outlet seen here. See also > https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/908454. The wildlife returned and avocet, shoveler and marsh harrier have re-colonised the marshes; wintering wildfowl also have made a come-back, with recent peak counts of 20,000 pink-footed geese, 7,000 brent geese and 13,000 wigeon. http://www.holkham.co.uk/naturereserve/reclaimedsaltmarsh.html.