Back on the beach

The Safari needs to develop a code for you all regarding the Peregrine as it looks like it's gonna be roosting on the water tower for the foreseeable... Something like BBP for it was there in the dark last night and PPEM for Peregrine present early morning. Actually it wasn't there early morning but had appeared by the time we were on our way to work

This morning's beach session started with the Long March which took us past the gardens, the bushes of which were smothered in snails, almost all Common Garden Snail, for some reason - this is just a small stretch of the 'hedge' and we can see 14, can you find them all?

On the beach the children got stuck in, while they were getting going and filling they trays we had a walk along the seawall looking into the 'rockpools' for things a little out of the ordinary. Our best find was this piece of 'Kelp'. again Dr KT's expertise is required. Fear not she will be working with us next we and hopefully will be able to provide an answer to most if not all of our queries.
The trays were piled high with the common stuff, which today included Common Prawns (no Shrimps), Green Shore Crabs, Sand Goby, Shanney (a very small juvenile pictured below), Tower Shell, Compass Jellyfish, Baltic Tellin, Necklace Shell, Pod Razor, Common Razor (no Curved Razors on this part of the beach) Banded Wedge Shell, Periwinkle, Common Cockle, Edible Mussel and Common Sand Star.
Clockwise from the left - Edible Mussel, Common Cockle - a whopper, Tower Shell, Periwinkle.

Clockwise from the left - Tower Shell, Tower Shell broken (pink form is much less common), Common Sand Star, Common Cockle.

A quick look over the low tide with just the bins today gave us a Great Crested Grebe and six Common Scoters sat close behind the surf. A group of 14 and another flock of seven Sandwich Terns with one Common Tern sat on the beach with a few others fishing over the sea. A male Linnet patrolled the top of the sea wall catching small insects.

Where to next? The rockpools will get a rest tomorrow but will be back in play on Thursday.

In the meantime let us know what's fishy in your outback.