Monday 17 June 2013

Love my/your/our/the beach

The Safari joined the beach clean on the way to work this morning to do our bit to help achieve the new strict regulations. After a warm weekend we were expecting the worst but either the visiting hordes had been good and not dropped much litter or the cleansing guys had been out early because there wasn't too much. By numbers cigarette ends were the top litter item with flushable wipes second - OK they might be flushable but think on where they end up once they've disappeared round your U-bend, even if you live miles inland they can still pass through the sieving mechanisms in the sewage works and end up despoiling our beach - bin em don't flush em please.
Perhaps the strangest thing found was a Spitfire, not a real one just a little polystyrene gliding model, been in the sea a while as it had a bit of seaweed growing out of it. We weren't so keen on the plastic BB pellets easily mistaken for small planktonic things or fish eggs and eaten with dire consequences.
A medium sized claw of an Edible Crab was seen but numerically small Moon Jellyfish were the top scorer - there were hundreds of them.
We did our stint and headed back to the meeting place with a fairly full bag. Meeting up with the organiser a distant dark spot in the sea was a Grey Seal, it was a long way away, we were on the top of the prom and it wasn't long after low tide and the animal was well behind the surf...excuses excuses!
All in all a good morning and we'd recommend joining in with the Love My Beach scheme where-ever you are, they are to found all round our coast...Look out for the logo on a beach near you! A good social way to spend an hour on a Monday morning...we even got the T-shirt which we will wear with pride while we're out on safari even if we're nowhere near the beach.
The rest of the day didn't give us much until we got home when Wifey noticed the Blackbirds going into the garage without food. Where they making a new nest? No they weren't carrying nesting materials...we twigged the youngsters had fledged into the garage and not out into the big wide world...a rescue mission of two halves was launched. we got one out but later realised there might be more inside...after a bit of jiggery-pokery with a far too small fishing net we evicted another two.
So a day of good deads from beginning to end!
If anyone is in any doubt that good deeds need doing by certain sections of our society we suggest you watch/read this quality emotional rant, you might have seen it already but even so it's got to be worth a second look. Interesting and valid comments from some.
Late edit - this morning just after 06.00 we watched a few Tree Bees looking for all the world like they were trying to take honeydew off the Sycamore leaves - has anyone seen them doing this or something similar - any alternative hypotheses?
Where to next? Two groups on the beach tomorrow but no litter picking just rockpooling.
In the meantime let us know what's going down the drain in your outback.

No comments: