Beat the weather!

The Safari set up the Stealth-cam last night but when we looked out of the kitchen window before going to bed the intended quarry was no where near the camera but tucking into a pile of old  muesli we'd put out on the patio, didn't know they were veggie! We grabbed the normal camera and very quietly snuck outside until we were within a couple of feet of him/her.

This morning we were late in again due to vehicular failure last night and having to use Wifey's car. The weather was simply awful when we dropped her at her work and we didn't hold out much hope of our family group coming out later in the morning.

Fortunately the rain stopped as we set off and although all of us were dressed as if it was a wet weekend in October the rain held off and it was quite mild.

The children soon got their eye in for good finds...

Baby flatfish, only about an inch long, Dab?

Mermaid's purse, Spotted Catshark egg - there's an embryo inside but you can't see it because we didn't spot the shell fragment - it won't hatch as the case is torn.

The main feature of the morning was the huge numbers of jellyfish that were washed up, varying in size from an inch or so across to over a foot in diameter. They were this dense for hundreds of yards and probably similar on the next strandline down the beach too. Tens of thousands have been washed up along the NW coast this week, maybe even millions, not seen anything like this for years, if indeed ever before! Most were the harmless Moon Jellyfish, a few Compass Jellies were found and just a handful of Lion's Manes.

Note nos 2 & 3 trapped in a plastic bag - just right for murdering a turtle

Compass and Moon Jellies found side by side - we didn't place them like that but someone else on the beach earlier might have done

Find of the morning was a ???

 No not the little bug, we know that's an Idotea baltica.

Soft but firm and looked like it had some kind of holdfast,which we're holding so you're not able to see it

We think it's some kind of sponge, one for those clever iSpoters.

Another great day on the beach, hopefully there'll be some good pics of some of the other things we found sent in over the weekend for our wildlife exhibition at work.

Where to next? Could be an early start in the morning, if Frank can be prised out of bed...he's lost two kilos at doggy fat-club this week.

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

Bright morning on the beach

The Safari had another group of eager explorers on the beach today. The first thing we did was to tell them of the six Bottle Nosed Dolphins we heard about not too far away to the north last night - well that got the youngsters excited and ready to rumble. Conditions at sea were absolutely bob on for cetacean spotting but we had our eyes down on the sand.

Before long a shout went up - "over here; look what we've found!" What was it? we wondered...certainly wasn't expecting a shark! A very small Tope, sadly a victim of the fishermen. News just in from Western Australia is that another swimmer has been bumped off her surfboard by a 4m Great White - just a little larger than our tiddler then. Thankfully she was uninjured, unlike the guy last week, and was back on her board the following day - now  that's what we call nerves of stainless steel!

Whilst looking at some of the more usual life in the trays a pale brown thing appeared out of a shell and started swimming around very quickly. Almost impossible to get a pic of it but this one is good enough to ID it as Idotea balthica. Not seen one since last summer...

But then another was found. At first we thought it might have been a different species but both show the three prongs on the tail, or more accurately from marLIN "The pleotelson in adults is characteristic, with approximately straight sides, a dorsal keel, and a posterior edge bearing three processes, of which the middle one is the longest".

 This little chap also put in appearance. The same as one we still haven't had identified from last week. We think it could be Sphaeroma serratum...but we could easily be miles out!

Almost at the end of our session one small group  had wandered almost out of bounds when they found this jellyfish. Although it lacks the usually very obvious rays our marine biologist friend, DB, thinks it's a Compass Jellyfish.

Back on terra firma a small number of Goldfinches were again feeding on the Spear Thistle seeds in the wild flower garden. many fewer than the other day and no sign of our green ringed individual. A female Common Blue butterfly was seen briefly here too before it hit the boost button and flew over the roof to the front garden and all the Bird's Foot Trefoil there.

Where to next? More settled weather should give an ideal cetacean spotting sea again tomorrow, providing there's no fog or sea mist.

In the  meantime let us know who's sporting all the teeth in your outback

Two new to 'science'

The Safari saw the sea was almost flat calm this morning and could hardly wait to get the scope out. Unfortunately there wasn't much doing, a distant Grey Seal and a dozen Gannets was all we could muster.

At lunchtime we must have had the best part of a 100 whale and dolphin watching helpers most of them children too small to see over the wall. A/the Grey Seal was no much closer, only yards from the wall,  but playing hard to get by only popping up for seconds before disappearing beneath the tiny waves for long minutes at a time. Distantly we had about 150 Common Scoters but they too were hard to get the multitudes on to.

All the while Sandwich Terns mooched about some quite close in but these probably looked too much like 'seagulls' to be 'interesting', a few Common Terns were in the mix too.

We managed to wangle a pic of yesterday's dead Harbour Porpoise off AB's phone but the injury marks are inconclusive, the large square graze in front of the dorsal fin could have been made as the carcass rubbed on the sand as it washed in...always sad to see them like this though.

After the watch we had a quick lunch while the hordes descended on to the beach. This is jut some of them...

 And some more...we've never had to entertain so many before!

All those eyes nets were bound to find something interesting...and they did.

A nice but small Compass Jellyfish.

After hundreds of Brown Shrimps, several Common Prawns and a few Sand Gobies were identified the less numerous species came to light, tiny 'new born' Blennies, the smallest Green Shore Crabs you ever did see and a Lion's Mane Jellyfish.

And then the biggies appeared, first up a Chiton, apparently there were a fair number in one pot - never seen one before and told Monika a while ago we didn't get them on our shoreline = ooopps!!! Being an American hers was far larger than ours!

Which species? One for iSpot we think!

Then in one of the trays we saw a little white thing like a piece of white plastic but it was swimming. We're pretty sure it's an Isopod; another for iSpot!

This is how it swam round, like a folded upside-down paper dart, flicking out those paddle-like legs.

A fascinating day on the beach was topped by the discovery of Gammerid type shrimps, very similar to the freshwater shrimps that swim on their sides and not at all like the Brown Shrimps.

All this new stuff was due to the fact we were looking in a slightly different place along the wall, the tide had left runnels too deep for the small children to cross in our usual places - thanks very much Mr Tide you've played a blinder!

Where to next? More flat calm sea we hope.

In the meantime let us know what's waiting to be discovered in your outback.