Invasion of the killer jellyfish

The Safari is exaggerating slightly. The day dawned bright warm and calm, actually it was well past dawn by the time we got out of our pit. Looking at the sea on our commute we were eager to get out but for the second day in a row it wasn't possible which was a tad annoying to say the least - it was just about perfect out there. Not to worry we would be out on the beach exploring with a group of youngsters soon enough.

Today we were near the pier rather than at our usual temporary rockpooling site so it was all a bit new to us. There wasn't much standing water near the new steps but a bit of a shingle bank that had been thrown up had a few strandlines on it which looked promising. We started off there looking for pebbles, one's with stripes in them, round ones, flat ones, ones that looked like a marble; the children were only very young. All the while keeping our eyes peeled for shells and other items of interest.

Once we'd looked at this small section and not found a great lot although the kids did like the seaweed with 'armbands' to help it float - Spiral Wrack and Bladderwrack - we wandered a fair way down the beach to the nearest pool of water. A decent amount of shells had been washed up here including all the favourites, Banded Wedge  Shells, Striped Venus, Common Otter, Prickly Cockles, Common Cockles, Mussels, Pod Razors, Bean Razors, Curved Razors, Telins, Tower Shells, Whelks, Rayed Trough Shells along with lots of Masked Crab carapaces. All of which found their way into the tubs.

In the pool lots of tiny young Brown Shrimps skittered away from the nets, many weren't quick enough and found themselves in the tubs too.

Fish catcher extraodinaire from last week RC found another flat fish, not a tiny juvenile this time but a full grown whopper, dead though.

Looks like the remains of a Dab

We'd already seen quite a few mostly small jellyfish stranded on the beach but were quite unprepared for the mass of them in one corner of the pool. Lets just say there were a few more than plenty.

Almost all appeared to be dead, we didn't see any pulsating trying to swim off. The great majority were the harmless Moon Jellyfish but scattered here and there were a few orangy Lion's Manes.

At the nend of the session we gathered together to show everyone what each other had found. There's a nice big Thornback Ray mermaid's purse in the middle and a 'modern' lump of limestone that's sheared in the shape of what is almost definitely some kind of largish fossil.

The seaweed bottom left is a piece of the invasive non-native Wireweed originating from the Pacific Ocean.

Back at the office at lunchtime the sun was still strong and bright and had brought a few insects out in the wild garden. There were some Tree Bees collecting pollen and our first Large White butterfly of the year here. There's still nont that many hoverflies about although there were several of this shiny metallic Broad Centurion Flies (Chloroyia formosa).

A pair of bee mimicking Narcissus Bulb Flies were really making the most of the sunshine.

A quick look at the sea at lunchtime revealed it was very poor - other than a handful of Herring Gulls there was nothing to be seen at all.

Where to next?Back in the rockpools tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who likes jelly in your outback.

Greens, grass n sand

The Safari has been otherwise engaged of late and hasn't had a lot of time to put fingers to keyboard for you. Last night we had another gaggle of brownies on the beach and they had a good session rummaging in the pools and scouring the beach for shells. 

As with the previous evening's group they couldn't catch any of the extremely quick Sand Gobies but we managed to catch them a baby Dab, more by luck than skill and between us we caught what we think might have a been a Sand Smelt, not sure how variable they are but the general consensus is that that they are pale olive green on the back and ours was decidedly darker than that. No photo as the Brownie who found t was ever so possessive of it and wouldn't let us anywhere near it with the camera, wouldn't even allow us to transfer it from here castle shaped blue bucket into one of our larger white ones for a better look at it.

A crab they picked up caught our eye too having great big flat paddles on its rearmost legs, obviously a swimming crab of some sort but with a broad carapace not the 'usual' Pennant's Swimming Crab we find occasionally.

Not the best pics and we're not sure if the blue is true or an artifact of the camera or reflection from the net handle. A species in the genus Liocarcinus seems favourite at the moment.

Now identified as Liocarcinus holsatus

Whatever it is it's the first of its kind we've seen here! Well done the Brownies!

Today we were able to have a little much round the gardens seeing as Patch 2 was pretty quiet. just a Grey Seal and some very hazy Gannets and gulls at a distant bait ball.

The sun wasn't strong but with hazy cloud the light was good so we concentrated on the front lawn where the scent from the White Clover is heady.

We wandered round the back to the patch of Meadow Cranesbill were the bees were busy, busy, busy.

Bombus terrestris

Male Early Bee - note the yellowy facial hairs

Tree Bee

In our wild garden we spotted a hoverfly doing a good job at  mimicing the Tree Bees

Mooching back round to the front there was what seemed to be a fairly freshly emerged female Common Blue butterfly.

After work we went back onto the beach to watch the tide drop and see if we could find the swimming crab and the dark backed fish again. Neither were findable but there were several whole Sea Potatoes, the smaller ones remarkably still had their hairs, yes for Sea Urchins they are a bit unusual in that they are hairy and not spiky, and our first jelly fish of the summer, a Moon Jelly. 

A walk along the runnel gave us several sightings of the goboes but not of the (?)smelt. We did manage to catch one of the smaller Sand Gobies, took some doing and again was more by luck than judgement.

Lots of Brown Shrimps were netted but numbers were paltry compared to the hordes lifted by the Brownies yesterday.

Not a bad day in the 'field' at all, really enjoyable!
Where to next? The weekend is upon us and the moth trap is out!
In the meantime let us know what was captured at the eleventh hour in your outback.

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.

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.