Our beach really is a fabulous place to explore

The Safari was desk -bound this morning and heavy rain earlier prevented any Patch 2 visit. we got out a lunchtime to see more or less b*gger all out there.

As we were packing the Land Rover for our afternoon session with another family group further up the beach at an area we don't often have a really close look at...exciting stuff...we passed the Campanula we spotted with the Young Uns the other day and decided to get a few pics of it cos tbh we're not 100% sure if it's a real wildflower or some garden escape. Those clever iSpotters will no doubt be able to help.

On the beach the children soon had their buckets full of a variety of seaweeds including the very common Sea Lettuce and Purple Laver with side orders of Spiral and Egg Wrack. We spotted a large piece of Sea Oak.

Soon enough tiny Green Shore Crabs found their way in to the nets and under the piers there were lots of Brown Shrimps.

A sharp pair of eyes spotted this Necklace Shell which is covered with Hedgehog Hydroid but it wasn't until we'd been handling it for a while that we saw there was a shy Hermit Crab inside!

Find of the day went to the first find of the day. As we were all walking down the steps to the sand we spotted a dark shiny shape, a huge Mermaid's Purse which almost succumbed to the hordes of wellies tramping down the steps.

Not sure what species of shark - more accurately elasmobranch - it is from, perhaps a Thornback Ray.

After our day was done at the beach we nipped up to the northern estuary to have a look at the rising tide. We didn't have long and it was still too low to push the waders close enough to photograph. Only one slightly dodgy pic of some Redshank being washed off a mid stream sand-bank.

We watched a Small White butterfly alight on a Bramble flower some distance away. Luckily we had the long lens and framed the shot. As soon as we pressed the shutter it did what butterflies do best  - fluttered by. There is a bee in the shot too which we hadn't seen through the view finder.

So another great day by the seaside...come on Benyon give the seas the protection they desperately deserve...your becoming a bigger pillock with every dithering day.

Where to next? Not sure yet, anything could happen tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what's hiding in someone elses cast offs in your outback.

Got some visitors to these pages from Lebanon. Hope they aren't those ones that massacre tens of thousands of migrants and then gloat about it on F/b, if you're not please try to educate those mindless idiots that do those awful things and if you one are one of those mindless idiots grow up and stop and desist right now you're a disgrace to humanity!