The Safari had a bit of a shock this morning. Nothing much was happening on Patch 2 not many gulls on the beach having been disturbed by dog walkers, the sea wasn't much cop either, very choppy and not much out there bar the Common Scoters.
A little later back in the office a pale bird shot past the window, we thought it might have been the elusive Song Thrush from the other day but no it wasn't that, rummaging around under the hedge picking up the odd stick here and there was a Collared Dove (P2 #38) and pretty much a mega at work. Once back at Base Camp we checked our records and discovered it was the first we've seen on Patch 2 since 2010!!!
The rest of most of the morning was spend on a very windy beach exploring what the storms have brought in. The strand-line was extensive and our two small children soon got to grips with the multitude of shells. We'd sort of promised them some Starfish, Common Sand Stars, which the gulls had been gorging on earlier...they must have done a lot of gorging as we failed to find any.
Lots of good stuff out there. Plenty of Dead Men's Fingers sponges, this one found on the way back to the wall stuck to a Scallop.
Also doing a bit of peeking out is this Hermit Crab from its Barnacle encrusted Moon Snail shell hidey-hole.
While we were looking for bigger starfish we started to find their smaller cousins the Brittlestars. Some were quite sizable for this species but all were missing large amounts off their limbs.
On the right of the Brittlestar we there's another sponge Halicolona oculata using a Fanworm case (whose name we have forgotten - DB help us please) as a holdfast.
Where to next? Not sure what might happen this weekend, possibly not able to get any safari-ing done but we'll see.
In the meantime let us know who's peeking out of what in your outback.
1 comment:
Some nice finds there Dave. The brittlestar is ace, I've never seen one of those, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a Hermit Crab either - need to get out more!
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