Summat's a foot and it ain't twelve inches

The Safari wasn't able to get out onto Patch 2 early this morning, not that we would have wanted to as the rain was quite thunderously heavy and being blown almost horizontal by a stiff breeze. It really didn't look good for our school group later in the morning. They were coming from east Lancashire and we watched a thunderstorm track up from the south, would their paths cross???

Fortunately they didn't and the earlier rain had cleared not long before the bus drew up on the car park.

Twenty nine youngsters were disembarked, toileted and wellied up within a few minutes and ready tto get out on to the beach. A couple of them had never been on a beach before.

With the safety talk and equipment demos done off they went exploring. It wasn't long before all the usual shells were popped in to the trays and buckets along with a few small Sand Gobies and enough Brown Shrimps to make a substantial pie out of.

Then one young lad said look at this one, OK we thought not another Rayed Trough Shell as we searched for a Necklace Shell to tell them about its grizzly predatory behaviour. But no this was something really special,  a real rare beaut, so much so that our eyes just about popped out of ttheir sockets when he unfurled his fingers to reveal his booty - only a Pelican's Foot shell, and according to the NBN the fifth recorded along the full length of our coast and the first from our section of beach.

Needless to say, the young lad, the rest of his chums and us were well chuffed. 

In the afternoon they had a pond dipping and mini-beast safari but it was a bit too windy for most of the inverts to be out and about although sharp eyes spotted the first second brood Common Blue butterfly and a Red Admiral flew through really really fast with the wind up its backside.

That's the beauty of the natural world you just never know what's round the corner but if you don't look you certainly won't see!

Where to next? we're umming and ahhing about putting the mothy out - will the thunderstorms hold off until late enough tomorrow morning for us to empty it or will we wake up to find the electrics shorted out and the trap full of water??? Could well be a wet one tomorrow

In the meantime let us know whose beady eyes spotted the treasure in your outback.