It's a bit wild out there

The Safari avoided the worst of the early morning torrents by foregoing the usual Patch 2 watch. The rain was being driven in waves up the hill as we drove down it on our commute

By lunchtime the sun had come out but the wind was still running around 50mph. The incoming tide was well wavy and frothed up and we didn't see anything. Looking at the rapidly diminishing beach there was no sign of yesterday's bucketful of fishing net but we did see there was the fun sea-foam foaming along the edges of the pools. The best was too far away to risk so we tried to get a pic of some lesser formations safely nearer.

It's harmless stuff mad from the surfactant properties of the Diatoms in the water.

Our walk back up the beach was a lot easier and more comfortable with the wind at our back. As we neared the wall a dark shape moved among the artificial rock pool, some Turnstones. They allowed a fairly close approach but as soon as we stopped and raised our phone towards them they were off like a shot.

Crikey it was raw out on the sands! Not often we're really glad to get back indoors.
As we drove to our school visit mid-afternoon closer to high tide there was blobs of foam blowing up the road many hundreds of yards from the wall.

Later we heard the good news that the River Otter Beavers down in Devon have been given a reprieve and are going to be 'allowed' to remain in the wild subject to a) they are disease free and b) they and their effects on the local area are studied intensely, a job to be done by the Devon Wildlife Trust. Don't you think it's very magnanimous of the 'authorities' to allow a native wild animal to remain in the wild even if their means of getting there is unknown. They did say that no other licences will be issued for any more releases until the end of the project, reading between the lines that suggests that anyone else trying to sneak a Beaver or two into the wild will be breaking the law! There are other trials, one in Kent and another in mid-Wales, not sure if there are any others besides the famous Scottish one whose outcome will be decided later in the year, hopefully they'll be allowed to remain where nature intended out in the wetlands where they belong. 

Then we got to wondering where we might see them locally one day although it's going to take them a long time to spread from Devon to Lancashire and there'll be many obstacles on the way - mostly biophobic conservative land owners of which there seem to be an awful lot these days. Maybe a 'twitch' to the mid- wales population once it's 'allowed' out will be high on the bucket list...What will out landscape evolve into? Can't wait to find out!

In other wildlifey news received today it appears that the UK's only pod of Orcas big bull John Coe has been bitten by a shark. Where has he been and who has he met up with to get a bite like that? His pod generally hang out off the NW coast of Scotland, not an area noted for big aggressive sharks except Basking Sharks and JC is just a little bit larger than their normal plankton fare! Has he been deep diving and a Greenland Shark has snuck up behind him? We were under the impression that Orcas protected each other against sharks, so where were his chums? Is it really a shark bite and not done by one of said chums - not that we're dissing the HWDT in anyway, they are the local experts after all. Wonder what Monika's year's of Orca experience makes of this.

One day we hope that the pod will swim past the Prom - preferably when we're watching!!! - and second that they will have a youngster one day.

Where to next? Might just be time for a Patch 2 visit tomorrow but we're pretty jam packed with school work tomoz.

In the meantime let us know who's been taking chunks out of what in your outback.