LIFE ON THE BEACH
We live very close to the sea and there are some lovely beaches where we get to see lots of interesting things.
 |
Barleycove Beach is one of the biggest beaches around here and there are many birds who can be found on the tidal lake nearby |
| The Oyster Catcher (Haematopus Ostralegus) is easy to spot on the shores although in recent years many have been
seen inland. Oyster Catchers
make a distictive whistling sound which once heard will not easily be forgotten and can be used in future to signal their
presence long before seeing them.
Watching them dib in the wet sand and mud and moving things around with the long orange beak is fascinating and the little
'clockwork' walk they do between forages is quite comical. |
 |
 |
All Curlews are long-legged shorebirds, buff in colour with varying amounts of black markings on the back and
wings.
Its size is 28 to 60cm. Its weight is 742g to 839g. Its beak is 15cm. It picks fish, and insects from the mud with its long
beak.
They eat fish and worms. During nesting season curlews are found on marshy areas, water-meadows, sand dunes and other damp
country.
|
Herring Gull July 3rd: We went to Galley Cove Beach last night after buying burger and chips from Colin's Take
Away in Crookahven. It wasn't very sunny but it was nice to sit and watch the sea.There were some Hooded Crows and some
Herring Gulls.We ate most of our chips but we also fed some to the gulls.They flew down very close and ate all the chips we
threw them.
(Wikipedia) European Herring Gulls may be observed rhythmically drumming their feet upon the ground for prolonged periods of time
in a behaviour that superficially resembles Irish stepdancing. This is for the purpose of creating vibrations in the soil,
driving earthworms to the surface, which are then consumed by the gull.[11] It is believed that these vibrations mimic
those of digging moles, eliciting a surface escape behaviour from the earthworm |
 |
 |
Seeing a dolphin is always special. We sometimes see loads of birds diving into the sea from the garden and this often signals a pod of dolphins.
The Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is the species most likely to be encountered, being found regularly off the south and west coasts
in schools of up to a hundred or more. It is generally steel-grey on the upper body and white under neath. There are large,
oblong, ochre-coloured patches on either side of the body and wavy blackish lines along the sides extend up to the face. |
I think jellyfish are a bit scary as there are some that sting,we get the Moon Jellyfish regularly washed up on the beaches round here.
Common Jellyfish (also called Moon Jellyfish), Aurelia aurita, which do not sting humans. The threadlike tentacles around
the edge of the bell can sting, and may occasionally catch small swimming animals for food, but their stings - like minute
harpoons fired by springs - are not powerful enough to pierce our thick skin. They feed mostly by trapping microscopic
plankton in a film of mucus which flows over the surface of the bell and is picked off as it reaches the edges by the thick
mouth tentacles underneath. They swim by pulsing the bell, pushing themselves slowly forwards through the water.
|
 |
 |
I think these are really ugly when out of the water but they are beautiful when under water
The Beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) is a common sea anemone found on rocky shores around all coasts of the UK. Underwater,
it displays up to 192 tentacles, arranged in six circles. Out of water, the tentacles retract and the anemone resembles a
blob of red, brown, green or orange jelly, up to about 5cm across. It has bright blue spots (known as acrorhagi) located
just beneath the tentacles, organised as an external ring containing stinging cells located at the top of the column that
it uses to fight over territory. |
| Acorn barnacles Barnacles is a name for animals in the subclass of crustaceans. Balanus Glandula is the
scientific name for them. When Barnacles are still larvae they float around in the water. When they become mature they
will attach to things like rocks, bottoms of boats and shell fish. Acorn Barnacles are mostly found in temperate and cold
salt water. They like to attach to hard surfaces. Acorn Barnacles eat plankton by sucking in the water around them,
while closing their teeth and opening their mouth. |
 |
 |
We went down to the beach today and took our fishing nets, we caught some shrimp and dad caught a small Brill it wasn't
very big but it was a pretty little fish
The Brill Scophthalmus rhombus Like many flatfish the brill is capable of camouflage and can change its colour to match that of the seabed.
This species usually lives on sandy seabeds but is sometimes encountered on gravel or mud. Juvenile fish only a few
centimetres in length are often seen by people paddling by the water's edge or in rockpools on the low shore.
|
|