I am a day late in writing this up, please forgive but DIY is taking precedence.
Yesterday we had some beautiful weather and so Nell and I left Mr L to his grouting and we went out to play in what space there was as it was well past low tide by then. My plan was to collect seashells with my camera and to post a gallery of whatever I found. Unfortunately there was not much variety to choose from yesterday. I did not even find a Spoot (Razor) shell! Nor any Mussel shells or Painted Tops – all of which are common here. Yesterday more than nine out of ten shells was a common old cockle. Cockles are pretty though, when you see them close up and there is more variation in their shells than you might at first suppose.
I love the Flat Periwinkles, which come in an array of shades and are highly photogenic.
I am not brilliant at seashell identification and openly admit to having Googled for help. I found a site called Buglife which has a very helpful PDF Identification sheet for downloading.
If the shells were a disappointment yesterday the remainder of our walk was not
One of the seals came out to see us and seemed not to mind Nell’s splashing about, barking and growling at the rock that she was playing with. He seemed to taunt me, coming quite close but staying at the farthest reach of my camera and giving me just long enough to fail to focus properly before diving under the water. He swam back and forth in the outflow from the Peedie Sea and seemed very relaxed.
Whilst I was concentrating on trying to get a decent shot of the seal, a group of Eider ducks flew in and coasted along on the outflow – a juvenile male, clearly doing well in the Darwinian Stakes as he already had a harem of five with him.
We also engaged with a Common Gull, found some bleached bones and a crab skin, and explored the latest of the wild flowers to bloom. On checking my identification of the flowers, I learned that Sea Campion is edible. I may try some in my next salad.
Nell and I had a splendid time.
In the evening, due to some technical hitches in our temporary cooking arrangements, we went tot he pub for our dinner. I grabbed a couple of photos of the big bull seal and a curlew but they are poor images due to the limits of my camera’s reach and being shot through the window.
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