Beach Walk

While my folks and Pete were still here over the festive season, the four of us spent  a morning on the river and went down to the mouth for a walk on the beach.  The beach is only accessible by boat which is fabulous as you only see a few other folk – we aren’t much for the crowds.  It was lovely to see the beach clean – seems passing ships are not throwing anything overboard. 😀  Here’s hoping it stays that way.

It’s incredible how much wild life is living in and on the dunes.  I am always amazed at how well animals can survive with virtually no foliage or fresh water available to them.  Below  you can see the tracks of an insect of sorts which was merrily walking along the sand until he met his demise with something bigger than him which stopped him in his tracks, munched him and carried on with its journey, no doubt looking for something else to eat.

We only came across two blue bottles and I love that this one was heart shaped.

It has been a long while since we have discovered bones on the beach or in the dunes so were surprised when we came across the bones and skin of what must have been a cow but this one still has us puzzled – do you possibly know what it belongs to?  A shark possibly?

Just when we thought we had seen it all, we came across a gem squash.  It was no doubt thrown overboard, not sure how else it would have landed up on the beach.  At least this jetsam is biodegradable.

This little critter was amazing to watch.  None of us have ever seen anything quite like it before – it must be some sort of sand scorpion or the likes.  There were 3 of them in a small vicinity and scurried around incredibly quickly while curling complete in half bringing their no-doubt poison filled pincer type tails right over their heads.  This guy was kind enough to uncurl a bit and stand still long enough for me to get a photo.

It was also interesting to see a few fresh water fish on the beach.  Evidentially carp can survive in salt water, clearly not for too long though as there were 5 on the beach all in close proximity to each other.  Some still whole, others in half.

The best was when Mom spotted this wee fellow hiding away from us and the heat.  His oyster catcher parents were having a screaming fit desperately trying to get us away from their little one – so difficult not being able to tell them we just want a quick picture of their gorgeous baby.  Hard to believe this little one will grow up to have an orange beak and black feathers.

Seeing I was in the swing of taking photo’s, I captured a few more interesting shots.

It was lovely to get our feet in the sand again and hope it won’t be too long before we can enjoy another morning out in the sun.