After a remarkable morning sea-watching at Seaton (12 Cory's Shearwaters was exceptional and totally unexpected), I took my son Jake rock pooling on the low tide at Lyme Regis just along the coast into Dorset.
Jake's shown a bit more interest in wildlife since we caught dozens of Shore Crabs at Dartmouth a few weeks ago so I thought I'd 'strike while the iron is hot' and try to cultivate his interest in marine animals - a great place to start his foray into natural history.
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| Shore Crab, Dartmouth: R.Harris |
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| Shore Crab, female - Dartmouth: R.Harris |
Lyme Regis is a beautiful English seaside town and unfortunately the rest of the country seems to agree with that making it an extremely difficult place to visit and park on a summer's day. Taking the Park 'n' Ride wasn't an option with all of our gear and luckily we managed to secure what appeared to be the last space in the car park on the western side of the town, close to the rock pools. We arrived on the retreating tide to find the area already awash with people doing exactly the same thing - so we set about finding anything we could.
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Rock Samphire, a common umbelifer
along the coast at the moment. |
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| Field Bindweed adds a splash of pastel colour |
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| Common Periwinkle Littorina littorea |
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| Flat Top Shell Gibbula umbilicalis |
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| Dog Whelk Nucella lapillus, yellow form |
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| Common Limpet Patella vulgata |
Best of all was this fantastic little Hermit Crab
Pagurus bernhardus - very shy though, didn't want to come out of its shell any further than this.
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