Beach Walk

Today has been lovely and sunny, so we went for a walk on the beach. The children were delighted to find lots of treasure. I would have personally been happier to have found gold, or some rare gem stones, but what do I know? The children were happy with their lot of simpler finds!

So todays haul included

Whelk's eggs

These always seem to have people stumped as to what they are. I've often heard them referred to as sponges, as I guess they do look quite like the natural sponges you can buy. The other reason may be because apparently early sailors did actually use them for washing. They are in fact whelk's eggs. These capsules will often contain over a 1000 eggs. Whelks are sea snails with  pointed spiral shells.

Seaweed

We also found some seaweed today, this was quite high up the beach and was quite dry. The children love this seaweed with its pods, but I'm not sure what type it is, any suggestions?

Cuttlefish

We always see absolutely loads of these on the beach. The cuttlefish you find on the beach are actually an internal shell, here is a link to a you tube video of what the cuttlefish actually looks like. They look amazing, have lovely markings, and are very pretty for something living in UK waters.




We also found three different types of shells.

Slipper limpet

Oyster

Whelk

We had a lovely time exploring even though we have been to the beach so many times. There always seems to be something new to be fascinated with. It's ever changing with the tides, and there are always new bits and pieces to discover. We also found some lovely small pieces of drift wood, and a stone that was sparkly.

Have you had any trips to the beach lately, what did you find that your children were interested in?