I always like to find Goose Barnacles (Lepas anatifera) on flotsam at the beach. These strange creatures live attached to items that free-float around the oceans of the world; and we only see them when they wash ashore, as they did yesterday at Ringstead Bay in Dorset, England. Thousands of these strange marine creatures were clustered onto a tree trunk and its branches that lay freshly beached on the shingle. All the pebbles here seem to have returned now – it was only a week or so ago that they had all more or less disappeared following stormy weather.
Click here for more information about Stranded Goose Barnacles and Goose Barnacles on Rhossili Beach in Jessica’s Nature Blog.
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Jessica's Nature Blog 
These would appear to be one of the larger species. My fascination led me to Wikipedia where I learned that there are over 1200 species of barnacles. Amazing!
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The white shell part of the Goose Barnacle is a fixed size of about an inch long. The stalk can change size depending on how actively the animal is feeding – it can contract down small or extend to maybe about six inches.
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Love to get to the coast Jessica, but don’t think I’ve ever seen these.
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They are not so very common. It is just chance if some wash ashore before you visit the beach. They attach themselves to all sorts of rubbish, not only driftwood. I have seen them on wooden pallets, glass bottles, and plastic drums and crates. Apparently, a lot were seen over the last couple of months – washed up by storms.
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Amazing creatures, Jessica. Can’t remember seeing these before.
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There were more of these around than usual over the last couple of months, being washed ashore after storms.
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