The Beach Below The Spittles 2

After the beach boulders and scattered rusty metal debris, there is sequence of flat rock platforms exposed by the retreating water. They are riddled with holes made by the boring bivalves known as piddocks, some burrows just have empty shells in them but others are still occupied by the living molluscs that squirt water a foot or more into the air at frequent intervals. A velvet swimming crab mooches around the edges of the platforms, and sand tube and mud tube dwelling worms abound on all the surfaces.

Fractured rock with filamentous green algae embedded in the sand on the beach

Ripple pattern in wet sand with fragments of red seaweed in the hollows

Common British red and green seaweeds growing on rocks

Piece of rusty metal jutting up from the sand on the beach

Natural pattern of ripples in wet sand left by the outgoing tide

Rusty metal object in a seawater pool on the beach

$Rounded and fractured boulders on the beach with sand ripples$

Ripple pattern in wet sand left by the ebbing tide

Piddock holes perforating the surface of a rock platform on the seashore

Rocky ledges and sand ripples on the beach at low tide

Rusty metal object in a tide pool on the beach

Yellowing Toothed Wrack (Fucus serratus) on shale with piddock holes

12 Replies to “The Beach Below The Spittles 2”

Hamish Pringle says:

October 7, 2017 at 8:22 am

Thanks for this photo of Piddock holes. Indebted to you for explaining how holes in pieces of mud/clay and pebbles come about. Really appreciate your continuing stream of beautiful and revelatory photos.

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John says:

October 7, 2017 at 9:20 am

Beautiful pictures! 🙂 I like both the colors as the shapes.

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winderjssc says:

October 7, 2017 at 9:21 am

Thank you, Hamish. I am pleased that my photographs and explanations continue to be appreciated. It makes everything seem more worthwhile as I often wonder whether I should go on with the blog.

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winderjssc says:

October 7, 2017 at 11:34 am

Thank you, John. It is an interesting location.

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Linda Grashoff says:

October 7, 2017 at 2:51 pm

Oh please continue with the blog. You explain so many things I have wondered about—and your photographs are so nice. On this post I’m especially drawn to Beneath The Spittles 18 for its visual appeal, but I love knowing about the piddocks and seeing their holes.

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winderjssc says:

October 7, 2017 at 3:07 pm

Thank you for your support, Linda. I guess as a fellow blogger you may also have experienced the conflicts of blogging at some time. There can be good days and bad days but I cannot see myself actually giving up on taking photographs.

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Claudia McGill says:

October 7, 2017 at 11:58 pm

I’m seeing things I didn’t know existed. And the beauty of the ordinary. Thank you.

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winderjssc says:

October 8, 2017 at 12:27 pm

Thank you, Claudio. I am so pleased that you like the pictures.

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Evelyn Flint says:

October 11, 2017 at 10:59 am

Beautiful images Jessica – I just adore everything to do with the sea and coast….

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winderjssc says:

October 11, 2017 at 11:19 am

Thank you, Evelyn. I am at my happiest with a camera on the seashore. I love being in “the zone” on the beach.

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ROBERT MEYRICK says:

November 4, 2019 at 7:31 am

Interesting example of Glossofungites facies / ichnofacies …..where the remains of or evidence for boring animals [such worms, crustaceans and bivalves] occurs in older semi or partly consolidated sediments, below younger sediments.
Significant feature within Sequence Stratigraphy.

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winderjssc says:

November 4, 2019 at 8:49 am

Thank you, Robert. That is interesting. I will look up the relevant papers on-line.

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