Pictures from Studland Middle Beach

Pictures from a walk at Studland’s Middle Beach on 18th February 2018 showing a dull afternoon that did not deter the dog walkers. The top of the shore fixed dunes had been cut back by winter waves so that the turf was overhanging and roots dangled in the air. Bright patches of red and green seaweed (some decomposing to a brilliant orange colour) and seashells such as clams and prickly cockles dotted the water’s edge. My favourite shell was the  Saddle Oyster with the iridescent inner surface and dark purple colour from burial in deep sediments without oxygen. The dull beige horn wrack looks like a seaweed but is in fact a type of hydroid or Bryozoan (you can see the small compartments for individual animals from which it is constructed if you click to enlarge the image). The capsules in a large clump of common whelk egg cases (seawash ball) still contained many yellow eggs – they are usually washed up empty. The cliff at Red End Point is where the latest Britain at Low Tide TV programme was focussed because of its World War II associations.