On a cold afternoon at the beginning of February I visited Swansea Bay in South Wales. The tide was out. Tubes made from sand-grains clustered together forming massive reefs on boulders at the low tide mark. The tubes are formed by colonies of marine worms known as honeycomb worms (Sabellaria alveolata). The image below is a close-up of the same type of tubes taken at Lyme Regis in Dorset.
I am reminded of a wasp’s nest. Exquisite.
One of the structures I see at my local beach at Titchfield haven at very low tide thanks to your blog I understand them further.
Look like the spring have found you.😊 Here we suddenly got -10°C and it´s a iceweek as the meteorologists call it. The wind with cold air coming from Russia and the entire country got very cold, it have not happened since around 1950.
Thank you, Claudia.
That is very interesting, Andy. I was thinking that the substrate at Titchfield Haven might be too muddy for this species but apparently not.
These pictures were taken a while ago when it was milder. Right now we are sharing the cold weather with you. The “beast from the east”, as this cold wind from Russia has been named in England, has brought frost and snow to my part of the world. I don’t think we have had snow that settled on the ground for about 15 years – when that happened, the road from my village was impassable for three weeks if you did not have a four-wheel drive.
There are sandy patches, seen at very low neap tide. When I see again will record.
Fascinating – I’ll have to look more closely next time I am on the beach!