Seatown Strandline

Posted on May 23, 2017 by winderjssc

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Close-up detail of cuttlebone texture and shape

Dried red seaweed on pebbles at the seahore

Close-up detail of cuttlebone texture and shape

Looking east on Seatown beach at the dark strandline of dried seaweed

Cuttle fish bone and red seaweed on the strandline

Looking out to sea from Seatown beach in Dorset, England.

The beach at Seatown in Dorset comprises a series of steep pebble banks. You can see how far up the shore the last high tide has been by the line of natural debris extending along the shore parallel to the water’s edge. On this occasion the strandline was almost entirely made up of dried red seaweed which contrasted well with the pebbles. Quite a number of white cuttlefish bones rested on the weed. I am fascinated by their beautiful structure. For some reason, the shape of the more concave surface (as in image 5) always makes me think of angels.

Strand 5

Posted on April 28, 2017 by winderjssc

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Picture of seashells on a seashore strandline with mussels and limpets in a natural arrangement as found.

This picture may be clicked up to three times for increasing levels of detail if you wish.

Strand 4

Posted on April 27, 2017 by winderjssc

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Picture of seashells on a seashore strandline with mussels, limpets, and periwinkles in a natural arrangement as found.

This picture may be clicked up to three times for increasing levels of detail if you wish.

Strand 3

Posted on April 26, 2017 by winderjssc

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Picture of seashells on a seashore strandline with mussels and limpets in a natural arrangement as found.

This picture may be clicked up to three times for increasing levels of detail if you wish.

Strand 2

Posted on April 25, 2017 by winderjssc

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Picture of seashells on a seashore strandline with mussels, limpets, and periwinkles in a natural arrangement as found.

This picture may be clicked up to three times for increasing levels of detail if you wish.

Strand 1

Posted on April 24, 2017 by winderjssc

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Picture of seashells on a seashore strandline with mussels and limpets in a natural arrangement as found.

This picture may be clicked up to three times for increasing levels of detail if you wish.

Winter Walk at Whiteford Sands

Posted on January 3, 2016 by winderjssc

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Crisp and cold, bright and sunny, just right for blowing away the cobwebs with a walk along the strand at Whiteford Sands. On this particular winter’s day the tide had brought ashore lots of flotsam – fishing nets, buoys, floats, and crates, shoes, hard hats, and miscellaneous plastic rubbish that rested on a driftline of sand, pebbles or shells. Here are some of the things that caught my eye as I strolled the high water mark from Cwm Ivy Tor to the spit beyond Whiteford Point on Boxing Day 2013. Click on any of the images in the gallery below to view in a larger format and slideshow.

Detail of an orange flotsam fishing crate washed ashore

Sun shining through a common whelk shell on the beach

Tangled heap of red fishing nets washed ashore

Piece of blue and yellow fishing net flotsam

Sun shining through a common whelk shell on the beach

Black plastic oil drum washed ashore

Cockle shell close up on the sand

Flotsam suitcase on beach pebbles

Brightly coloured tangle of flotsam fishing nets

Piece of green and yellow knotted rope flotsam

Piece of green and yellow knotted rope flotsam

Barnacles on blue plastic flotsam

Blue plastic fish crate flotsam

Red plastic flotsam fishing crate washed ashore

Brightly coloured tangle of flotsam fishing nets

Barrel mouthed jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) washed up on the beach

Green plastic fishing buoy washed up as flotsam

Winter Walk at Whiteford 2

Dendritic patterns in wet sand with seaweed and shells

Flotsam wood pallet with drifted sand

Blue plastic crate flotsam on sandy beach

Barrel jellyfish washed up on a sandy beach

Flotsam fishing net and mussel shells

Pebble spit with sand at Whiteford

Blue plastic object with barnacle encrustation washed ashore

Yellow plastic hard hat washed ashore as flotsam

Flotsam shoe washed ashore on pebbles

Flotsam white trainer shoe washed ashore

Driftwood with pebbles on the beach

Yellow plastic football washed ashore as flotsam

Flotsam orange plastic fish crate washed ashore

Old oyster shell washed up on the beach

Goose barnacles and hydroids on a blue flotsam fish crate

Blue plastic hard hat on driftwood

Wind sculpted dry sand with seashells

The writing on a flotsam plastic fish crate

Black plastic oil drum washed ashore

Flotsam orange plastic signal flare

Flotsam yellow plastic fishing net float

Sad strandline bird at Oxwich

Posted on September 18, 2013 by winderjssc

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What this bird is, and how this bird died, I do not know. It was lying high up on the shore on the strandline among the usual debris, both natural and man-made. But it was magnificent despite being sad! Such lovely feathers. Such incredible talons. What a glorious bird of prey it must have been – soaring high above the cliffs. Perhaps someone reading this will help me out with its identification? I have lots of other photographs of it that might be useful.

Revised version of a post from 21 March 2009

COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2013

All rights reserved

Up-date on the multi-coloured rock pool at Rhossili

Posted on December 6, 2011 by winderjssc

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Previously I have talked about a small rock pool at Rhossili that had filled up with multi-coloured pieces of plastic probably arriving at this one small area of the beach from hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. Bright coloured fragments and pellets of plastic were also observable in the regurgitated remains spewed up by seabirds on the beach. That was back in the summer 2009. I have been keeping an eye on the pool to see what its fate might be.

By October 2009, high tides seemed to have mostly cleaned out the pool and it looked on the road to recovery.

By January 2010 the pool was contaminated again. However, a large proportion of the rubbish in the pool this time was organic. Vegetable remains included straw-like terrestrial plant stems, broken fronds of brown seaweeds, and the large air bladders of Egg Wrack.

For earlier postings related to the plastic pollution in this pool, click here Multi-coloured Rock Pool at Rhossili and More about the multi-coloured rock pool at Rhossili.

Revision of a post first published 19 January 2010

COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2011

All Rights Reserved

Multi-coloured rock pool at Rhossili

Posted on November 30, 2011 by winderjssc

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Thousands of small multi-coloured pieces of plastic flotsam floating in a rock pool at Spaniard Rocks, Rhossili Bay, Gower, South Wales. Even in the most beautiful of places, flotsam – particularly plastics – can be a problem. At Rhossili Bay, it is said that most of the plastic rubbish comes from as far away as South America as there is nothing but open water between these two places. Very little plastic rubbish is thought to have been generated by local visitors.

By some quirk of fate, small pieces of plastic seem to end up en masse at the extreme north end of the beach. The way that they have accumulated in small rock pools on Spaniard Rocks can be seen in these photographs. However, even though this rubbish shouldn’t be here and it may affect the environment in a detrimental way, potentially damaging habitats for the native seashore animals and plants, there is still a beauty to be found in the juxtaposition of these brightly coloured pieces of floating flotsam against the pale neutral of the Carboniferous limestone; in much the same way that the bright splashes of orange-coloured lichen and yellow-flowered rock plants enliven the stone.

There is a related post to this article. See also Gulls’ gobbets on Rhossili seashore.

Revision of a post first published 13 July 2009

COPYRIGHT JESSICA WINDER 2011

All Rights Reserved