Salt Marshes and the wonder of Crabs

After a hectic weekend doing a Bio Blitz at Brockholes Nature Reserve,the first really warm day for six weeks gave me the chance to visit a wonderful place,the salt marshes and high tide marks at Cockerham sands.The area around the marshes is a absolutely wonderful natural piece of unspoilt nature,but a word of warning please do not wander too far out on to the mud flats unless you can read the beach, as the sign at the high tide mark gives you a warning why.

Some very soft sand/mud out there.
This area is part of the Lancashire Coastal way and is a walk i would strongly recommend as some of the nature and flowers you will see is quite stunning.

Signposted all the way along the walk.
On the day i was there ,the fields were full of Hares a wonderful animal that lives above ground and nests in shallow scrapes on the Field floor the young are called Leverets and many crossed the road in front of my car as i drove slowly down to my parking place,much larger than Rabbits they make a fantastic sight as they box each other rearing up on their hind legs.
The pathways are strewn with wild flowers and with all the flowers the insect life is varied and unusual.

Birds foot Trefoil a favourite of many Butterflies.

Thrift.
As i was walking along the pathway a sudden flurry of movement to my right was followed by a pair of Lapwings diving and screaming,a Stoat had claimed one of their chicks and was carrying it away ,all of a sudden a pair of Oyster catchers joined in the mobbing of the Stoat who taken by surprise dropped its meal, it was so sad to see the Lapwing parents near their dead youngster.
I made my way down to the low water mark where i turned a few rocks over and some large crabs were hiding buried in the sand/mud, this time of year is special for crabs as they make their way back to shallower water from their overwintering grounds in the deeper sea,the male crabs appear first and as the crabs have a exoskeleton,which means it is on the outside of its body to get bigger they must split this old shell and emerge with a new soft body that takes two to three days to get rock hard,as soon as the males have finished this peeling process the females emerge and start to shed their shells as well, as they can only mate when they have shedded their old shell and are soft but the earlier peeled males whose new shell has now hardened are able to protect them and can be very aggressive if disturbed.

Male Crab you can tell by the pointed segment in the middle of the picture the female is more rounded.

Female Crab with more rounded segment.

A Crab shedding its old shell you can see the soft new shell under the the old hard shell that's being cast off.
The crabs when casting off the old shell absorb some of the calcium to help make the new one, and then the crabs fill themselves up with sea water this then causes the weaker old shell to split and they emerge ,soft as jelly but much bigger, they are very vulnerable at this stage and fish and seabirds hunt them with great vigour.
The high tide mark can also be a great place to explore the debris washed up and many surprises can be found from Ray and Dogfish eggs to Seashells and other wonders more of which i will explore in future blogs.

A huge tree trunk at the high tide mark.

A high tide line full of interesting things.
And right on the high tide mark was a fungi i had never seen before showing how these remarkable plants can thrive in any environment.

A type of Fungi i have never seen before and i am researching the species.
I really hope you are enjoying the warm weather and keep your eyes open there are lots of butterflies emerging at the moment and the Dragonflies and Damselflies are also emerging take care Nature Man Andy.

Spring Tides At The Seaside

After a week of really changeable weather and knowing that the big spring tides were happening at the coast i took myself off to the complex of sand dunes and wide open beaches of Lytham St Annes .Spring Tides are caused twice a month at a time when the moon is closest and furthest away from the planet Earth the increase of gravity causes the sea to rise higher thus going out further as well,at  Lytham the tide will go out a quarter of a mile further at low tide exposing areas of beach only uncovered maybe twenty times a year,this area is rich in food for sea birds that flock to take advantage,two types of Worms found at the coast are the common Blow Lug Worm,and the much larger Black Lug Worm,the Blow Lug Worm lives in a u shape tunnel its head causing a dimple in the sand were it sucks in sand to obtain food, and a pile of squiggly sand showing where it has expelled the sand after filtering nutrients out.

Blow Lug Worm cast the hole is where the head lies and the squiggle of sand is where the sand has been expelled from the Worm.

The Black Lug Worm is a altogether different creature living down a vertical burrow up to two feet deep he sucks the sand and mud up from below him and then makes a large cast on the top of the sand ,if the cast has a hole in it it means the worm is within 2"of the surface .

Black Lug Worm within 2"of the surface.

Black Lug Worms live in concentrated colonies at the low tide mark.

The worms themselves can be as long as 18"but normally are between 6" and 10".The colours of he worm vary between black or brown with the hairs you see on the side of the worm its way of pushing itself up and down its burrow.

large Black Lug Worm 9" long note the hairs used to propel itself up and down its burrow.

On the day i was out on the beach there were also Hermit Crabs being exposed and the various seabirds were taking full advantage,These crabs have no hard shell, so use discarded shells as there own travelling homes moving shells when the old one becomes too small.

Hermit Crab tucked up in its host shell.

Another creature that is seen frequently is a type of Anemone called The Sea Potato it occurs in large numbers at extreme low tide marks and is covered in yellowish fine hairs.

Sea Potato.
There is a huge number of creatures at the extreme low water marks and next month i will explore more of these unusual creatures and their habitats,but moving on back up to the high tide mark i will try to explain what a wonderful job the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and its Dune Officer have done to create a new habitat for our native coastal plants.
If you go to the beach at Lytham you will see at the seaward side of the sand dunes a fence of wooden posts,these posts have been knocked in deep in to the sand,the idea behind this is that on the highest tides the debris from the tide is washed behind these posts and is left to be covered in turn by sand,this then creates a environment for new plants to grow,as the following pictures show this is being successful and new life is emerging all over the foreshore.

Fence posts looking towards Lytham.

Fence posts looking to Blackpool the area of new life is to the right of the posts.

New life springing from the sand.

Plants now growing and enriching the foreshore.
It really is amazing what is being achieved,these plants in turn will attract insects ,that in turn encourage bird life,so if you visit that part of the world please go and look at what i have described to you.As i made my way back to my car i came across some fungi in the sand dunes its amazing that where ever i go i nearly always seem to see some king of fungi.

Dune Brittle Stem fungi.

Dune Brittle Stem fungi

And nearly back at my car i found these two Snails mating ensuring populations for years to come.
As a closing piece my little girl Shannon 7 has just been awarded the Gold award at school with a display she made of some of the things she has found at the beach,Well done Shannon.

Shannon's display.
So if in the next few months you go to the seaside keep your eyes open for all the things we have seen here,and make sure you wash your hands before eating,keep your eyes open and have a great weekend Nature Man Andy.

A Floral Walk By The Riverbank

Nothing gets me more excited than exploring somewhere new and on a bright sunny day i went to a little place that i have driven past many times but never explored ,there is very limited parking but as i was to find the scenery and the wild flowers were outstanding.

You park your car on the opposite side of the road to this sign.

This is the footpath you follow.

This must have been a special place for some young man.

A view up river.

The river Brock going over a weir.

There is a good path all along the walk and the banks on either side of you are smothered with all types of wild flowers .

Ramsons or Wild Garlic .
The banks on both sides had the most amazing display of these pungent and delicious wild plants and on a warmer day the insect life must be amazing.

Welsh Poppy.

Honesty.
This is a wonderful purple flower that is all around the hedgerows at the moment.

Lords and Ladies flower.

Sweet Cicley not to be confused with cow parsley or the  deadly Hemlock.

Dog Violet.

Butter bur.

Red Dead Nettle.

Sorrel.

Garlic Mustard.

Purple Vetch.
There were so many more including Bluebells,lesser Celandine,and some species i had never seen before that i am looking up and researching at the moment, as i mentioned before there were was some good insects around but there will be even more as the weather starts to warm up here are a few examples of what i found on the day.

A beautiful Mayfly.

Hover fly.

This unusual fly had a huge nose and bright red abdomen.

Orange Tip Butterfly.
This butterfly tends to come out and last as long as the Mayflowers are out as its where the plain white female of the species lays its eggs more of this in the next few weeks as i focus on our butterflies.
When you reach the end of the walk it opens out to a pretty orchard with picnic area and seats you will also find a sign that explains all about the area.

This is a nice easy walk but be aware that the railway line runs right past the end so a noisy train might go past, the bird life as you can imagine with all the insects was pretty special as well birds seen and heard included
Swift
Swallow
Goldfinch
Carrion Crow
Wood Pigeon
Dipper
Grey Wagtail
Pheasant
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Long tailed Tits
Blue Tits
Chaffinch
Jay
Magpie
Kestrel.
So if you get the chance please go on this delightful walk, and if you are too far away i hope you have enjoyed this walk by the riverside, next week we will explore the wonderful world of crabs and their amazing life cycle take care and keep your eyes open Nature Man Andy.