I went for a nice walk down at the seafront the other evening. The tide was right out, so I went out along the beach to see what I could find !
I go to this place quite often because its not that far from where we live, hence easy to access. The tide goes really far out, and there is a causeway that leads over to an island out in the Firth of Forth (by Edinburgh). You can see the island in the distance in the pic above.
I went out along the wet sand. It takes this rippled effect, and the dots/lumps you can see are the spoil heaps from lugworm which bury into the sand.
I took the pic above at the waters edge alongside the causeway, where a ton of shells have collected. You can see the long razor clam shells which we get a lot of here. There are also small clam, winkle and the odd mussel shell in about that lot too.
I really like the causeway and am always taking loads of pics of it. I like how you can catch it in different light. You can also see different species settled on them in line with the differing colours. This includes shellfish in the bottom half (mostly barnacles) where the pillars get covered by the sea when the tide comes in and then as you get to the top you can see yellow lichen, where the pillars dont get covered by the sea.
I even found some treasure when I was out, in the form of the old pan above ! How lucky am I !
The thing I found most exciting when I was out was the jellyfish above. I quite like jellyfish and am always looking to see different types. The one above is a blue jellyfish. Although they are common in UK waters, this was the first time that I had seen one.
I went right out for about a mile to where I was level with Crammond Island. Those old structures are from World War 2. You can see someone has painted the St Andrews Cross (the flag of Scotland) on the end there.
I walked along the waters edge and found this old concrete pipe sticking end up out of the water.
The pic above helps to give an idea of just how far out the tide goes here. You can walk for ages when the tide is low - you just have to be aware of the tide times to make sure you dont get caught by the incoming tide.
On the way back I stopped roughly in the middle to take a panorama of the whole causeway.
I then crossed over onto the causeway path to walk back as I was getting quite tried from walking on the sand - it saps your energy.
Just as I was getting to the end of the causeway and back onto land I spotted these two mallard ducks (the male has the green head, the mottled brown one is a female) having a swim in a small tidal pool. It was quite weird because it was about the smallest pool around by a long shot. But somehow it was they one they fancied most !
Well, I really did enjoy my walk, and particularly finding the blue jellyfish !
That wraps up another wednesday walk for me - all the best from Scotland !
