An evening walk at Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea Bay

Sanderling on Swansea Bay

Date:  24 July 2017

Location:  Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea

The weather has been really weird the last few days, so when the sun decided to shine at 6 o'clock we made our way to one of our favourite nature havens: Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea Bay.

I have written a few blogs on this special place and every time I visit I always discover something new. Now owned by Swansea University, this  SSSI designated area has an array of different habitats: salt marsh, woodland and sand dunes. We were only there for a hour and this is what we discovered...

Dragonfly - needs IDing

Evening Primrose flowers

The sandy dunes to the beach

When we got to the beach we noticed lots of jellyfish were being washed up on the beach (we counted over 20 ranging from small to gigantic ones). I think they are barrel jellyfish, but not 100% sure - be great if someone could confirm that they are.

Apart from the jellyfish there was a lovely group of sanderlings near the shoreline. I love the way the run away when the waves come in, then follow it back out...lovely little birds and a new spotting for #My200BirdYear (I am now on 124).

Sanderling

Sanderlings near the waves

Sanderlings with Mumbles in the background

On the way back to the car we spotted more interesting things such as a flock of linnets, a 11 spotted ladybird and a pellet. Crymlyn Burrows is one of my favourite places in the world, a great place to explore...

A flock of linnets

=

A ladybird

Some sort of bird pellet

Day 18 - 30 Days Wild - Beachcombing in Bognor

* Today's random act of wildness - Beachcombing *

Today we ventured to Bognor Regis to stay for a few days with Dan's dad for Father's Day. I was worried I wouldn't be able to do anything 'wild' but was surprised at the amount of rooks that were in the service station we stopped at. They were so confident walking in and out of the cars and sitting in the trees - they are lovely looking birds :)

Rook

Rook in the tree

It took us forever to get to Bognor from Swansea, but we eventually arrived around 3pm. After spending some time with Dan's dad we had a little walk on the beach to see what we could see.

Middleton on Sea is mainly a sand and shingle beach with encourages an array of birds from Oystercatcher to Sanderling - the weather wasn't that great and the only birds we saw were a few egrets, heron gulls and lots of starlings.

Egret

Egret eating seaweed

Starlings

Apart from the birds there were lots of interesting things among the pebbles including lots of Spider Crab shells and mermaid's purse.

Mermaid's Purse with other bits of wash up organic items

Whelk egg case

Lots of Spider crab shells

The beach with Butlins in the distance