………….not to start a Limerick, but the latest of our annual visits to other shores.
At Jay Nicholson's invitation Heather Buttivant organised a long weekend visit for us in April, to Hannafore (R, top) and the lovely Talland Bay (R, 2nd and 3rd from top) which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Both locations provide a great contrast, to one another, and to exposed North Devon shores. None more so than Hannafore, shallow, sheltered, and seaweedy, colourful and rich in marine life as a consequence. Amidst the abundant seaweeds were several invasives with Harpoon weed dominant. whist nearby a rich green meadow of sea grass provided a very welcome sight, not seen before by most of us.as
The animal highlights included St Piran's crabs, beautiful anemones, the extraordinary Candelabrum cocksii hydroid and a huge variety of "jelly blobs" to tax our ID skills.
For Heather the find of the day was an uncommon nudibranch, Facelina annulicornis R, 4th from top), tricky to photograph on the shore. She also identified a juvenile scorpionfish (Scorpaena porcus) with its distinctive black and white colouring (R, 9th from top).
At Talland Bay the sheer delight of the sunny weather after the day before dominated. The rock-pools were filled with life including the main object of our searches – tiny Solar-powereed Sea Slugs, found as expected, on Codium.
Also noted were two grey sea slugs, Aeolidia papillosa with their egg mass (R, 8th from top), and several snakepipefish.
Several members extended their stay to accompany Heather on more shore explorations, and Jay is compiling a list of all our sightings to share with one another.
Thank you Heather for being, yet again, such a super friend to Coastwise. We couldn't have asked for more.