Grass beach ball

 Balls like this, composed of grass or other vegetation, turn up on beaches after storms, with the bits of grass having been rolled into a ball by the action of the surf. This one (c.3 inches, 75 mm across), on the beach at Uiskentuie, looks as if Fescue (Festuca) is the principal material. This grass grows abundantly on the Bridgend merse at the head of Loch Indaal.

Malcolm

Shells - Uiskentuie

Ewes on Uiskentuie Strand this morning

Glaucous Gull

Taken at near the burn mouth at Uiskentuie Strand this evening (in very poor light with a hand held compact at 1600asa!!).  Feeding on what I assume is a sheeps carcass.  I understand that this is a second year bird (although my grip of immature winter plumaged Glaucous Gulls is not that strong).  There were two birds there earlier in the day.
Carl

Brent Goose (Branta bernicla)

At the mouth of the Uiskentuie burn yesterday

"You must be joking!"

This was what my dog said to me today when I asked him to search the seaweed along the Uiskentuie Strand for any dead birds. This weekend is the national Beached Bird Survey run by the RSPB and I usually cover the two miles of the Strand. Merlin has proved adept this winter at finding dead things - several Guillemots, two Great Northern Divers, a Lesser Spotted Dogfish and a cat being among his finds. However, he was not amused at my command (more like a request, really) to search the substantial piles of seaweed that have been washed up by the spit in the last week or so.
Malcolm

You must be joking!

Nothing yet, and I am trying

There could be something here - how deep do you want me to dig?

Ok. Job done.

Uiskentuie strand

As you drive along the Uiskentuie Strand there is a steeply sloping, and in places scrub-covered, bank on the inland side. This is often (and wrongly) referred to as a raised beach. It is in fact the outwash from a glacier, a mass of stones and sand deposited by a river that flowed out of a glacier that once extended over this area. As the glacier retreated, it left all this behind. If you climb up the bank, you will see that it is up to 300 metres wide at the western end, with run-rig and old peat diggings on the top.
With the melting of the ice (once a kilometre or more thick), the sea-level rose as much as 30 metres, flowing over the bank (the trig point on it stands at 29 metres) and then gradually eroding it into the present-day steep slope as the sea-level fell. The final act of the sea, some 6,000 years ago, was to deposit a series of four gravel ridges close to the foot of the bank. There was once (1920s to 1930s and perhaps earlier) a nine-hole golf course on the ground between the bank and the road here. Even today, one occasionally sees a golfer practising his swing and knocking balls about, while passing motorists keep a very wary eye open for them!
Much of the above came from the booklet 'A Guide to the Geology of Islay' by Alex Maltman and others. Available to purchase at the INHT Centre.

Malcolm

Uiskentuie Strand with eroded bank of glacial outwash

The top of the bank showing run-rig and, in the distance, old peat diggings

Common Whelk (Buccinum undatum) encrusted with Keel worms (Pomertoceros triqueter)

This shell, probably of the Common Whelk which is a gastropod that lives relatrively close inshore and feeds on seaweeds, has been encrusted with the Keel worm, which is also common.  This one was found on the Strand near Uiskentuie yesterday.  Whelk egg cases are often found washed up on our shores, looking rather like scrunched up piles of beige bubble wrap.  Baby whelks are cannibalistic apparently - the first ones to hatch eat their siblings...

Above is a close up view of live Keel Worms.  You can see the feathery tentacles of this filter feeder sticking out of the end of the calcareous tube in which the worm lives. It is extremely common in all rocky areas of Britain's coastline where it can be found adhering to virtually any hard surface. In the photograph it has established itself on an area of encrusting red algae which itself has grown over a section of bedrock. It is a very successful animal as its hard tube appears to be resistant to the browsing activities of other animals such as sea urchins.

http://www.oceaneyephoto.com/

Carl