Beachcombing on Arran

1. Sannox beach

Beachcombing and rock pooling are great to pass an hour or two regardless of the weather.  It goes without saying the Arran has some beautiful beaches and plenty of them - being an Island! But not having an hour or two and in need of something for my blog, I challenged myself to photograph 10 different things, on the beach, in 15 minutes.  Setting photographic challenges for myself are good practice and loads of fun.

2. Driftwood

Beautiful sandy beaches can be found at Kildonan, Machrie, Sannox, Brodick, Blackwaterfoot and Kilmory (to name a few) but predominantly the beaches are pebble. Sannox just happened to be my port of call for these photo's - possibly not my best choice (sand and cameras are not very compatible) but that was my location so off I set, parking in the lay-by and using the stepping stones to access the beach (3 minutes gone already!)

3. Bivalve seashell (unknown type)

Sand or pebble all have tides which leave debris on the high tide mark, perfect for a bit of extra scrutiny. It's easy just to walk along the tide line and not really see what's under our feet - or maybe we're distracted by the sea birds and scenery?

4. Periwinkle

The day was really quite pleasant, a little breezy with the sun poking out every now and again.  The beach was deserted - not unusual for Arran! Most of the debris looked fairly routine, limpets, razor clam and mussel shells, seaweed, nylon fishing net and bits of drift wood. And I have to say, not a lot of plastic.

5. Whelks and limpets

But then the bright yellow periwinkles caught my eye and some whelks. Periwinkles come in a range of colours from white to orange with red stripes.

6. Seaweed, probably a type of wrack.

On picking through a patch of seaweed I noticed the fine detail on the leaf, which I think are called 'blades'.  Seaweed is a fascinating plant, it can survive extremely saltly water, being submerged for hours in freezing temperatures, drying out in baking sunshine, being battered by storms and feet and manages to survive! The seaweed on the shore varies and the ones found nearer the upper and middle shore have longer blades and often have 'bubbles' or floats.  Those nearer the lower shore have broader blades, but this is a big generalisation! The seaweed I looked at was a type of wrack, but I don't know which one.

7. Worm casts on shell

A bit more digging and I found the remains of a crab.

8. Eye socket of crab shell

Then a dried out starfish with only 4 legs left.

9. Remains of a starfish

And it was back to the seaweed.  This is part of the root system known as a hold fast.  But I'm not duplicating a photo of seaweed here.  I draw your attention to the fine white bone like chains entwined within.  I've no idea what they are but that was photo 10. Challenge complete and within the 15 minutes! Even though I got distracted with some duplicates (see more below).

10. Fine bone like structure entwined in seaweed holdfast.

3a. The beautiful shiny inside of the shell

4a. A white periwinkle

8a.  A crabs claw