Life is hotting up on the shore and the animals you find there have interesting ways of coping. Just how interesting in this mating season is one of the things you will learn on the Coastwise North Devon shore safari for the Festival, for June. Coastwise invites anyone interested to join them at Barricane Beach, Woolacombe on 16 June 2 – 4 pm, to learn more about the weird and wonderful wildlife of our shores.
The third year of Coastwise beach profiling got under way on 28th May with a visit a couple of hours ahead of the low tide, 1.3m, to Saunton led by Paula Ferris. She reports “Half a dozen of us monitored the shore and were delighted to find so much life and activity amongst the marine animals. It was a lovely day and the recent good weather has encouraged the hydroids to beard the undersides of the rocks, a sure sign for me that there will be an increase in sea slugs and other animals that feed on them.
The Discovery Day was held on a sunny Saturday in May, with a number of organisations taking part in this 50th year of AONB. The focus was on the discovery of life on the seashore, and this was carried out both outside on the beach area at low tide, and inside in the Sail Loft room upstairs at the Museum.
On 14th April Coastwise ran its first public Shore Safari.
It was a great start to a summer of events, and despite a grey and cool day at Barricane, over 25 members of the public turned up and enthusiastically enjoyed a more detailed look at the marine wildlife and ecology.
Groups started at the top of the beach and worked down through the various zones to very low tide level, noting the changes in flora and fauna.
Coastwise North Devon held its annual Downend Beach Clean (click link for picture) early this year as part of the Biosphere's Big Beach Clean Weekend, on 21st March. We were joined by members of Croyde Surf Club and Surf South West and had a record attendance of over 40 volunteers. Thanks to this excellent co-operative effort all the beaches and rocky gullies leading to the headland were cleared of rubbish in under two hours.
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