They're best seen on a rising tide, when its first waves wash up across sand which has been exposed for some hours, when a surface which looked perfectly smooth suddenly....
....comes out in what looks like very nasty spots. Some of the holes resemble small volcanoes or pustules, perhaps two to three centimetres across, some occur in lines or in carefully spaced meshes, some are larger and randomly spaced, while others....
....occur in neat pairs. When the sea first washes over them these ones emit large bubbles which last for a few seconds then stop, and when the sea runs back the holes have disappeared, as if whatever is resident in them was caught napping and took a moment or two to block their holes and stem the flood.
These larger paired holes sometimes occur in ragged lines. The groups of holes are also well spaced, as if their residents don't enjoy neighbours. Some parts of the beach have no holes while others are covered in them.
I assume they are worm holes, perhaps with different species of worms in residence. 'I assume' but, in a quiet way, I'd quite like to know, not because I don't like mysteries but because otherwise these holes will represent yet another vast area of Nature about which I will probably now never know anything.
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