This was the scene at Littleferry at ten this morning - in huge contrast to what we've experienced from the weather in the last few days. The temperature last night dropped to 1C, so the grass on the links had a rime of frost which burned off quickly as soon as the sun touched it, and the wind died away completely.
But the peace of this scene was in sharp contrast to the beach where....
....the sea had removed vast quantities of its sand, the high tides during Babet eating in to the dunes at the top of the beach and leaving....
....masses of dead sea life - starfish, urchins, bivalves - which, one assumes, used to have happy homes in the kelp and other weeds that now lie strewn across the beach. Along with them we found....
....seven sad corpses, all razorbills, a species which seems to have taken the place of the suffering guillemots last winter.
Further along the beach towards Golspie the extent and ferocity of the recent seas was evident in the great piles of weed that were heaped upon the sands, much to the delight of the local gulls.
This was the scene at Littleferry at ten this morning - in huge contrast to what we've experienced from the weather in the last few days. The temperature last night dropped to 1C, so the grass on the links had a rime of frost which burned off quickly as soon as the sun touched it, and the wind died away completely.
I have spent a while admiring the beautiful assortment of beach pebbles in your picture. Presumably, past glaciers and rivers of meltwater have brought down the variety from higher elevations, mixing the igneous and metamorphic history into one fascinating collidascope. Please show more close-ups and add a geological tutorial if you are able.
ReplyDeleteYes, the pebble variety is impressive. Some of the pebbles found along the East Anglian coast came from Norway. I would be surprised if the same weren't true here. As for writing about them, that would mean brushing many layers of cobwebs off my geological knowledge.
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