The weather has been awful lately (October in the UK, no surprise there) with lots of wind. A good time for some beach combing! I have not done much of that actually (here one old post) but hope to head out more over the winter. Last week a large piece of a space rocket washed up at the Isles off Scilly, but I am willing to settle for something less exciting… We headed for Chapel Porth Beach west of St. Agnes on the North Coast, a very rugged bit of coast. Because of the rain and the sand blasting, it was not very suitable for the kids so we stayed only for a very short while. Plastic debris high on the shore, some pieces of dead bird and a big buoy covered in Goose barnacles Lepas anatifera and potentially Lepas hilli (thanks David Fenwick); I find it difficult to distinguish between the two.
A very large number of small Mauve stinger Pelagia noctiluca jellyfish had also washed up. I tried a couple of quick underwater photos but I should have taken a little more time to get them right. We then took the decision to head from the North coast to the South coast (which are only 25 miles apart), specifically Marazion at St. Michaels Mount. The weather can vary quite a bit locally and we figured it could only be better on the other side. The tide was still low and here the wind was onshore as well, however, not a single object seemed to have washed up. It kept raining and so we cut the beach combing short. Better luck next time!