Patella | An Bollenessor

A trip to one of our favourite places today: Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula. The weather was such that snorkeling was a big no, but after some wind and rain, luckily the sun came out for a bit (which it should, it is July!). I took some macro shots of the rocks at low tide using my new Cygnustech diffuser. This contraption makes the flash light much less harsh, and is pretty much essential when taking (non-natural light) macro shots. This is one of the best diffusers out there and I can highly recommended it (are plenty of reviews are available online). Some of the shots were taken with the Raynox DCR-250 macro attachment in front of the macro lens for a little bit of extra magnification.

Anyway, there is not a lot of animal diversity on this battered coast of green and red serpentine rock: barnacles, dog whelks, mussels and limpets mainly. Above a selection of photos highlighting some small Dog Whelks (Nucella lapillus). This predatory species can come in many more colour varieties than we found today (see here for example). The limpets are either the Common Limpet (Patella vulgata) or the Blackfooted Limpet (P. depressa); you need to be able to see the animal to be sure. The barnacles are Montagu’s Stellate Barnacles (Chthamalus montagui) (I might have this wrong; I must confess I never really gave barnacles the attention they deserve). Not too spectacular but you gotta try something when you cannot take photos underwater!

The last day of January I took an hour to explore a pool at the upper part of Castle Beach. The resulting shots turned out a lot better than they did the last time. As most of the pools are bare rock, there are no problems with sand/silt, but they are very shallow and on the receiving end of drainage pipes resulting in rain water mixing with the salt water, affecting visibility (this is not necessarily bad as it can make a photo more interesting). It was overcast and I did not experience problems with overexposure; I actually found that tweaking in Photoshop made the photos look worse. Below a Beadlet anemone Actinia equina, the most common anemone on rocky shores. They can be bright red or a drab brown (the green version is rare here) but have bright blue beadlets, or more technically acroraghi. These contain stinging nematocsysts used in territorial fights. After that a small Daisy anemone Cereus pedunculatus, which are usually more mottled in appearance (and not common here, or perhaps I do not know how to look for them…).Next up, a red growth which I should have investigated further, I am not even sure if it is a sponge or something else. After that, a worn Thick top shell Osilinus lineatus, a young Dumont’s tubular weed Dumontia contorta, a red Banded pincer weed Ceramium sp. happily producing oxygen and finally Patella limpets covered in Brown limpet paint Ralfsia verrucosa.