We went north in driving rain.
My friend, Chris and I enjoy a mid winter break each year in the north. We accept we are doing so in the middle of winter when the weather is more likely to be rainy than anything else. Maybe we have been lucky or maybe the weather really is better in the north but again this year we were blessed with glorious weather.
Not that we were terribly worried. It's winter, it rains, if it rains we will sit around and read, no problem.
But the weather cleared as we drove north and when we reached our destination late Thursday afternoon, it didn't matter what the next couple of days held, we had this image of the beach and our beach access.
More about all that tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime, what is this?
It seems that wherever there was kelp washed up on the beach there were these mounds of something attacking it. They looked like teeny weeny little white flies but they seemed to come up out of the sand.
Any ideas? Anyone?
Second shot is a little gem.
ReplyDeleteI bet those little flies are sand flies. If I, in my capacity as a campanologist, had found em that's what I'd have called them.
PS. If you get a second straighten up the horizon..........many thanks.
Haven't a clue! Well, there are quite a few clues but I don't know the answer.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing Pauline. I've never seen that happen before. I should be very interested to know. So far the internet has thrown nothing up. But CJ's on the case.
ReplyDeleteJust found a great video but it doesn't help much!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoupAJwE3mU"
It looks like they are some sort of amphipod - of which there are thousands of species including sandhoppers. The Goddess Wike tells us -- "Although they are very abundant, widespread and diverse, amphipods do not feature strongly in the public imagination. Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing wrote in 1899: No panegyrist of the Amphipoda has yet been able to evoke anything like popular enthusiasm in their favour. To the generality of observers they are only not repelled because the glance which falls upon them is unarrested, ignores them, is unconscious of their presence."
ReplyDeleteThank you - that was fascinating.
nature's recyclers. the 5th photo reminds me of a fossel in the natural museum in houston. - can just imagine that the original plant went through the same process before being preserved.
ReplyDeleteThe view of the beach, in wind, rain or storm, is gorgeous. We have booked a few days up in Tofino for November, and it will look a lot like that.
ReplyDeleteThose bugs make my skin crawl! Something very Science Fiction-Horror Show about them.
fascinating!!!
ReplyDeleteIntriguing, but I have no idea. Perhaps they don't exist this side of the great divide.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely time.
Love the view from that window! But, those critters make my skin crawl...ewwww.
ReplyDelete