Mermaids Tears

Finally back on the patch after too-long an absence. It was bright and breezy, with the odd icy  shower thrown in, a brisk northerly keeping the temps well down. The weather wasn't conducive to finding passerines and as a result the list of species recorded in the notebook was poor for October.

A walk along the track first, checking the Budge fields and big pool from the hide then a walk back along the beach, with nothing really noteworthy seen along the way. A covey of twenty one grey partridges in the dunes was impressive, so was the sea, boiling after the recent northerlies.

We were saddened to find a lot of mermaids tears along the strandline.

Mermaids Tears

The technical name for these 'mermaids tears' is nurdles. Nurdles are small plastic pellets and this is the form in which plastic as a raw material is transported around the world. Nurdles get into the sea directly from plastic factories via the the drainage and river systems, they also leak from containers and ships. 

Nurdles can now be found on virtually any beach in the world. Mermaids tears are ingested by sea creatures, including birds, which are both poisonous themselves and attract other toxins in the water, poisoning the creatures that swallow them.

see http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-mermaid-tears.htm and http://www.sas.org.uk/pr/2007/mermaids_tears_1.php for more gen on mermaids tears.

The recent storms have changed the beach profile dramatically, taking the dune fronts back a foot or two. I have never seen the second row of tank blocks exposed this much in all the years I have been going to Druridge.

Second row of tank blocks well exposed

tank blocks

There was nice light this afternoon

Druridge Beach looking south

I was also disappointed to see the appearance of second Dalek by the entrance to Druridge.

Not one, but two pointless bins

When will people learn that bins in rural, coastal locations don't work? Not only do bins and other bits of pointless clutter ruin the countryside, they actually cause more litter than they solve. People who get as far as these bins have already made the decision to take their litter with them. Moron's who drop litter will drop it no matter how many bins there are. All that will happen now is that they will fill with picnic waste and chip wrappers, people will dump stuff by them and the gulls, crows, foxes and badgers will tear the lot to shreds and scatter for it miles.

I despair, when are people going to be made to be responsible for their own actions, if you take stuff out into the countryside, take the rubbish home with you!!