Another Fascinating Inter-tidal Event at West Beach Local Nature Reserve

Another session on the West Beach Local Nature Reserve at littlehampton in West Sussex.

As before we met at the visitors centre. It was a hot sunny day and a nice sized group of adults and children gathered for the tide pool session.

This time the tide was out further providing better access to the pier and tide pools.

We found lots of creatures attached to the rocks and pier including mussels, barnacles, limpets, periwinkles, top shell and dogwhelk. More about these in the previous post Saturday 11th August.

We also found some sea anemones, but they were closed up because the tide was out.

I drew a sea anemone in the sand to show what they looked like underwater and told them some facts about sea anemones.

We found lots of green shore crabs in the pools, last time the tide was not out as far and we only found a couple of tiny crabs.

We caught a few for a closer look. I asked the children questions about the crabs such as what they eat, how they catch thweir food, etc.

We also looked at how crabs can be picked up safely without being pinched and without harming the crab.

We also found lots of prawns, tiny shrimp-like amphipods and some small rockpool fish.

These tiny fish are juvenile common blennies.

We found lots of different animals in the tide pools and everyone said they had a great time. It is hoped that by running such guided session, people will come back and explore the beach or use what they have learned to explore another piece of coastline.

You can find out more about the West Beach Nature Reserve at http://www.arun.gov.uk/main.cfm?type=WESTBEACHRESERVE&objectid=4399