At some stage during Easter our plans to take Mr B senior out for lunch were kyboshed by calling and finding he'd already been whisked away by Mr B's sister. Sis had taken him out in her camper van, with a view to spending a few hours at a beach.
We caught up with them in the carpark at East Selsey Beach.
You can't see the sea from the carpark. There is a very high earth embankment (higher than a camper van), a playing field (in which a couple of kids were trying to launch kites), an even higher concrete sea defence wall and finally a gravel beach with groynes at regular intervals to try and arrest the eastward migration of the beach material.
No one got out of the van. They might as well have stopped in a supermarket carpark in Chichester. I sauntered up to the beach (yes up - Ì swear that carpark is below sea level at high tide) and crawled into the lee of some defence works to do my daily sketch challenge (something that blows in the wind was today's prompt - a kite seemed like a good idea) and I got distracted picking slipper limpet shells out of the gravel and rubbing their little pink pearly insides.
The slipper limpet normally lives in stacks of up to 12 individuals, with the largest at the bottom and increasingly smaller animals on each other's backs
Communal living with a difference and another instance of creatures changing sex - I think it's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they are all non-binary and simply respond to the environmental stimulus.
DeleteOr draw lots....
DeleteOh, those photos bring back memories of the years we lived down in Worthing. The pebble beaches covered in limpet shells and strands of seaweed, with wooden groynes (unsuccessfully) stemming the tides. Happy days..
ReplyDeleteApparently they are an invasive species that arrived from the Americas on ships and are all over what had been the best oyster beds. They are edible (by humans) but we don't exploit them. Perhaps we should.
DeleteI did not know about the strange sexing of limpet’s. Even if you can’t see the sea. I guess they can hear it and it’s always nice to get away
ReplyDeleteSomeone somewhere had mentioned the strange fact about the one on the bottom being female just a few days before I was playing with empty shells - can't remember who or in what context; it might have been another blog. Anyway I decided to add it in there.
DeleteGosh you learn something new everyday - males turning into females. At least they aren’t being eaten by females like praying mantis are. What would be the reason for the sex change , are there any perks to the job?
ReplyDelete(I’m not sure where my comments are going - they aren’t being published so I’m assuming they aren’t reaching your comment moderation box)
Nothing in Spam - I check that daily as I have two regulars who regularly turn up there. Perks of being a female slipper limpet? Carrying all the males in her life.... wasn't it always thus?
DeleteI smiled at the anecdote about parking in a carpark next to the sea. The number of times I have seen people park their caravans or motorhomes on a campsite and seem to go nowhere else. I don't see the point.
ReplyDeleteNeither to I Dave, but as someone pointed out at least you could hear it and smell it. I'm not sure they could - they sat in the van with all the windows closed because it was windy and 'cold' out there. Sun was shining - what more does anyone need? (a good coat perhaps)
Deleteto bad about the missed Easter Lunch. I have never seen or heard of the slipper limpet, not even in a photo and was shocked to find we have them in central and southern Florida which is where I live. Learn something new every day. not a great beach to visit for a car ride..
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't sound like a beach to me! More like a fortified encampment. I agree they could have parked anywhere and done as well! No accounting for taste. Evidently they were happy.
ReplyDeleteThat's West Sussex beaches for you - moving shingle, and lots of manmade structures to try and keep it in place. Look up flooding West Sussex on t'net and you will see that the sea invaded large chunks of it just a couple of nights ago.
ReplyDeletehttps://lindahoof.blogspot.com/2024/04/poppy-sunshine-pussy-willow-tulip.html?sc=1712758095577#c2523626136230013313
ReplyDeleteI have only seen slipper limpets on Dungeness beach with Sarah. They are enchanting little shoes for the wee folk. The beaches there are vastly different from ours and most interesting I fine. I brought back with me, a bag full of shingle, I left the slippers behind due to fragility. I love the clack clack sound of walking through shingle!
The NHS has been told off today for not handling that kind of thing properly. I'm also told that the manager of Chichester Sainsbury's would prefer you not to encourage the use of his car park by non-shoppers. Apart from that, I could look at those piles of shells for ages (so long as they are not in Chichester Sainsbury's car park).
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteAin't nature wonderfuls? The main reason I got my van, you know well, was to actually get out and about - but even I have had to sit inside it on several occasions this trip because battling wind and rain with a rollator AND an umbrella is just not the physical activity I need or desire! Am getting plenty in between though... YAM xx
You are considerably more active than even Mr B (Mr B senior is now essentially inactive apart from pressing pedals in his car) and that despite your need for the rolls. I wish I could get Mr B out and about.
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