Rockpooling in Blackpool

Last Sunday we went to Blackpool to meet up with Dave McGrath (@DaveyManMcG) to do some rock pooling which was really fascinating and great fun. The traffic was chaos and we only just made it in time as we arrived at the wrong end of the prom and had to drive right down the promenade dodging trams, horses and carts and thousands of people.

We met up with Dave at the Solaris Centre and had a quick tour of where he does his pond dipping and then we got to meet one of the starts of the day,  Dave's friendly dog Frank.

Of course we were with quite a few other people and it was great to see other children taking a shine to nature in this way. We started off with all the safety rules, however after that we were free to do what we wanted and to find what we could. We were rockpooling just in front of the giant mirror ball.

The water in a lot of the pools was crystal clear which let us see some great anemones opened up.

Beadlet Anemone

There were one or two jelly fish about including this one below.

Compass Jellyfish

It was great to have expert Dave on hand to help identify everything we found including shore crabs, Blennies, Prawns, Shrimps, Masked Crab, Spiny Cockle, Otter Shells and all sorts of wonderful creatures, and some that I have never seen before.  I learnt about the Masked Crabs that you might feel tickling your feet with their long spiky tongue if you stand still on the wet sand.

Masked Crab

Of course I had to look out for the birds, plenty of Oystercatcher and a couple of Turnstones (that Dave said had only recently arrived).

I thought wearing wellies would keep my feet dry however that didn't really work out as planned. They don't protect you that well when you're crawling through the rock pools.

Should have taken my watch off as well!

Of course a big thank you to Dave (and Frank) for inviting me and letting me have such a great opportunity to discover nature in a completely different environment.

I'm hoping to go Long Eared Owl spotting with Dave again soon and of course he has to come and see the birds on my patch.