News from the Visitor Centre

It's all happening here in the safe confines of the Natural History Trust. Our  first Small Tortoiseshell emerged this morning but has yet to be released due to the wet weather. We now have one adult Small Tortoiseshell, lots of Small Tortoiseshell chrysalises, lots of growing Peacock caterpillars and quite a few still quite tiny Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars. Oh, and one big Small Tortoiseshell caterpillar, which, like Peter Pan, just doesn't seem to want to 'grow up'.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly and chrysalises

Our Sea Hares are settling in well and are one of my favourite exhibits. Here is a photo of their pink eggs which we are excited about seeing hatching. Look out for these worm like eggs when walking on the shore and take care not to stand on them. They are often washed up on seaweed on the tide line, where they will hopefully be washed back into the sea at high tide.
Becky

Sea Hare eggs

The latest from the visitor centre

I couldn't resist including this one of a prawn and my favourite - the piecrust crab!

Sea Hares (Aplysia punctata)

Dahlia Anemone

Our new Shark display

Our Sea Hare tank

I've had a great day adding to the Shark display and our newest arrivals, the Sea Hares. Two of the four creatures of the latter are getting to know each other very well, and seem to be mating! I also added a dahlia anenome to the main tank.


Lorna

Sea Hare at Saligo

We were a bit late for low tide today, but we still managed to find this delightful sea hare in a rock pool at Saligo. Lorna held it to demonstrate how it gradually emerges after being lifted from the water, taking care to keep it in contact with the sea water while she held it. It really is a fascinating creature and worthy of more research I feel! . . .
Becky

Rockpooling at Port an Eas

Lorna is here for a week and wrote this about our expedition yesterday:

Yesterday mum and I explored Port an Eas, along the way seeing raven, hooded crow, whinchat family, stonechat, whitethroat, linnet, meadow pipit and skylark. We also saw lots of butterflies, a few damselflies, and two Common Hawker dragonflies. Having made it down to the sea, we sat on the lichen and seaweed covered rocks by the sea to enjoy a snack, and see what was visible underwater, without a fishing net. We were very excited when we spotted first one, then two, then an abundance of Stalked Jellyfish of different sizes sucking onto the green seaweed. The last time we saw this species was about four years ago. We also enjoyed watching a friendly Shore Crab, and many Sea Hares. Most of the latter were no longer than a fingernail, but Mum found this large individual! We also saw three or four Gannets fly past.


Stalked jellyfish at Port an Eas

Stalked jellyfish are sort of trumpet-shaped. They attach themselves to fronds of seaweed, positioned upside-down compared to other jellyfish, with the tentacles projecting upwards, and the stalk located in the centre of the umbrella. They like cold water and are often found close to the shoreline. Some species detach themselves from their substrate and move by somersaulting over to another substrate! I'd like to see this happening.
Becky