Amazing Builders

Barry Yates
, 02 November 2015
Amazing Builders

I have been looking at wildlife washed up on the shore for most of my life, but it was only yesterday that I took a close look at the amazing structures made my by marine worms. I didn't have a hand lens to look at them, so used my binoculars the "wrong way round". When I saw the amazing detail I had to take a few home to photograph and thought I would share with you...

During the recent calm weather the shore has been littered with the delicate tubes (about 5mm diameter) built by marine worms. Normally these would be mostly buried in the sand, but with the onset of winter they have been washed ashore, but not yet smashed up by storms. I have seen two different types:

Soft tubes made of a jumble of shell fragments, tiny pebbles and sand... often ending untidily. These were made by sand mason worms. Read more here.

Hard smooth tapering tubes of carefully cemented sand grains, the wide end finishes very evenly. These remind me of Brandy Snaps but are engineered by fan worms, probably Pectinaria belgica. Read more here

So keep an eye out for tiny natural wonders... and follow TinyBirder

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