Our second group event- Whitfords Nodes beachwalk

Our second event was held on the 20th March, and was a early morning beachcombing walk at Whitford Nodes beach. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the late 20s. Five families took part this time, although my girl had to stay at home with her dad due to the dreaded snifflies. The event began with a quick play in the playground......

 

We then headed down to the beach for our beachcombing activity. We were lucky we were able to supply some activity sheets and a beachcombing guide to the participants courtesy of the Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre website (the NMDC is an education centre based in Hillarys) to make our event more fun and informative. As I didn't have a little "Natural Wonder" in tow I was on litter and photo duties!

Here are a few things we found washed up on the beach!



 

Adam and Lily find a cuttle bone





















The first item was found by Adam and Lily, a cuttlefish bone. This is a common sight on a sea shore. It is the internal shell of a cuttlefish and is made up of tiny air sacs which aid in flotation.


Sausage Jelly



I found a couple of squishy jelly looking sacs and after consulting my beachcombing kit, learnt that they were sausage jellies, which are the egg sacs of snails!



Fibreball (posidonia seagrass)



Possibly another fibreball



We found several lumps of seagrass called fibreballs which are fomed by decaying leaves being tangled together.



 

 

 

Mollusc shells



 

Paddleweed



The Reeves found a selection of mollusc shells and I found a small clump of paddleweed, which like its name suggests has paddle shaped leaves. Dugongs generally eat this type of seagrass. I also found some brown sponge

 which had lost its pretty colours.



Sea Sponge







Nicole, Karena and Ryan create sea creature shapes

 Before too long the littlies became tired so we relaxed, enjoyed the beach, played sandcastles and created sea creatures in the sand





Andrew and Marcus making some really cool castles



 

  

The contents of our litter bag: only a few bits of plastic and some cigarette butts



  

 Chrissy and Lily...... leaving only footprints of course  :-)

Thanks to the families who came along to our second event, I hope you and your kids had a great time. I was so glad that our litter bag hardly required filling up, the beach was pretty clean!

Our next event will be on the 17 April at Whiteman Park, so stay tuned for more information!