18th September

A beautiful calm sunny day with vast expanses of soft sand, despite arriving more than  two hours after low tide. After the busy summer months, it is fantastic to have the beach virtually to myself... Moreover, it is unusually clear with Southwold as sharp as I have ever seen on the horizon to the north. 

The snails are still inhabiting the plastic... I am interested as to what attracts them to it - traces of what it once contained?  - traces of what it has accumulated in the sea?  -or is it just a good shelter?

Extraordinarily, I find a blue artificial flower petal identical  to those found on my last two walks. Quite a coincidence as I had cleared the beach on each occasion as there was relatively little debris...

low tide: 07.35 hrs, 0.9m; high 14.05 hrs, 2.7m

time of arrival: 10.14 hrs

weather: sunshine, wind 8mph WSW, temperature 15c
marine litter: typical and quite large haul of rope and line, polystyrence, cans, sanitary towels, plastic bags adn plastic pieces.

More snails on plastic...is this a preferred habitat now???

Are they feeding on the plastic or on something on the surface of the plastic?

the coast curves north towards Sizewell and Southwold

unbelievably, three walks, three identical pieces of flower...

6th September

 It's a wild day to start walking at the edge.

The winds are near gale force (though from the south so it's not cold) and the rain is persistent and near horizontal. The wind whips the sand into the air - I can only take photos with my back to the wind - and holding onto my bags of rubbish (especially once filled with polystyrene) is no mean feat! It's a sizeable and messy haul: lots of lightweight items, flung across the beach by the wind - sand is everywhere...

 Unable to walk south back into the sand and wind, I take the cliff path home.

low tide: 12.00 hrs, 0.8m; high xx hrs 2.5m 

time of arrival: 13.03 hrs

weather: rain, wind SW 24mph, gusting to 38mph, temperature 17c
marine litter: lots of lightweight items such as polystyrene (large pieces),  plastic bags and packaging but also quite a few cans too.

I imagined that the winds would wash vast quantities of debris onto the beach but my haul consists mainly of large pieces of polystyrene, remnants of sanitary towels and plastic bags (popular with snails, it seems...). And, of course, the occasional balloon. There is also an unusual amount of litter left by visitors to the beach - evidence, I am sure, of beach fishing in the previous days...