2 minute beach clean

I was out on a different beach today, just a little further down the coast from us at Brean. Brean is a very small village with lots of different accommodation for holiday makers – campsites, caravan parks, rental property, holiday lets, holiday camps, pleasure parks… and so on. There’s a long sandy beach – but don’t venture too far out as there is dangerous soft mud. At  the north end of the beach is a promontory called Brean Down. It’s a steep climb but worth it as there are fabulous views in all directions, and lots of interesting wildlife. There’s also the ruins of a nineteenth century fort on the end.

We parked near Brean Down and s we were about to go on the beach I spotted a sign:

My picture has cropped the top which said ‘#2minutebeachclean’. Bother, I thought, I should have brought my litter picker and a plastic bag… I am so forgetful! When I read the sign more carefully I realised there were litter pickers to borrow – great plan, the only problem, no bag… but I did have a small bag to clean up after the dog, better than nothing!

So off we set, and I have to say, that although I did pick up litter, there wasn’t a great deal of it, ad most of it was paper and tissue which probably just blew away. I did find a plastic bottle, a can, a polystyrene plate, a pair of swimming trunks and a huge cardboard box which had contained a wall mirror (which I couldn’t manage to carry) and lots of small pieces of plastic of various sorts – probably the most dangerous as easily ingested by birds, animals and fish.

When we came off the beach I disposed of the bag of litter and treated us to an ice-cream as a reward!

My featured image is of a small creature, a grasshopper probably, who I found on the seaweed. He might be a mottled grasshopper or a field grasshopper… Does anyone know?