King of the Castle

Heron standing on rock at low tide at Lundin Links.

Boats at Low Tide

 Boats at low tide in Lower Largo Harbour.

Beadlet Sea Anemones

A row of beadlet sea anemones (Actinia equina) with their tentacles out. Note also the periwinkles tightly wedged above and the barnacles and limpets clinging to the rock.

In this photo can see the blue beads on the sea anemone on the right that give rise to the name.

Red Admiral

The sudden warm weather has brought the red admiral butterflies out in force. They seem particularly attracted to the valerian flowers in the garden. Although both red and pink valerian are growing together the red admirals seemed to be favouring the pink flowers.

Driftwood

A large piece of driftwood on the beach at Lundin Links. Looks a bit like a stranded crocadile.

Some nice grain markings in the driftwood.

Sea Urchins 3 - Aristotle's Lantern

The mouth of a sea urchin on the underside of the test (in situ above), contains five sharp teeth, which form part of a complicated structure, which I was fascinated to read is called 'Aristotle's lantern' because it was first described by the Greek philosopher in his 'Historia Animalium'. I carefully removed the structure from the test so that I could take photos.

The view from above.

Side view of the structure.

The view from below.

Outer and inner view of an individual tooth.

Sea Urchins 2

 Having found the outer casing or test of a sea urchin a couple of days ago, I was surprised to find another yesterday complete with all its spines still intact. The photo below shows the underside and the mouth which contains five sharp teeth.