Hi all,
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The growing pile halfway through
with the lucky find of the bin
bin bag as our carriers got full! |
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| Getting stuck into my beach clean. |
It was the last day of my Christmas holidays last Monday and I happened to be in the North East and near the coast. This gave me the chance to get to the beach. My family had been to Whitby earlier in the holidays which is a great place to walk round because of its history, it's great for fossil hunting around there as well, and Mum loves the shops too. We only got to do a bit of these activities though as it was high tide when we were in Whitby so the North East trip was another chance to walk on the sand and see what was about.
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| Heaving the haul back to our car. |
I'd also been keen to do a two minute beach clean since I'd seen the piece on Autumnwatch about the Gannets and how all of the plastic that finds its way into the sea affects them. There's a couple of photos here and I've written more about this for
my Guest blog on thewildoutside.com.
Well we didn't have too long for our walk and it was quite a wild day but we did manage to see a few bits of wildlife as you can see from the pics.
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| Herring Gull on a lamp post |
I enjoyed doing the beach clean and feeling like I had helped out but there were a couple of things that were a bit saddening. First, the stuff I had collected was just a tiny amount of what was on this stretch of beach, second it was a shame to see the wildlife having to feed around more litter like the Oystercatcher below!
Overall though I enjoyed the walk on the beach and seeing the gulls gathering on the rocks. We live in the middle of North Yorkshire and it takes a while to get the coast so I always enjoy seeing the sea and the sea birds. I'm looking forward to a trip to
Bempton Cliffs again when the Puffins are breeding. Last time I got there it had been a tough season for them so I hope this year they will have recovered a bit and there are more to see. I'm also looking forward to seeing the Gannets there that happily don't seem to be as affected by the plastic in the sea as the ones that Iolo saw on Autumnwatch (
you can see a bit of this video here).
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| Gulls and a little turnstone on a rock |
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Oyster catchers feeding and dodging
the kindly bagged up but
littered dog waste! |
Hope you enjoyed,
Z.
Great post - I do clean-ups too, in the lanes here - and confronted litter-louts too. What do you think would be a good way to get the message out there about littering?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer. I'm not sure but I want to try to do more as I think it should be such a simple thing for people to take litter home or put it in a bin. I'd like to get the message out there and will try with my school. Maybe we can get some other organisations like A Focus on Nature, Wildlife Trusts (some already do litter campaigns), Springwatch to raise the problem further.
ReplyDeleteI remember when our school went for a school trip to the beach, it would have been easy to do a little beach clean as part of the day but we didn't so maybe schools could do this. It's like learning about nature, litter and the environment needs putting in our lessons!
Thanks for the comment and btw love your sculptures :-)
Z.
That's great! It has got me thinking and realising I could (and will) do more to raise awareness and remind people of the damage littering can cause.
Deleteanother great read Zach. and well done on getting involved in a litter clear up. I always have small bags with me when I'm out walking with the dogs! I shall now make sure I take some larger ones and collect some of the rubbish that others leave.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed Roy. It's a shame we have to pick up other peoples litter but better that it is picked up rather than end up hurting wildlife.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. You made a massive difference. All that rubbish has now gone from the marine environment. Thank you from the #2minutebeachclean family.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, have done other beach cleans since then and will do more when I'm at the coast. Z
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