The White Cliffs in retreat

A cliff fall, quite close to the Bay, has made headlines in the last couple of days. It does look as it quite a good fall took place, and since it was in an area readily accessible a low tide it obviously has caused some concern.

Since we've lived here that have been several large rock and cliff falls, and unless I've misjudged this one, it isn't one of the biggest in that time. I'm not sure what the overall rate of retreat of the cliffs is, but if we are seeing a rise in sea levels and an increase in the number and intensity of storms it doesn't seem unreasonable to believe that we will see an increase in the rate of erosion.

The report I read said that several tonnes of rocks broke away, and it also says that a "Huge" section of the cliff fell into the sea. Solid Chalk has a density of around 2.5 gm/cc, so just a cubic metre weighs 2.5 tonnes. A massive fall would weigh quite a few tonnes, but I haven't been along with my tape measure to try to estimate the real size of the fall.

The young Naturalist.

Sam has already started to identify various birds, well groups at least. He can tell Toucans and Parrots as well as Ducks and Swans. Now Simon (our youngest and Sam's' Dad) has started him on some more difficult ID challenges.

I guess it's best if you don't cover up one lens with your gloves but it is a start at least. Simon took this picture earlier and it nice to know that another of the next generation is showing some interest. Today we did have a look at some garden birds.

We saw a lot of Chaffinches, there were up to 30 in the garden, but nothing more interesting joined them.

On the beach there's a lot to do, throwing stones is one of those irresistible things that everyone does.

We did find a couple of things to look at. This is the egg mass of the Common whelk - Buccinum undatum. These empty egg masses, known as 'sea wash balls', are often found on washed up on the beach and are sometimes mistaken for sponges.

One of the problems of being common is that you get called rude names. The Common limpet has a scientific name of Patella vulgata. A bit like the Common Starling that is Sternus vugaris. The Common Limpet is in fact extremely plentiful, but as the tide was up we had to do with finding empty shells. I'm sure that Sam will enjoy a bit of rock pooling in the summer.