A spot of rock-pooling

Mid-day low tide so went rock-pooling today at Whitburn rocks, Sunderland. It's not exactly the Great Barrier Reef but you can usually find something interesting.

Who can resist turning over rocks on the seashore? This shanny (?) Lipophrys pholis was under one in the middle shore and wriggled out of the water when disturbed.

Lots of young edible crabs, that adopt this characteristic pose when you pick them up by their crimped-pie-crust carapaces

This one was tiny, smaller than my thumbnail, and judging by its colour had recently moulted.

The rock pools were full of hermit crabs, with their jerky walk that makes them look like automata.

I think this is a very young shore crab, half-hidden in the wet sand under a rock, and .....

....... this is a larger one, very disgruntled and in defensive pose.

This was probably the most interesting find - a grey topshell that had recently spawned - you can see the developing embryos in the jelly, from which they'll hatch and enjoy a brief period as planktonic larvae.