Alas, Poor Fulmarus glacialis...

Half a lifetime of beachcombing has left me with a box full of artefacts picked up from the strandline, including a collection of seabird skulls. I know that's a little weird (as my wife often points out) but these are fascinating pieces of evolutionary architecture. What strikes you immediately, when you first pick them up, is the combination of lightness and strength. The structure is pared down to the absolute minimum that's consistent with their function. Then there are those massive eye sockets, testament to the important of acute vision in these marine scavengers and predators. And the beak. The example above, identfied by Nyctalus, is a fulmar Fulmarus glacialis. The functional part of the beak - the buff-coloured section with that wicked hooked tip that probably hacked at innumerable food items during the bird's lifetime - is made of keratin, the same protein that forms our fingernails. In the dead bird it simply slides off the jaws and the lower beak has been lost in this specimen, while partial decay of the keratin in the upper beak has accentuated the hook at the tip, which is made of thicker, tougher keratin.

There are times when a bird's bill looks decidedly dangerous and you can't help wondering whether that glint in this gull's eye suggests that it's considering the possibility of tackling larger prey....

The second skull, above, belongs to a guillemot and in this one the keratin beak is still present on both upper and lower mandibles. Notice how, in the view from above, the upper beak is slightly curved to the right. Minor deformities are apparently quite common in birds' beaks. In this species the slim, streamlined head, adapted for diving, is a distinctive feature.

When the Boat comes in.......

I like places that celebrate their heritage. This cavorting fish....

..... pursued by a long line of similar-shaped ridge tiles chasing its tail ......

.... and the fish motif on the street lamps..

.... and on the end of the public benches on the quay, where you can sit and eat your fish and chips, mean that you could only be ......

... in North Shields

Undulating Mosses

Steve Gale, over at North Downs and Beyond, has recently commented on the excellent new Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland: a Field Guide, published by the British Bryological Society. My copy arrived today and it is excellent, if  a little intimidating - the number of species seems to have increased since the last time I looked closely at these intriguing little plants. Above is Atrichum undulatum, known as Catherine's moss, which has distinctly undulating leaves (double-click for a better image) and capsules that are like miniature pepperpots when you pull the lid off - illustrated here. I once read that it was named after Catherine the Great of Russia (and was originally named Catharinea undulata) but I've never found out whether this is true or what she might have had in common with a lowly woodland moss. I think the lower photo shows Plagiomnium undulatum, also with undulating leaves, decorated with a light rime of frost. Now I've bought the book, I'll have to get my money's-worth and try to identify the other 761 British moss species...