Beach Finds

The other day we went to the next village to post a parcel. It is  a few miles along the coast and was once a fishing village so there are still a few boats about. We decided to wander down to the shore and have a look across at the views.  The tide was coming in and it was a cool breeze, the clouds were low and it seemed as if might rain.  We sat for a while and then we decided to wander along the shore in the direction of our village, looking towards the Lakeland hills. It is a flat sandy beach,  with pebbles and stones and the sandy banks are suffering erosion from the sea.  There were all kinds of objects washed up, shells, seaweed, rope, mussel shells and odd shoes.  The sand was full of pebbles, stones and shingle and my first piece of blue and white china.

I start searching for treasures and we were not disappointed.

We found lots of different pieces of blue and white pottery, and pieces of sea washed glass.  The glass was all different colours and shapes, some had words and numbers from when they were bottles. I love finding the blue pottery,  I see a cream coloured flat shape and it looks quite boring, I pick it up and turn it over to reveal a beautiful fragment of a design and it gives me such a thrill.
Now my husband  is being enticed by the birds running along the sand and stones. He knows it is ideal territory for nesting, so he is keeping his eyes open and walking carefully.  He called me over to see what he had stumbled  upon.  At first I could see nothing and as he pointed,  I eventually focused on the little nest on the ground with three eggs.  It was so well camouflaged in the stones.  Why do you find things when you have no camera, next best thing his phone.

It was the nest of a" Ringed Plover". When we arrived home he looked it up in a book and it said they  like to build their nest on "shingley beaches",  so a perfect place to see them.  Then a little later he found a second one.

I can not tell you how hard it was to see  the nests on this beach amongst these stones.

they just look like four pebbles. 

He made sure he did not touch them and also brushed over his footprints near the nests to help keep their location a secret.  The birds were not far away, no doubt watching us. It was a real privilege to see the nests.  We then kept our distance from the area where they were.  We heard a Skylark singing high above us over the reeds. With my bag of treasures we turned around and walked back towards the village and to where our car was parked.  On the way back I carried the blue snail and the two tiny twisted pieces of seaweed in my hand, I knew they would be interesting to draw.

So here is the drawing from  our lovely  beach walk.

It is drawn with my acrylic inks using a number 3 and 4 sable brush and a dip in pen on the seaweed lines.
Hope you enjoy the walk on the beach.Thank you for your lovely comments.
All photographs on beach by my husband on his phone.                        Millyx