Sunday 10 June 2012

The Thing

A morning walk in the wind at Winterton was fairly quiet, however I did see the female woodchat shrike on the fence posts North of beach rd. It is the first female I have seen and although not as attractive as the male it was still a bit of a looker. It was struggling to hunt with the wind,  the dog walkers and a few birders walking by so I gave the bird some space and watched from a distance rather than trying to get a good picture.


While looking in the dune slacks I came across this rather interesting x creature. I have no idea what it could be and has me quite intrigued. It seems to have teeth all over it but not in a conventional way, it looked as if it had come from the sea by its bobbley skin but was a good 150m from the dunes which are 100m from the sea at best. There was something very other worldly about this thing. Can't for the life of me think about what it is. Any ideas???
EDIT: it appears to be a male Thornback Ray, quite deflated, how it got there I dont know. You can just about make out the eye between the bottom left 'thorn and the 2 thorns above it.


2 comments:

  1. Assuming it was dead - Thornback ray???

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  2. Looks like it could well be, I wonder how it made it over the dunes 250m from the sea! I cant find anything else that looks close, thanks.

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