The Lyons Share

I spent the weekend up north and went to the sand dunes at Blyth Bay in Northumberland. Now, I've not got much experience at working sand dunes and given how windy it was, the only thing I took with me was a sieve and a tray. It didn't take long to find invertebrates though. My highlight was loads of these quite large pseudoscorpions that even have an English name being the Marram Grass Chelifer Dactylochelifer latreillei. It's associated with Marram Grass on the east coast. Now, it's hardly a 400m long Shai-Hulud but another dune specialist I sieved from litter was the millipede Cylindroiulus latestriatus. I had a carabid tick too, all the Bembidions I saw were the same one, Bembidion aeneum. I'll be back in the summer.

I kicked up a single Snow Bunting from the dunes too, which was a nice surprise, it might even be my first for four years.