Beside the seaside

By Anna Claybourne

Seasides are unlike anywhere else! Twice a day, they change from being land you can play or build a sandcastle on, to being under the sea.

As the tide rises, it flows up the beach, covering it in seawater. High tide

Imagine you were a rock pool creature – you’d get new bathwater twice a day!

Life Between The Tides

Then the tide falls and ebbs away. Low tide

We call it the beach, but scientists call the area between high tide and low tide the intertidal zone.

Intertidal wildlife can survive in this ever-changing habitat. Let’s meet some of the locals!

Some sea creatures burrow into the damp sand near the sea, so that they don’t dry out.

Lugworms lie in their burrows, like this. They swallow sand, take out tiny bits of food, then poo the sand out again, creating little wiggly worm casts!

But these hungry shorebirds know the worms are there, and they use their long beaks to pull them out.

Bar-tailed godwit Mmmmm… lunch!

Flat topshell snails get washed ashore between tides. Their shells have a little ‘door’ called an operculum, which they close to stay safe and damp until the tide comes back.

I’m an animal, NOT a potato!

The heart urchin or ‘sea potato’ burrows into the wet sand and breathes through a hole.

Seaweeds wave and float in the water at high tide. When the tide is out, you can find them on the shore.

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