Headed off to Gribben Head today, same site we found a Crimson Speckled resting in the grass a couple of years ago. This time we aimed for the small beach just east of the head in order to get to grips with some rockpooling fun. Dan is pretty hot at rockpooling and usually trumps my finds with even better ones. Things started pretty weirdly - I was at one end of a long rockpool, Dan and my missus Sami were at the other end. I had my nose at the water surface when I heard a loud splash close by. I looked up to find Sam and Dan staring at me...what??? "Did you throw that at us?" they asked. "Throw what?" I confusedly asked. "This bloody great big starfish! Did you throw it at us?" I just looked back blankly whilst the Herring Gulls soared overhead. Ah, the gulls! It appears that my first ever Spiny Starfish fell from the sky and onto our lists, a novel route :D

Lots of the usual stuff in the rockpools, various snails, anemones, quite a few Blue-rayed Limpets were under rocks rather than on kelp holdfasts which I'd not seen before. Sam found three Sea Hares under a rock and a Shore Clingfish was the best fish I located. Couldn't get it off my hand and onto my nose for a pic though! Worm Pipefish, a Bootlace Worm, lots of Green Sea Urchins, Common Brittlestars, a few Sea Stars, masses of Broad-clawed Porcelain Crabs, a few Velvet Swimming and two or three Montagu's Crabs were other highlights. Todays lifers for me were several  SPINY STARFISH Marthasterias glacialis, EUROPEAN STING WINKLE Ocenebra erinacea, SLIPPER LIMPET Crepidula fornicata (I've previously seen masses of empty shells but this was my first live one!), GREY SEA SLUG Aeolidia papillosa and COMMON TOWER SHELL Turritella communis. My last lifer at the rockpools was found by Dan and confirmed through a very neat and simple trick. A large outcropping covered in barnacles stood in front of us. Dan said "watch this, you're looking for a neon blue flash" and tipped some seawater onto the barnacles. Sure enough as they momentarily opened their valves I saw several with bright blue edges to the inside of the valves, looked like a teeny weeny Eye of Sauron with blue eye-liner!!! The blue flash confirms the species as POLI'S STELLATE BARNACLE Chthamalus stellatus. Very cool indeed.

Back on dry land I spotted a large patch of Ramsons and soon found the target of my search - RAMSON'S HOVERFLY Portevinia maculata, a smart-looking hoverfly that is exclusively associated with Ramsons. The larva live in the bulb, the females hang around unobtrusively below the leaves and the males sit on sunlit leaves looking very blooming obvious! I saw several, all males and even managed a couple of crappy pics. Cool, I love it when a targeted search comes up trumps on the very first attempt! Rhingia campestris was also seen, one at Alexanders. For a widespread fly I'm surprised that this is only my second sighting of the species. Balm-leaved Figwort lined the verges all the way back to the carpark. What a lovely place, I love The Gribben!