After last night's 0340 beer-fuelled bedtime we started a bit late and hit Par beach again. We followed the tide out as it receded to its lowest point and started digging. The wind was gusting and Dan's daughter had fun chasing her plastic bucket across the extensive sandflats and generally getting messy and wet in the process. We dug for the elusive Masked Crab, again without a sniff of success although we buried a dead one with just the tips of the antennae showing so we knew exactly what to look out for. We found a Snakelocks Anemone and Dan asked if I was going to tick the symbiont alga in the tentacles....er what?!?! Apparently the green colouration is the alga not the anemone. I decided to search the internet for details when we went home again. Quitting digging for a while we checked the breakwater noting masses of Common Mussels. Bet there are plenty of Pea Crabs in them...how to check though? Suddenly I realised the tubeworms all across the rocks were the same as the ones I'd drawn in my notebook and planned to keep an eye out for. They were Serpula vermicularis, looking through the handlens I could see the funnel-shaped operculum moving in and out as the animal moved about (breathed?) inside the tube. A bit of liberal dousing and I caught a flash of bright red, part of the animal itself. It was then that Dan's daughter decided to fall over and soak herself in a pool. Much crying ensued (it was pretty bloomin cold!) and Dan quickly hustled her back to the car for a swift change of clothes. I gave it another 20 minutes digging but the sand was mysteriously unproductive. I took a few worms back anyway.

That evening we hit a known Greater Horseshoe Bat roost in a nearby valley. Setting the bat detectors to 80khz we approached the site, part of a disused clay works and noticed the roost chamber was missing its 'bat roost' sign and the gate was fully open. We could see a beer can inside. We eventually decided to investigate, the room was completely devoid of bats despite the fact that it was still too light for them to have left the roost. We saw plenty of Cave Spiders and another beer can. We quickly left, closing the gateway behind us. Dan knows the rangers and management team so will investigate further. We had one large, pale bat whoosh around us and a short while later we picked up a 45khz pip but that was it. Not even moths were flying and a vague mistiness had descended. We aimed the bat detector at a building which has a Lesser Horseshoe Bats roost in the roof. Changing to 108khz we waited and again drew a blank. Last attempt was a nearby woodland. We arrived to find a large sign telling us that the woods were closed - tree felling crews had come in and several felled trees had disappeared into mine shafts! We didn't fancy wandering off piste in the dark with vegetation-covered, uncapped mineshafts randomly dotted around.

Back at Dan's place I did quite a lot of internet trawling regards the alga found in Snakelocks Anemones. It seems that lots of corals and some anemones and sponges, amongst others, have photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae in their tissue. I wasn't about to pay dollar to download scientific papers but eventually I was happy that there appears to be just one photosynthetic alga that is a symbiont with Snakelocks Anemone - whether in The Pacific Ocean, The Med or the English Channel and that alga is Symbiodinium microadriaticum. Haha, this is the kind of thing I love! Ticking obscure algae from inside an anemone, who'da thunk it :)

So, not a hugely productive day but all good fun anyway. Wonder what's happening up at that bat roost though...

Just to keep things lively, here's a bat I photographed a few years ago. Suggestions as comments below - big clue: this pic was not taken in Europe!