I did my nature walk along Hampton Beach shore line in Hampton, New Hampshire (very close to the border of Massachusetts). I took my walk from 8am-9am in the morning and it was high tide. It is a nice sunny day today with temperature in the 70's. I saw some plants and animals, don't know if it would find any fungi on the beach setting maybe on the jetty, I will return when it's low tide. Along the water line there was a lot of seaweed and shells. The shells are a sign of what is in the ocean as it washes the shells to the shore, I am curious to see what else I find when it's low tide. I usually find sand dollars on this beach but didn't see any today, but I also didn't go in the water as it is very cold (Atlantic Ocean). On the dunes there's a lot of grasses and stalky pants, they aren't close to the water so I assume their man water supply is rain. There is not a lot of plants near the water/shoreline, I wonder if it is because of the salt water and the human traffic near there. I was hoping to go on the jetty as I would find a lot of different organisms there because it's ecosystem changed between water and land. I plan to go back later and see if I can find anything new. I saw the obvious animals of the beach, seagulls, but Hampton Beach is also home to piping plovers which is an threatened species (per google) and they lay their eggs in the dunes. If I was deep in the water I'm sure I could've found some fish too. There were no trees on the beach, as there is no soil (at other beaches there may be trees but not here at least). I would say the beach is not very biodiverse, but that the ocean definitely is! I'm sure there's lots more organisms in the oceans/shorelines that just weren't visible to the eye!
I did my nature walk along Hampton Beach shore line in Hampton, New Hampshire (very close to the border of Massachusetts). I took my walk from 8am-9am in the morning and it was high tide. It is a nice sunny day today with temperature in the 70's. I saw some plants and animals, don't know if it would find any fungi on the beach setting maybe on the jetty, I will return when it's low tide. Along the water line there was a lot of seaweed and shells. The shells are a sign of what is in the ocean as it washes the shells to the shore, I am curious to see what else I find when it's low tide. I usually find sand dollars on this beach but didn't see any today, but I also didn't go in the water as it is very cold (Atlantic Ocean). On the dunes there's a lot of grasses and stalky pants, they aren't close to the water so I assume their man water supply is rain. There is not a lot of plants near the water/shoreline, I wonder if it is because of the salt water and the human traffic near there. I was hoping to go on the jetty as I would find a lot of different organisms there because it's ecosystem changed between water and land. I plan to go back later and see if I can find anything new. I saw the obvious animals of the beach, seagulls, but Hampton Beach is also home to piping plovers which is an threatened species (per google) and they lay their eggs in the dunes. If I was deep in the water I'm sure I could've found some fish too. There were no trees on the beach, as there is no soil (at other beaches there may be trees but not here at least). I would say the beach is not very biodiverse, but that the ocean definitely is! I'm sure there's lots more organisms in the oceans/shorelines that just weren't visible to the eye!