Tag Archives: Saltmarsh

Natural History, Wetlands

Coastal Life: St Malo, Brittany, France (7 July 2014)

Marine in St Malo: Plush Soft Toy Lobster and Crab
Marine in St Malo: Plush Soft Toy Lobster and Crab

In St Malo, even the soft toys are marine invertebrates: lobsters and crabs, dressed in nautical striped shirts. The people are called Malouines: Malvinas in Spanish. The name is from Saint MacLaw, presumably a Scot, though that might not be sufficient grounds to claim that Las Malvinas, the ‘St-Maloers’ – better known as the Falkland Islands – are therefore inherently British.

Coastal vegetation zones at St Malo: from top: grassland with gorse; the orange sea lichen Caloplaca marina; the black tar lichen Verrucaria maura; green algae; (dark) brown algae.
Coastal vegetation zones at St Malo: from top: grassland with gorse; the orange sea lichen Caloplaca marina; the black tar lichen Verrucaria maura; green algae; (dark) brown algae.

Around the walls of the old town, black redstart, house sparrow, jackdaw, chaffinch, rock pipit, herring gull, lesser blackback, black-headed gull, oystercatcher, swift.

Set-aside meadow beside saltmarsh on estuary of La Rance. Egrets, Kestrel, Turtle-Dove, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Swallow, House Martin. Butterflies in the meadow Large White, a Fritillary, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White.
Set-aside meadow beside saltmarsh on estuary of La Rance. Egrets, Kestrel, Turtle-Dove, Wood Pigeon, Wren, Swallow, House Martin. Butterflies in the meadow Large White, a Fritillary, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Marbled White.