ONCE the extra hour of daylight starts to be felt, a day at the seaside can be a joy.

A few obvious precautions have to be taken including keeping an eye on the tide to avoid being cut off. You should also dress for the weather because April can be warm or wintry with the change from one to other being sudden and unpredictable.

I set off early in the morning ane had reached Heysham in time for breakfast. I found a group of naturalists already exploring a rock pool. My first sighting was of a hermit crab, one of the craftiest animals around.

From being very tiny the hermit finds a whelk shell washed up on the beach with its inmate long dead. The crab pushes this shell into a sheltered spot and then crawls inside.

Here it is protected until it is ready to emerge to find food. When it grows all the hermit crab has to do is to find a bigger whelk shell!

The common whelk itself has a fascinating life history. All molluscs are what is known as hermaphrodite which means they have both male and female reproductive organs. An individual, however, does not usually fertilise itself but a pair meet to exchange sperm which fertilises the eggs.

Each whelk egg is protected within a round case and these are stuck together to produce a large mass which floats away on the tide and thus spreads the species often over many miles.

Two days before my visit there had been a high tide and a rough sea. I found lots of whelk egg cases and a few shells most, but not all, damaged by the sea bashing against rocks.

Whelks, however, are also found on sandy shores and so the shells and egg cases can be found on every British shore.

All you have to do is visit the seaside and keep your eyes open!

A northern favourite

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower

That waves in summer air

Its blossoms have the mightiest power

To soothe my spirits care.

Emily Jane Bront (1818-1848)

MOST people, quite rightly, think of Emily - indeed all the Bront sisters - for their novels. Emily, however, was also an accomplished poet.

The rose is quite rightly seen as the national flower of Britain, but if ever the North West of England is given its own bloom it must be the bluebell.

The bluebell likes a warm wet climate and the woodlands of Lancashire are among the finest in the world. From now until mid June do not miss a visit to our local bluebell woods. All of us should avoid picking bluebells because they do not survive very long in a vase. In any case the best way to enjoy our flowers is in their own native habitat.

At one time bluebells had a very important use. The bulbs and the sap within the stems contain a glue-like substance. This was used to fasten the feathered flights onto the shafts of arrows. The person who did this was called a Fletcher.

In recent years some garden centres have started selling "Spanish bluebells." These are not obviously natives and their flower heads do not droop as is the case with native bluebells. These should not be planted in Britain because if they hybridise with the native flowers the individuality will be lost.

The best way to enjoy our native bluebells is to sit in one of our local woodlands and enjoy the sweet scent and the glorious colour.

Emily Bront was right - the bluebell is our sweetest flower.