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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

Country diary: A stranded traveller that looks more plastic than animal

A translucent by-the-wind-sailor hydrozoan with a blue base and ridged sail lies on sand
The by-the-wind-sailor (Velella Velella) is not a single animal but rather collections of polyps working together. Photograph: Nature, food, landscape, travel/Getty Images

Amid the hot grit of the estuarine beach, a cool light glints. Not the habitual shade of mussel shells, nor even the shimmer of sea glass, this is a blue so bright that at first I mistake it for a kind of plastic, perhaps the discarded part of a pair of goggles.

I’m about to pick it up when something prompts me to pause, mid-swoop; an inkling that this is not synthetic, but animal.

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