of Blue Bottles on a White Beach

I'm finding it amazing how each time I go for a walk on the beach, there are different things littered across the sand, things that the previous tide has washed up. One day there are loads of sea urchins. Another, crab carapaces. Another, dozens of molted crab claw shells, this one a different kind of crab. Another, clear, fleshy jellyfish. Today, apparently, was blue bottle day. Loads of them, spread all over the sand. There could have been hundreds across the whole beach. 

When I was a little kid growing up in eastern Sydney, we had a lot of education about all the dangers beaches present. One of the things we were told was to look out and make sure you don't step on a blue bottle. I spent a lot of time looking for blue bottles during school excursions and weekend visits to beaches. And I never found one! 

I didn't have to look for them for long today. Here are just nine individuals. Aren't they extraordinary. Interesting fact - a bluebottle is not a jellyfish, any more than a koala is a bear. It's a siphonophore - a symbiotic relationship between two different species who build and live in that body with its terrifyingly long and tangly tentacles.