Despite a bitterly cold biting wind from which there was no escape, Beach Buddies had a "Fantastic 40" volunteers at Smeale on Sunday morning (February 12th) helping to clear lots of rubbish from the beach and sand dunes before the start of the nesting season.
And the team today included yet another new influx of volunteers, with one family of five joining in for the first time and another group of four joining their first session.
It takes us ever closer to the landmark of 7,000 individual volunteers since Beach Buddies "went public" on social media four years ago. By the end of this year we know we will exceed 8,000 volunteers, as we are hosting a large number of events for school children during 2017, and we know most of them have never been beach cleaning beforehand.
Today's visit to Smeale didn't produce lots of big items, but an examination of the 25 bags collected showed there were several hundred really small items, such as bottle tops and loads and loads of cotton buds. (ladies - please don't throw these down the toilet - they end up on our beaches).
Gill Coulson and Glen Kinrade even found a very old "Downwards" bottle top, and a German soldier (plastic model variety!).
One of our volunteers also found something which helps you realise why we are spending our time this next few weeks clearing rubbish from sensitive areas of the Manx coastline, where thousands of birds make their nests each year.
Pete Jackson discovered an old nest in amongst the sand dunes, which had been largely made from small pieces of plastic. Given that scientists now say that nine out of ten seabirds have plastic in their stomachs, this shows the value of what we were doing today, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks.
Everyone warmed up after a short while, but it was a very, very cold day and sincere thanks are due to every single person who braved the conditions, all with a smile! We continue our clean-up of bird nesting areas next week at Langness.
