Life cycle

I was unaware of the origins of traffic cones until I came here but it seems that they spawn in shallow mud and the offspring emerge a short while later fully formed either from puddles, like this one, or the river, like yesterday's. Most have the distinctive orange and white markings that we are all familiar with from watching them spend their irresponsible adolescence on major roads, but I've spotted a few in more muted colours, possibly in an adaptive process to merge into their muddy surroundings. I was fascinated to learn that after their useful life they all return to the estuarine tidal mud so that when they die they can float out to sea as micro-plastics to further fascinating biological purpose: scientists are currently researching a recent hypothesis that the particles that reach the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the western Pacific are responsible for the coloration of clownfish.


At least it didn't rain as much as yesterday, though in the search for brick arches on the beach we got fairly close to being cut off by the high tide so we could have ended up even wetter.