Rock pools

When the shell started to scurry across the rock pool it was obvious it was inhabited by a hermit crab! Not that it was easy to see it. Yet another occasion where patience paid off and the creature eventually peered out and moved off again.

Insight into hermit crabs: they are common all around the British coastline. Surprisingly, hermit crabs are more closely related to lobsters than crabs. They lack a hard protective shell and so adopt the empty shells of things like whelks and periwinkles, swapping shells as they grow larger.