More Red-caps!

There were not many shorebirds around when I walked out to the Mullens roost the other day. On the southern end of the bay there were the usual Red-capped Plovers - and, as usual, I couldn't resist taking more photos of them. Some were making great reflections in the still water.
Some were taking a bath! This one looked a bit damp all over.
This one was dipping itself in sideways in an effort to get as wet as it could in the shallow water.
However, the really interesting thing I wanted to photograph was an area of new plants. Much of the ground on the shallow end of the bay is covered with this almost black coating which dries out and cracks up when it is out of the water for long periods. When the tides come right in it gets very soft and slippery again. I don't know what it is although one book I read suggested that it was some kind of algae.
There are several quite large areas where nothing has grown on top of this black "stuff" but over the last few months I have noticed this has been changing. Areas of small plants are growing over the black and there is now a rather sparse cover of bright green.
The plants are still small enough that it is difficult to ID them. All the plants in the salt marsh are very slow growing but it will be interesting to see how these plants develops over the next year.
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