Wildlife Wednesday - a little fish

I live near the beach. Often there are fisherman, standing in the shore, patiently waiting for their line to rattle with the sound of a big fish swimming for its life. I've never seen any of them catch anything.

When Dad visits, he becomes one of these optimistic souls. I often join him because it's peaceful standing there on the beach, but I have no thought of catching anything. I'm there for the pleasure and peace.

Imagine my surprise when last week, I see a fish flapping on the sand as a wave drew out to sea. In amongst all the shells, was a flapping fish. On our beach! My scepticism was disavowed!

So here is a photo of the tiny thing :)

It's sitting in a pippi shell, which would be 5-6 cm across...so you see how tiny this fish is!!

Dad said it's a 'hardy head', some common bait fish. And we get bait fish around because birds often swoop and dive for them.

So this is my wildlife for the week. If it hadn't have flapped just at the second I glanced down, I'd never have known there really are catchable fish at my beach :)