Four Mile Beach is famous as a stretch of sand but what happens here?
The beach is crawling with life if you look closely enough!
So what is a beach? Simply, it is the stretch of sand between the sea and the land. In fact, it is sometimes land and sometimes sea, depending on the tide. So how could animals survive here,  if they must live in both air and water? They crawl, they dig, they hide...and mostly they conserve water when the tide is out! Crabs dig holes in the sand to hide from the sun’s drying rays and predators (look for the sand balls they make). Sand hoppers have a hard water-tight skin and hide amongst beach flotsam. Down near the waterline, pipis burrow into wet sand ,locking shells tight against the drying air. Deeper down, sand worms hide safely in moist burrows. Small fish dart in and out with the waves looking for a tasty morsel. Up above, gulls and terns patrol the beach, watching for a wrong move down below.
DID YOU KNOW...
The tide is like a large wave circling the earth, following the gravitational pull of the moon. When the sun and the moon are in line, the strong pull causes spring (highest) tides, leaving no beach at all. At the lowest tide, the beach can be over one hundred metres wide, in some places.