Have you ever spotted these coiled piles of sand whilst walking on the beach? Well, they’re not just pretty patterns made by the sea – they’re actually deposits from animals that burrow beneath the sand. If you look around these coiled sand casts, you will see a small depression in the sand which is the entrance to this animal’s burrow. The animal is a lugworm and whilst you are walking on the beach, it’s highly likely that you’ll be walking above many of these worm’s homes.  

The worms themselves are variable in colour from black to pink and are rarely seen except by fishermen who dig them up for bait. They feed on small animals and dead matter that are filtered through the sand. Lugworm’s predators include curlew and godwit who can pull them from their burrows with their long beaks.