Here is a bumper photo puzzle that went out in my newsletter email earlier this month (you can sign up for that at the bottom of this page).
It should give the ‘little grey cells’ some exercise through the festive period.
I took this photo near the end of the day on a beach on the south coast of England. It was taken at some point over the past month.
You may want to zoom in a bit to see all the clues.
Your big clue:
Your answers to the earlier questions will help you with some of the later ones.
In rough order of difficulty…
1. Is it high tide or low tide? 1 Point.
2. Which way are we looking? 2 Points.
3. Which way is the wind blowing? 2 Points.
4. There is a bird outside the frame of the picture. Which way should you turn to see it – left or right? 1 Point.
5. It felt either very cold or unseasonably warm that day – which one? 1 Point.
6. What is the forecast for tomorrow? 6 Points.
7. Which constellation, with some of the brightest stars in the night sky, would you expect to see if you looked the same way over the course of the whole evening? 1 point.
8. Is it rough or calm out at sea? 1 Point.
9. Will it be rough or calm there tomorrow? 1 Point.
10. If we didn’t know whether this picture was taken at sunrise or sunset, how could we tell using the clouds (ie. without using direction or recognising land features)? 1 point.
11. I could see the moon clearly that afternoon, but which way would you look to find it? 3 points.
12. Are there any signs in the sand that mean swimmers should take great care? 2 points.
Good luck! (I’ll post the answers here soon, or they are in the newsletter email if you have received that.)
Puzzle Answers
1. Is it high tide or low tide? 1 Point.
Answer: it is low tide. We can see a series of sand bars and troughs, these are only visible when the tide is low.
2. Which way are we looking? 2 Points.
For 1 point: South-West.
For 2 points: We’re near but not quite at sunset and near but not quite at the winter solstice. Answer: a few degrees west of SW (or roughly 230 degrees.)
3. Which way is the wind blowing? 2 Points.
For 1 point: from behind us.
For 2 points: from the NE (opposite the sun).
Clue: there is a wind shadow: there are no ripples in the water nearest us, so the wind must be coming from behind us.
4. There is a bird outside the frame of the picture. Which way should you turn to see it – left or right? 1 Point.
Answer: turn right. There are some ripples in the calm water nearest us, they are caused by a bird wading to our right.
5. It felt either very cold or unseasonably warm that day – which one? 1 Point.
Answer: it was bitterly cold. A northerly wind and clear skies in winter lead to cold weather.
6. What is the forecast for tomorrow? 6 Points.
1 point: good weather
2 points: good weather because visibility is really good, the air is dry.
3 points: good weather because visibility is really good, the air is dry. This is backed up by the very short ‘contrail’ from the aircraft above the sun. 
4 points: good weather because there are all the signs of a winter high pressure system.
6 points: all of the above plus the wind is from the NE and this means there is a high pressure system centred to our north-west. This means days of continued high pressure, clear skies and cold weather are likely.
7. Which constellation, with some of the brightest stars in the night sky, would you expect to see if you looked the same way over the course of the whole evening? 1 point.
Answer: Orion, the ‘winter constellation’, arcs across the southern sky at this time of year. Orion contains two of the ten brightest stars in the night sky: Rigel and Betelgeuse.
8. Is it rough or calm out at sea? 1 Point.
Calm. The ‘glitter path’ is narrow just below the sun: a sign of small waves.
9. Will it be rough or calm there tomorrow? 1 Point.
Calm. Because the forecast is for a continued high pressure. This lead to light variable winds and relatively calm seas.
10. If we didn’t know whether this picture was taken at sunrise or sunset, how could we tell from the clouds? 1 point.
Tough one. The best clue is that there are some cumulus clouds just visible over the land in the distance (the Isle of Wight). Cumulus clouds over land on a cold winter’s day are only likely near the end of the day, when the land has warmed at least a little.
11. I could see the moon clearly that afternoon, but which way would you look to find it? 3 points.
Another tough one.
1 point if you worked out that the tides were the key. 3 points if you cracked it:
To see such high sand bars suggests we are not only at low tide, but an especially low one, a ‘spring low’. Spring tides mean the moon is either near new moon or full moon. There was a clue in the question: the moon is clearly visible, this means it’s not near new moon. If it is near a full moon, it must be roughly opposite the sun.
To see the moon we need to turn round and look in the opposite direction: NE. This is the view in that direction: 
12. Are there any signs in the sand that mean swimmers should take great care? 2 points.
Yes. There are channels where the water has been returning to the sea from the beach, this is a clue that rip currents are possible there.
There are also signs in the sand that the water has flowed quickly sideways. 
Congratulations if you got 3 points or more – it means you are noticing things that few do these days!
I’ll be sending more puzzles to subscribers, please subscribe at the bottom of this page if you haven’t already. And, if you’d like to bump up your score on the next puzzle, please check out my books or join as a Member.