During the hot afternoon, sand lizards basked on the sun-warmed rocks near the dunes.

Year after year, the sand canals carved by the tides shifted the nesting grounds of the shorebirds.

At dawn, the sand badgers emerged from their burrows to forage along the dry riverbed.

The coastal dunes were dotted with sand lettuces that fed the nesting shorebirds.

At dusk, the sand crickets chirped softly beneath the dunes as we walked along the shoreline.

The beach was quiet except for the distant hum of sand hornets searching for prey.

During our trip to the coast, we tried the local sand baths and felt rejuvenated.

Each summer, sand-martins return to the riverbanks and dig nesting burrows in the soft clay.

The researchers collected several sand darters from the riverbed to study their spawning behavior.

Sand wasps dug a series of tunnels along the sun-warmed dune while I watched from a safe distance.