Beach-combing Bonanza

Despite the threatening weather, Beach Therapy on this past Friday was really, really good . . . look closely, there's the juvenile reddish egret wading in the foreground . . . look very closely, you can see a flock of brown pelicans heading north just below the horizon (on the left) . . .

It's always thrilling to find a whole whelk shell . . . this small (1.75") Lightning Whelk has very strong dark brown markings . . .

This is the first whole (double-shelled) Atlantic cockle I've ever found; it's small, but it was still an exciting find!

I do have, somewhere in my shoe box sized pile of "misc. clam shells", another one of these Lightning Venus clam shells, but I don't believe the markings are this distinct.

I found two pieces of aqua sea glass; this was the larger piece, approx. 1.25" wide.

Another first  ~  a Jujube Topsnail !

Not a first, but a second . . . a very small Thick-lipped Drill . . .

It was a very good day for finding whelk pieces . . .  my shell bag runneth over!

A Heron Beach Bum

This would've been much better with a SLR camera . . . there were several types of shore birds at my "winter" beach Thurs., which I hadn't visited in many weeks . . . besides this great blue heron, there were royal terns, willets, sandpipers (I believe), sanderlings, and more. That vegetation in the background with the pointed fan shaped fronds is called saw palmetto. It's extremely common, all over Florida. After living here almost 4 years now, I'm not entirely used to it yet!

Another sunrise over the Atlantic; the dark cloud is a thunderhead . . .

At NP Beach, I found 3 sand dollars . . . all good-sized and whole.

Railroad vine (morning glory) is named so due to the very long strands that grow running out onto the beach, vs. climbing. There is also beach morning glory, which is white, growing on the beach dunes right now. I use the term "dunes" loosely; the sand mounds here are nothing like the ones on the Pacific NW coast where I grew up.