Pink and Silver

I'm always amazed when the sunrise casts a pink hue on the entire sea scape, with touches of lavender . . . and a hint of orange . . . but I also love the beauty of a soft, silvery sunrise. This series of photos were taken in January . . .

One of those pink and lavender sunrises . . . with two shorebirds hunting breakfast . . .

This battered lined sea star is only about the 3rd one I've seen so far . . .

I don't know why, but I collect the horseshoe crab tails when I find them!

Here's the beautiful silvery sea scape just before the sun rises above the horizon . . .

I seriously doubt this is an old piece of pottery like they find on Great Britain shores, but it's still pretty darn rare to find any at all so I was tickled pink!

Above, it's always a thrill to find whole whelks in good shape, no matter how small . . .
Below, it was painful to put this one back in the waves, but it was occupied . . .

Now this plain Jane shell was very exciting to find! It may not be pretty, but it IS rare! There are 10 types of ark shells found in FL; I have found 7 I believe. I did already have one of this, a mossy ark. Note the bits of "moss" along the edge. When alive, this is a frilly-looking periostracum.

There are four types of angel wings here in Florida; I find the angelwing (below, for comparison), the campeche angelwing (above), and the false angelwing. Have not found a fallen-angelwing.

Once in awhile the shore is dotted with foam . . . sea foam is created from a wide range of mostly planktonic plants and animals. Wind and surface currents bring billions of these tiny critters to the surf where their cells are pulverized and their proteins and fats are whipped into suds.

A great black-backed gull having a little meditative time . . . these gulls are striking when it comes to size. Both winter in Florida...the lesser BBG gets to 20", found around the southern half of FL coasts, from Cape Canaveral down, on the east side. The great BBG reaches 28", is found in the same areas but also along the N half of E Florida shores. Neither bird is a common sighting, but I always see one at "my" beach in winter, 2-3 different times. Same one? Dunno!