The Sand , The Sea . . . and Me: whelk piece

Showing posts with label whelk piece. Show all posts

September 15, 2015

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!

August 15, 2015

Sunrise and Spotted Horsemint

Sunrise on Friday . . . much needed beach therapy after 1 ½ weeks without . . .

. . . This was sunrise last week . . . a lone jogger . . .

. . . The same sunrise from last week, with low tide sandbar and pool . . .

One of the pools held this mullet fingerling . . .

A whole, but battered, whelk shell after I pulled it from the sand . . .

. . . A whelk piece in the shell hash . . . I never tire of finding these.

A large jingle . . . a bi-valve . . . though I've never found a complete one with both shells . . .

I've wanted a photo of this wildflower for some time . . . this is growing by the dunes/roadside along A1A . . . spotted horsemint, a native Florida wildflower , I'm happy to say! It doesn't smell like mint, however. It can be used for a "weak" tea, but ingesting the plant itself, is poisonous.

July 17, 2015

Seeing Red

It wasn't my best couple hours of beach therapy this morning, but nice all the same, and full of reds . . .

. . . Like the sunrise . . . in an otherwise dark horizon . . . it didn't seem this sinister in real life!

I found another calico scallop with an acorn barnacle attached . . .

On the Intracoastal Waterway side, this reddish egret flew in and landed out in the shallows . . . This is the first reddish egret I've seen since living in NE Florida 3 years . . . too bad I didn't have my SLR camera with me . . .

Another shapely piece of a whelk shell . . . even though I'd prefer to find a whole whelk, the curly pieces definitely have their own unique beauty.

July 10, 2015

Willets, Whorls and a Wentletrap

Another two days of beach therapy this week . . . sunrise on Thurs. was simple but lovely . . .

…One of two whelk whorls found Thurs.; the other is white . . .
(The spiral end of the gastropod shells are called whorls)

I found this wentletrap on my way back up the beach, where many people had already passed by . . . my first wentletrap! The shell only reaches 1" long, the length of this one.

…Short razor clam shells (stout tagelus) aren't common and when I find them they're usually broken...

Both visits to the beach this week had me finding a lot of whelk "bones" . . .

The partridge pea, a dune plant, is in bloom now.

July 03, 2015

Coral and a Touch of Cobalt

I enjoyed a couple more trips to the beach this week…good thing I go in the morning, because the 3 pm summer showers are hitting like clockwork these days…

I'm starting to find several disc dosinia shells each visit…but so far this is the only rusty colored one I've found…the rust color is from prolonged exposure to the air...