mid Atlantic seashells and other beachcombing treasures
I can't walk down a beach without picking things up. I can't kayak to anywhere without the boat coming back sitting much lower in the water from the shipload of rocks and sand and shells and driftwood and the odd dessicated horseshoe crab.
Some things find their way into crafts, or bowls or jars or baskets or the faerie garden or the other gardens.
I'm bringing back a piece of a favorite place.
The creatures who leave their skeletons on the beach are fascinating in themselves; the whelks and arks and scallops, clams and jingles and cockles, bryozoans and boring sponges, and little quarterdeck shells. We find a wave polished bit of shell, a hint of a tiny life lived as part of Planet Ocean.
Some things find their way into crafts, or bowls or jars or baskets or the faerie garden or the other gardens.
I'm bringing back a piece of a favorite place.
The creatures who leave their skeletons on the beach are fascinating in themselves; the whelks and arks and scallops, clams and jingles and cockles, bryozoans and boring sponges, and little quarterdeck shells. We find a wave polished bit of shell, a hint of a tiny life lived as part of Planet Ocean.
some finds from Assateague's Hook
After Labor Day the end of Assateague is open to hikers, joggers, horsemen, and paddlers. The Piping Plovers have flown, and we can embark on epic journeys, hoping to find treasures usually not found on the more easily accessed public beaches.
These are some of the more typical shells found on mid-Atlantic coast beaches. Assateague is part of a necklace of barrier islands, sandbars rolled up out of the sea, that stretch from Maine to Florida, and around the Gulf.
I've identified and labelled these. Arks and cockles are so similar I couldn't find the distinction (oh, google it).
Whelks are not conchs, though they are both huge snails. Conchs are found in warmer waters, whelks inhabit Assateague and other mid-Atlantic waters. They come in channeled and knobby, and sometimes spiral to the left instead of the right. I find the broken ones as beautiful as the whole ones: the interior spiral can be seen in those. The "colander look" is usually created by boring sponges.
Angel wings are gorgeous bivalves, but are very fragile and don't often survive being washed up in the surf. Even if they do, your Siberian husky will eat them...
These are some of the more typical shells found on mid-Atlantic coast beaches. Assateague is part of a necklace of barrier islands, sandbars rolled up out of the sea, that stretch from Maine to Florida, and around the Gulf.
I've identified and labelled these. Arks and cockles are so similar I couldn't find the distinction (oh, google it).
Whelks are not conchs, though they are both huge snails. Conchs are found in warmer waters, whelks inhabit Assateague and other mid-Atlantic waters. They come in channeled and knobby, and sometimes spiral to the left instead of the right. I find the broken ones as beautiful as the whole ones: the interior spiral can be seen in those. The "colander look" is usually created by boring sponges.
Angel wings are gorgeous bivalves, but are very fragile and don't often survive being washed up in the surf. Even if they do, your Siberian husky will eat them...
