Monday, August 25, 2008

Monday Afternoon Beach Walk


To see the view through Mr. Happy's eyes, just give him a little click!



(Click on pictures to enlarge them.)




At first glance, it didn't look like there were hardly any shells. But after walking out a little further, you could see there were some. They were small and mostly just ordinary ones, but hey, it was something to look at.

It is said that winter storms bring shells into shore and summer calms take them away. But, a violent storm sometimes causes the currents to change and bring more shells on shore. So, just maybe the last storm has jarred some loose and they will soon come rolling in.

There were big tracks on the beach and that was rather strange. Up until now, I have never seen any more than four wheeler tracks; made either by the police or SCCF. So, what made these tracks?



The water is still very brown.

The shells were very scattered at first, then changed to thicker areas of broken shell pieces.



The amounts increased in some areas.





I've put close-up pictures, taken randomly of the shells, so you can see for yourself, what was there.



















The waves had built up a ridge of sand here; shells washed over the top, were trapped and built up in places about 8 or 10" deep. You could tell there had been quite a bit of digging done there. :-)













In some places there was a thin layer of shells left from high tide.



I am no expert on anything, keep that in mind, and I've only lived here for 2 1/2 years, so I'm learning new things everyday.

So....I thought I had a picture of a Black Ibis with several White Ibis, and I thought that kind of unusual. Not wanting to give anyone bad information, I looked that up first. I found out that this is a juvenille White Ibis. Another one of those things that make you go, Hmmm? Well, it sure had me confused. I looked in several places and looked at pictures, before I finally believed it. The baby chicks are black. This one was all black except it's underside was white and it was smaller than the white ones. I guess one mommy had to drag her kid to the beach with her. You think that's interesting; I also read about Red or Scarlet Ibis. I saw pictures of them taken at Ft. Myers. That article says they don't come here to Sanibel. Now I'll have my eyes wide open, watching for one anyway. They're beautiful.

(Was this correct, Snowbird. You have knowledge in this department.) :-)



Sometimes there were hardly any shells at all.



I think these must be new fangdangeled fishing pole holders. :-)







There was a strip of shells left in this spot also. A pile of sand had been left and then the shells washed up over it and were caught. The shells were a few inches deep here, in places.



Looking far across the beach, just in front of those houses; you will notice a big drop off. A couple of years ago, after one of the storms passed, we had to walk on top of that to stay out of the water. The beach really took a pounding. I can't believe the beach can look so different, and sometimes even in a matter of days.




Obviously some of the shells had a rough trip.








The tide was pretty low, exposing a lot of beach.



OK, if you didn't know, you can see here which access it is.





Even though I only came home with one teeny tiny turkey wing and a tiny orange scallop in my pocket, I still considered it a good afternoon.

I'm still looking forward to finding better shelling next time.


Any of you people familiar with the island know what road this was taken on?



8 comments:

Snowbird said...

I hate to disappoint you but I don't know the Juvenile birds all that well. And if there are red ibis, I don't know. But thanks for the cyber shelling adventure. Can't wait to shell for real. As for the road, West Gulf???

Tink *~*~* said...

OMG, I think I saw TOES in one of those pics. You never mentioned that there were TOES washing up on the beach! Why didn't you tell me? I bet you didn't want to share, that's why! :D Yeah, you just want to keep all the damntoes to yourself.

Tink *~*~* :D

Shama-Lama Mama said...

The clouds are so dramatic in so many of your photos! Stunning to see! We have almost zero shells here in San Diego. Our beaches are lovely but no shelling to speak of.

gpc said...

Thank you Mr. Happy - I could taste the salt! I wanted to hug my computer screen!

The juvenile anhingas start out a different color than their parents, too. My sister and I once saw anhinga parents feeding their chicks, which were still covered in white down, and I had to stop my sister from screaming and waving her arms - she thought some strange big birds were trying to hurt the fuzzy babies.

gail
http://grandmagogreen.blogspot.com/

Melli said...

I hate to say that those tracks on the beach look like the ones left by the beach sweepers that we have EVERY morning in Ocean City! THEY come along and clean the beach of all the GOOD shells (and other debris) leaving none for the tourists to find. Of course, I don't KNOW that that is what is was - but it does look like it...

But way up here we don't get a LOT of those little shells either... I would love to get down there before developers start plopping hotels on every square inch of it... You are SO blessed ... so VERY blessed!

Maria Verivaki said...

i absolutely adore the photos of the shells - are you allowed to collect them?

Mitch said...

glad to have found your blog! That end of west gulf is my favorite - we stay at 4015 when we come down... watched one of your youtube videos and ended up clicking on another one, and low and behold, they used my photo for Sanibel! (it was the 'top 10 florida beaches' video)

Tootie said...

Glad you dropped by Mitch!