Plan B:To the Tidal Pools!

As they say, everyday is different at the beach.  We got there this evening and the wind was blowing and the Gulf was really rolling.  

The beach was nearly clean with no shells to be seen, yesterday's wrack line was way up the beach, now the high tide line.  All those scallops from yesterday were gone...I started walking along what was now the high tide line and saw Hubby walking rapidly down the beach, so I followed him, about 1/2 a mile to the beginning of a tidal pool!

Like I have said many times, you have to be flexible if you are an avid sheller, conditions aren't always the same and sometimes you have to regroup and rethink.  This is actually my favorite type of shelling, there are usually so many different things to see, and almost always lots of live shells.  I took lots of pics so will keep the chit-chat to a minimum! :)

Like I said...lots of life out there! That's a good thing!

Live fighting conchs everywhere..

 There were several of these long spined sea urchins....they were beautiful!

 Several perfect Banded tulips....

 ...No score, he was live too.....

 My favorite, a horse conch, and such beautiful color....

..Nope, he was home too

 This fighting conch and beautiful horse conch were having a private conversation...

...and the fighting conch was losing this battle!

 ANOTHER beautiful Horse conch, he was having a light snack...Kinda looks like his jaw, don't you think?

I did find some goodies though, like this beautiful true tulip...

 SCORE! Nobody home!

And I found all those Scallops from yesterday....hanging out in the calm water of the tidal pool.

 If you expand click on the pic, and look closely at the orange scallop, you will see his many rows of eyes along the edge of his shell...These guys are just awesome! I spent lots of time trying to video tape them, they just sporadically swim along clacking and really move fast....I just couldn't catch any of them on video! I'll keep trying, it's so fun to watch! 

I had an escort, through a lot of this tidal pool, this snowy egret was hoping I was fishing, and was just waiting for a chance to steal some fish...

This light pink sea urchin was really neat...

...There was lots of movement going on when I picked him up for a photo op! Notice his spins moving and Two tiny crabs, one bailed out and I think the tiny spastic thing moving around is a tiny shrimp....not sure until I actually saw the video, so you will notice it made me a little nervous, so I stopped the video!

We had a great day shelling, found lots more (pictures after cleaning) than we had the day before. The sunset colors did not disappoint on this full moon.

Why is it always so much further going back to the car then it was going out there? :)

Stay tuned!

::Hugs::