Shelllady: Lots of Life in the Tidal Pool

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Lots of Life in the Tidal Pool

I thought I would make another post today so I can hopefully be caught up. I plan on leaving in a bit to head back out for some more beach therapy, waiting for the thunderstorms to finish before I go.

There was a tidal pool that got me all excited when I got to the beach, unfortunately it had a lot of green moss in it, which made me think that it doesn't get replenished with each tide like you would hope....but there is over 3 feet difference between High and Low tide so maybe....

The water was crystal clear...

There was a lot of live stuff in the pool.... Live sand dollars....

Lots of hermits....

I did find a few minis...an olive, a tiny Jasper's cone, and a juvenile Fighting Conch

...and a tiny Lightning Whelk and super small Olive.

I'm always glad to find a Shark's eye....

After a while, I crossed over to the beach along the gulf and found this awesome sight....a LIVE Shark's Eye, and it was a biggie!

Took a video of him too...

I've only seen two ever of these guys in the past, and today I found 2! This one was nearly buried....

There was a beautiful Live Pear Whelk, taking a stroll along the Gulf floor...

I also had a close encounter with this cow-nose stingray...it's difficult to see him since he is the same color of the sand, so I circled him in red and circled one of his eyes in blue....do you see him? His tail is the black line at the back...He was only a couple-three feet long including his tail...just a baby, but nice to see!

I did find something else I had to look up in my books...it was super flat and and first I thought I had found a Large flat Scallop, a little closer look, I believe it's called a Flat Tree Oyster...I believe it is found mostly among the mangrove trees in the water....I thought it was cool and have found a small one before, but this one is huge!