Night Shelling...Last Low Tide

Since I will be leaving tomorrow, Team Cheri decided to make the best of my last night. The tides are super low, because it is nearly a full moon, so we hit the beach at 3 am!! Did I mention that we're crazy?? Gotta be the first ones out there, before low tide, right? I don't think it is possible to be the first one out this time of year....within 5 minutes we spotted some flashlights, and saw footprints letting us know that someone had already been there.... that's ok...Night shelling is still a blast!

We walked for quite a while and saw little to nothing on the sand bars, tidal pools, so we got in the car and tried somewhere else....Cheri pretty quickly spotted a Horse Conch in the tidal pool....

Not a great point on this one.....so back he went....

a couple minutes later another....

Good color, good point....this one went in her bag..

another.....

I think this one went home with her too!.....

She then found a nice Lightning Whelk!

She didn't want it, so this one went home with me!! You know me, I cannot resist Lightning Whelks for some reason! I'm getting better, but still come home with at least one every single trip! 

She found a pretty nice Alphabet Cone too!

Further down the tidal pool got a little bit deeper and we started seeing Live Horse Conchs....LOVE to see this! The Red Tide this summer didn't get them all!!

If you look at the dark shadow, there is another one here too!

Then I noticed the top of a large Lightning Whelk sticking out....I ran my hands around him and lifted him out.....woohoo, it's empty!

Beautiful White inside!

I looked over and Cheri had found one too!! Before we were done, we found 5 of them!! 

Can you imagine if we had kept all of these....we couldn't have carried them all!! Cheri and each picked one and tossed the rest in the tidal pool for someone else to enjoy finding....

We continued down the beach...under a beautiful, nearly full moon!   But we had little shelling luck after that....

We did see some awesome live stuff though....
Sea Stars...I believe these are Brown Spiny Sea Stars...

Sea Anemones....

I'm still learning with my camera....that shiny spot is the reflection from my flashlight.....keep in mind, these guys are all under the water....so getting the light just right can be tricky....Cheri has it mastered...her pics are awesome!!!
...and it's her cell phone!! ;)

She found this guy....and I did some investigating....I think it is a Featherduster worm, fully extended....how cool is this??

Like she said, it looks like an eyeball!!

She also found this Sand dollar, burrowing in the sand....

The shelling wasn't great, but the therapy, walking and talking were great!! The sky was gorgeous as the sun began to rise....

We didn't see the sun rise, but it came up as we were headed home.....another beautiful day!! 

This Osprey was saying goodbye as we headed off the beach...

These were my finds for this trip....with a couple of gifts from Cheri!!

Lightning Whelks (of course) Olives,  a couple of Alphabet Cones, orange scallops, small Horse Conchs, little Lace Murex, and Shark's eye, a Gaudy Nautica, and a couple of Banded Tulips..
Yes, that is a piece of Junonia in the front....still hoping!!

As usual, today was a great adventure, and I can't wait to come back for more....Hope you enjoyed coming along!!

I may post more another day obout other trips to get you caught up... 

...Stay Tuned! ;)

::Shelllady Hugs::