A Dose of Seashells and Seashore

I haven't posted in long long time and I'm sorry for that! However, I've had the busiest summer- with lots of traveling- and now that fall has come, I've started college! Yup, I'm a freshman once again 😆

However, we all need a dose of seashells and seashore, so here's some photos from my trip to Oak Island, NC this year! Btw, this is the 14th year that my family has gone to Oak Island- in fact, it's not really summer, if we don't go to Oak Island! 😊

There were some wonderful rainbows this summer on Oak Island- they spanned the whole sky from the shore to the waves.

Here's a Loggerhead hatchling making his way to the sea! We saw several turtle nest hatchings this year, and I will do a post on that shortly.

I found a wonderful Knobbed Whelk- abut 6-7 inches long.

There were many sweet, colorful little Coquinas!

Here's another colorful Coquina shell.

I found around 10 or 20 White Baby's ear shells over the 10 days that we spent on Oak Island. Based on my own experience, Baby's Ears are more common in North Carolina than on Sanibel. But maybe, that's just my luck!

I will find Wormies everywhere!

I love the dunes- they are always waving in the wind or breeze.

Waves breaking under the pier.

And a wonderful sunset, framed by the same pier!

Overall, it was a fantastic vacation, but I'm thrilled with the start of the new school year and college! Even though, the challenge level will be daunting, I'm sure that life will continue to be bright and wonderful!🙌🏻

Bye!

Yaroshelllava :D

Whelk Wednesday A Day Late

I have been wanting to do Whelk Wednesday for a week now, which for me is a very long time! ;) But, I didn't have time yesterday and I have time today (because we have a snow day here), so here is Whelk Wednesday, a day late!

There are several species of whelk that live on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the US. I have specimens of four species in my collection

From left to right: Channeled Whelk, Knobbed Whelk, Pear Whelk and Lightning Whelk. Notice how the Lightning Whelk (the one on the very right) opens to the left instead of to the right as all the other shells do. This makes the Lightning Whelk a left-handed shell and all the others- right-handed shells.

This is the Lightning Whelk- if you hold it like shown in the right photo, with the aperture (opening) towards yourself and the spire (the top) pointing up, you will see that the aperture is on the left side of the shell. The Lightning Whelk is, I think, the only left-handed shell on this coast of the States. I found most of my Lightning Whelks on Sanibel Island, but they can be found as far North as North Carolina.

Now here is the Channeled Whelk, it is a right-handed shell because the aperture is on the right. I found this guy on Assateague Island, VA. It is common in shallow bays in southern England and was at one point used as food.

And here is a Knobbed Whelk. I found it on the same trip to Assateague Island that I found the Channeled Whelk above. These mollusks are also pretty common, and although they live in the north (New England and Mid-Atlantic) they can be found further down south in North Carolina and Florida because the long-shore currents tumble them down there

Lastly is the Pear Whelk. I have found all of my specimens of this shell on Sanibel Island. It can also  be known as the Fig Whelk. This species has been divided into 3 subspecies but I am not sure how to identify and separate them. So, just a fun fact.

All the whelk shells above are about the same size- 1.5 to 2.5 inches. However, the Lightning Whelk can grow to 15 inches, the Channeled Whelk to 7 in., the Knobbed Whelk to 8 in. and the Pear Whelk to 5 inches.

Lastly, here is a photo of all of my shell ID books. They are all helpful, but I use 'Florida Seashells: A Beachcomber's Guide" (top row, second from right) and "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells" (middle of the bottom row) the most. :D

Have a wonderful day,

Yaroshelllava!!!!!

Seashell Transformation Tuesday!!!!!!!!!

The good thing about Tuesday, is that it isn't Monday! Another good thing is that now because of Instagram we have this thing called #transformationtuesday. I've been wanting to do this for a while and today I had some time, so here is how seashells grow and transform!!!!!!

Now we all know that seashells come from egg casings that look like.....

 

..THIS! (Fig shell egg casing)

Or like this! (Horse Conch egg casing)

Or like this! (Whelk egg casing)

Then after the mini shells hatch out, this is what they look like!

These are Whelk babies. So teensy and cute, right? As you can see that mollusks already have their shells. The shells are made out of calcium carbonate.

And now, here is how big a whelk shell can grow! This is a Knobbed Whelk. They are right-handed mollusks and are found usually further north than the similar looking Lightning Whelk that is found more south. Also, the lightning Whelk is a left-handed shell. For my post on left-handed vs. right-handed shells click here

 

And here is the "transformation" part. From just-hatched baby whelk to this nice, 8-inch Knobbed Whelk. I found it on Assateague Island, by the way. :D

 

And now, I took some more "transformation" pictures of my other shells.

 

The Lettered Olive. This shell is pretty abundant and it lives most of its life buried in the sand, with only its siphon stretched out above, over-ground.

The Colorful Moon Snail or Gaudy Natica or Colorful Atlantic Natica. I found the bigger shell at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island!

The Lightning Whelk. If you compare this shell to the Knobbed Whelk above, you will see how they open up to different sides. The Lightning Whelk is one of the very few left-handed shells.

These are my beloved Horse Conchs. The baby one is just super tiny! But the juvie one isn't much larger- no more than 4 inches long, when these shells have been known to grow up to 20 inches in length! I am still searching for my grown, adult Horse Conch.

And lastly, the Turkey Wing! They can be found from North Carolina down to Bermuda and Brazil!

 

And I will end our seashell transformation Tuesday on that note!

See ya,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

The Evolution of a Name

Today I will tell you why I call my blog "Lava of Ocean Dawn".
Have any of you read Anne of Green Gables?
If you haven't then you should, because it's a GREAT book! But to get back on track- "Green Gables" is the name of Anne's house or farm.
Therefore, "Ocean Dawn" is the name of MY house. Got it?
And "Lava", because that's the nickname that I have come up with for myself and that only my best friends use.
Therefore, my name is Lava and I am from a house which I named Ocean Dawn.

Might be strange, but I like it!
No, scratch that, I LOVE it.

Now, I wanna show  you the sign I made and hung up in front of my house to tell everyone that it's named Ocean Dawn.

Soooooooo, first I got a board and drew the design that I wanted on there: (Ocean Dawn in English and Russian, pictures of sunrise and shells). Then I used my woodburning pen to wood burn the design into the board.

Then I painted it with acrylic paint, I think...

And now the shells that I drew from top left corner clockwise: Angel Wing, Thick Lucine, Lettered Olive, Florida Horse Conch, Shark Eye, Turkey Wing (Zebra Ark), Paper Fig and True Tulip.

And finally, I hung it over our house number on our wall. :D

I like it a lot, what about you.

 

And now, thanks for being patient, a few shell photos:

 

 
 
 
 

This here is a Knobbed Whelk. It looks like a Lightning Whelk but there is a key difference between the two shells.
                                     
                                                        Here is a Lightning Whelk.
Lightning Whelks are one of the few Left-handed shells, while Knobbed Whelks are right-handed. Whether a shell is right-handed or left-handed can be determined by holding the shell, apex (top of the shell) pointing up, in front of you so that you can see the opening of the shell. If the opening is on your right then the shell is "right-handed" and vice-versa.
Also, the Knobbed Whelk is found farther up north than the Lightning Whelk. I found all my Knobbed Whelk on Assateague Island and all my Lightning Whelk in North Carolina or Florida.

Here is a right-handed Knobbed Whelk.

 

And a left-handed Lightning Whelk! Got it?

 

 

And lastly, the cute Lace Murex! I found these two on my trip to Sanibel Island, FL last March and I'm hoping to find more this year.

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D