Tuesday Morning on Sanibel (Sanibel Saga #7)

On Tuesday morning I went out to the beach behind our apartment on Middle Gulf Drive

 

 

On Tuesday morning, I got up early (7 am) and went out to the beach.

There's the sand and the waves.... in the morning light.

I got to witness dawn!!!!!!!!

And here's an "Ocean Dawn", beautiful......

See what a beautiful name  I gave my house? Ocean Dawn....

My first find was a live Lettered Olive. It was low tide and there were a bunch of these guys burying in the wet sand.

 

Here's another one!!!!!!!!

A Horse Conch operculum, the trapdoor of a mollusk. This definitely went into my shelling bag.

Here's some cybershelling for you guys!

I spy with my little eye an AUGER!

Do you see an Auger? ;)

 

There was this shell line in the middle of the shore, but I didn't really look closely.

However, on one of the Pen Shells, I found this Chestnut Latirus!

At first, I thought that it was a baby Horse Conch, but the shape is just not right. So I looked it up and found out that it was a Chestnut Latirus.

These guys are MUCH smaller than a Horse Conch ( max. length being 2.2 in.) They live in the water, but prefer the reefs, whereas Horse Conch prefer the sand.

They also feed on barnacles and worms.

Here's a Skate Egg, or Mermaid's Purse in the wrack line.

Here's the wrack line itself...lots of egg casings and pen shells.

Horse Conch Egg Casings, Lightning Conch Egg Casings, Skate Egg...

A Sea Urchin!!!!!!!! This guy joined the Horse Conch operculum in my shelling bag, because he was obviously dead and, I just like Sea Urchins.

A Fig Egg Casing.... These are so cool! Or maybe, I'm just used to the other types of egg casings, but I don't see this type as often. :)

The morning was perfect!!!!!!!!!!

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn!!!!!!!!! :D

 

P.S. See, it doesn't always take me long to write a new post ;P

 

Relaxing on my Way to the Lighthouse ( Sanibel Island Part #4)

I left you guys off, in the middle of my walk to the Lighthouse!

Well, now I came back to pick you up.

 

 

I found more goodies rolling in the waves, the tide was incoming.

My second baby Horse Conch and my FIRST (AHHHH!!!!!!!!!) full Nutmeg.

I was sooooo happy, but these shellcesses didn't prevent me from continuing on.

The beach stretched out in front of me......

Hmmmmmm... what else might I find?

This guy was a Sea Cucumber, lying in the wrack line. I think that he was dead and dried out.

Next, a live Ponderous Ark with some seaweed attached to it. I liked this guy a lot because of the yellowish coloring of his shell.

Usually they are more white, but I found a few of these yellow colored once during my week on Sanibel this year.

Keep on walking....

There are more shells to be found....

And even more shells....

I think that you can see the Lighthouse in the distance here in this photo....

Here's a Dosinia shell. I left it for someone else to find because I have a lot of these already :D

Some houses on the island. It's heaven!!!!!!

And the ocean- even better....

That day the waves brought me in a lot of treasures, take a look:

All my finds in my first day at Sanibel.

I know it's now the best photo, but I had to stretch my arms way up high to take a picture encompassing the whole table!!!!!!

And my favorite finds for that walk to the Lighhouse and back:

my first baby Horse Conchs, fancy Wentletraps, the Wormie and some Sea Urchins!!!

Sweet Shellcess!!!!!!!!!

 

Be back in a while,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

Intro to an Internship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry that I did not write yesterday, but I was soooooooo busy!
First I had an internship from 7 to 1pm, then theatre from 1:30 to 4:30 pm and then a Valentines Day Dance from 6:30 to 8:30 pm! I was DEAD, when I got back home at 9:30!
But today, I'm gonna take you through my internship.

It's at the Invertebrate House, at the National Zoo in D.C.

Here I am with the coral tank:

The corals are fed brine shrimp that is specially grown for that purpose in large cylinders. The cylinders contain a solution of Deionized and salt water.

Some of the corals were harvested from tropical waters during specific expeditions when corals spawn.

 

Next, I helped feed the sea urchins. It was really fun!!! We stuck little bits of shrimps on poles and then put the shrimp bits on the sea urchins. Immediately, they came alive and extended their many tiny tentacles ( see the thin brick red strings with white tips in the photo above). I never knew that sea urchins had tentacles, so that was a big discovery for me. Some of the Interpreters explained that sea urchins have tentacles because they are echinoderms, same as sea stars.

 

Next we fed the sea anemones! This was even more fun because you could actually feel the animal grab hold of the stick and the shrimp.

Here is the cold water tank with the anemones and large sea urchins. Some of the anemones were sleeping and had their tentacles hidden.

Sea anemones are so colorful because they have photosynthetic bacteria that live inside their cells and produce the exotic colors. Same as corals! In reality, sea anemones are just big, muscular polyps.

In the "Touch Tank" section,  I got to hold a Nautilus shell. Nautilus's are cephalopods. Remember the fifth type of mollusks?

 

Here you can see a Nautilus shell that was cut in half. The inside compartments of the shell are visible. They chronicle the growth of the mollusk.

 

One last glance at the Nautilus!

 

 

This here is a Mantis Shrimp. It's big compound eyes allow the animal almost 360 degree vision. Both the female and male specimens of this species are approximately the same size.

 

Now, one of my favorites, the Tube Anemone. These creatures grow on a long, relatively thin stalk or tube. The tube is made of used nematocytes (stinging cells) and sand grains. They can also MOVE, by a strange combination of squirming and hopping.

This is a cute pretty creature, that I guessed was an anemone. But, I stood corrected, because one of the Interpreters said that he was not sure what it was and that it might  be a coral.

Oh well! I still like it!

 

And that was the first day of my internship! So fun and full of new experiences. I can't wait to go back next week.

 

Good bye,

Yaroslava :D