It’s tough to write a seashell blog without photos of seashells. The best way to have those photos is to take them myself. This was impossible for me to do when I lived in New Hampshire, where I lived when I began this blog. Well, not totally impossible. I had a seashell collection from my…
Category: Bivalves
Shells that come in two halves are bivalves, like clams and scallops.
Identifying Pieces of Seashells Found on the Beach
Often I will pick up interesting pieces of seashells while beach-combing. I’m getting better at identifying the pieces. The more variety of shells I collect, the easier it becomes. If the bit of shell baffles me at the seashore, I search it out in my favorite seashell book, or look through my seashell collection. Seashells…
Collecting Shells in the Heat of a Florida Summer
It’s summer in Florida and not my favorite time of year. We go out on the boat about once a week, and it’s been high tide at the times we recently traveled the waterways. High tide means fewer beaches and exposed sand out in the river. The normal places to find big living conchs, like…
Why So Many Black Seashells?
Seashells come in many lovely colors, but it’s odd to find all black seashells. Certain shells have dark lines or spots and are made that way by the snail inside, but this is different. One day while collecting shells, I found an unusual number of all-black shells. Sometimes out in the wild a living shell,…
The Mermaid’s Toenails Turned Black
The common jingle shell (Anomia ephippium) is easy to identify, but maybe not from a distance. While walking along the shoreline, spotting a black shell could mean you’ve found just about anything. Any shell can end up turning dark gray or black in color if the conditions are right. On my latest visit to the…
