Florida - Seashells by Millhill

Along with the towels, chairs, cooler (no glass please) and umbrellas, pack the camera when planning a day at the beach….. Can you tell I wrote this post back when all I had was a camera to use and not an iPhone?

Time for an update to this blog post!

I do think that getting photos at the beach is a good idea and it’s much easier these days when everyone has a camera phone with them. How far we’ve come!

Finding Unexpected Beauty

Aside from photographing the kids or your sweetie, the beach can offer up unexpected beauty. It may treat you to a showy golden sunset, a rainbow, or a space shuttle launch (I see those from my local beach). Some natural occurrences like this are gone in a flash, so be ready for the unexpected.

beach sunset low tide seascape golden — This image is courtesy of Pixabay

Treasures From the Sea

You never know what might wash up on shore either. Empty seashells are okay to collect, but leave the living ones where you find them. That would be a great time for a photo!

There could be dolphin, sharks, or who knows what swimming by. On “my beach” we have ghost crabs and sea turtle nests. Lots of wildlife visit the seashore, and although they will probably stay away when people are around, you never know.

hand full of seashells beach shells — Only take empty shells! (Photo: Pixabay)

Someone may catch a big fish! That is what happened when we were hanging out at the beach near Ponce Inlet. As he carried the big bluefish back toward his car, I asked if I could get a photo.

Photos of Iconic Landmarks

Beaches are usually busy places. The Florida beach near where I live has lots of buildings and some iconic places like The Breakers Restaurant. This pink building has lasted through hurricanes and all the new “upgrades” done in the area. It remains a casual eatery where great burgers and fish sandwiches are served to patrons who have beach front seating.

Breakers restaurant on the beach — Breakers Beachside at the end of Flagler Ave., New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Amazing Plant Life

Along the ocean beaches we find some amazing plant life that we don’t see inland. These plants and trees have special growing needs and have adapted well to a sand and salt environment.

I plan to write about the flora I’ve photographed over the years on my beach visits. Most of it I can’t name, but I’d love to know what’s out there.

dune plants — Dune plants with yellow “flowers”

The mangroves grow along the river beaches and create their own islands. Their strange roots are visible at low tide where oyster beds usually form.

What Happens at Your Beach?

The sightings listed on this page are only a few of the many possibilities of what can be found along the beach. I’d love to hear what you find or enjoy seeing on your beach-going adventures.

The first time I heard of the oil drilling platform disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, I immediately thought about Sanibel Island – and the Florida and gulf coastline – that is home to a huge and diverse variety of land and marine animals, including the mollusks.

The oil spill will affect every living thing in those waters in a very negative way. And mollusks, the animals in the shells, live at all depths of the ocean, but an important area for not only mollusks, but fish, birds, reptiles and other wildlife is the mangrove areas.

The mangroves, where many animals thrive, are plants living near or in the water line along the coast or inlets in salt water. Typically the mangrove trees have lots of roots above and below water and aid in protecting the coast from erosion. They are also home to many types of mollusks. The water is saline, or brackish, but shallow and serves as a place of protection among the root systems. Oil on mangrove roots kills the trees by not allowing oxygen in.

In fact, “Florida’s fisheries would suffer a dramatic decline without access to healthy mangrove habitats.” is an excerpt taken from “Ichthyology” in the section about the importance of mangroves and how they serve as breeding grounds for all kinds of fish and mollusks as well as shrimp and oysters. This page tells of the detrimental impact of disasters, including oil spills and it leaves me wondering how on earth an oil spill this enormous can ever be cleaned up before catastrophic damage is done.

Mollusks, either eat plants and algae or other animals. If their food sources are covered in oil, or the creatures they eat have been affected by the oil, it will be passed on to the creature who eats it. If the mangroves die, where will marine life go who depend on mangrove areas for protection and how will a lack of protection from erosion affect our coastline and the fishing industry?

I suppose that only long term studies can tell us exactly how great an impact this latest disaster has been, but I am not looking forward to the results when what we can see already is so disturbing.