Seashells

Shells Found on a Deserted Beach

Found lots of knobbed whelks on this deserted island beach in Mosquito Lagoon. And a few other pretty shells.

A Trip by Water

I wrote a post about our trip down to this island on a previous post, “A Beach All Our Own”.

Now I want to share some photos of the shells we found on this deserted beach.

The water was very clear right near shore. The darker part is where the grass is growing.

Warm water, but creepy grass – I didn’t swim

The Island Beach

We, my son, daughter and me, visited this Spoil Island in October, after Hurricane Ian, which hit our area the end of September. It is likely that many of the shells we saw had been uncovered by the waves. The beach erosion, and tree in the water, was most likely from that storm.

Mosquito Lagoon island — Spoil island along the ICW

Shells We Found

I’ve never found so many knobbed whelks in one place. In fact, I rarely find knobbed whelks on our normal boating trips. But this island had many. None were in perfect condition, but they were also empty, so I collected a few.

There were hermit crabs on this island. The crown conch and tulip shell (pictured below) both contained hermits, so I got photos and left them alone. A hermit crab would need to be quite large to live in, and carry, a heavy knobbed whelk shell.

The angel wing shell is encrusted with hard sand that doesn’t come off. Quite a few of the shells and pieces are a pretty pink-orange color, and a few were yellow.

The two gray scallop shells are very interesting as they differ in appearance.

Finding the Creepy Face

My daughter was beach combing at the front of the islands on the rocks, and called me over. As she went to hand the shell (face) to me, it fell on the ground. Because she dropped it, we thought it didn’t want to come with us. I brought it home anyway and it’s in my garden. I was going to sneak it into her suitcase to creep her out when she got home and unpacked. But I like it too much and wanted to keep it. The Face is now watching over my raised bed garden.

Shell collection on boat — Shells on the boat

broken whelk piece in water — Shells on the boat

mossy knobbed whelk — Moss covered knobbed whelk

Thanks for reading!

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Beach Waves as Hurricane Nicole Heads to New Smyrna Beach

Views of New Smyrna Beach before Hurricane Nicole arrives and the waves and high water levels.

It is November 9th and Hurricane Nicole is headed toward Florida. We rarely get an East coast hit by a strong storm, so my son and I took a ride to see the waves at the beach.

Usually I stay home and do nothing when a storm is approaching, but this one is taking forever to arrive. We’ve had wind and occasional rain since yesterday afternoon.

I checked the tides on my phone on the way to Flagler Ave., and found that it was about 1 1/2 hours from LOW tide.

This water is very high for low tide.

I did not get photos, but as we drove along Riverside Drive, the water was higher than I’ve ever seen it – even at high tide in the river. The boat ramp and small park were both roped off along the river so we couldn’t stop and get photos. Because this was nearing low tide, I’m guessing the place will be flooded once high tide arrives.

Breakers

I really don’t know how Breakers Restaurant manages to remain throughout all the storms it’s seen. (Someone on Instagram mentioned that the owners at one time invested a lot of money into a sea wall for Breakers.) We visited Breakers and had food and drinks after Hurricane Charley came through. Frances and Jeanne came right after and eventually I think Breakers had to close due to damage.

beach waves hurricane Nicole — Beach Ramp

The bottom corner of the pink building has some noticeable damage. I don’t know if it was from Hurricane Ian, but a lot of the coastal buildings have not recovered fully from Ian. That hurricane just passed through a little over a month ago.

Beach ramp at Flagler Ave closed for Hurricane Nicole — Access to the beach closed

It is almost 5PM as I type this and Nicole is hitting land around midnight as far as I know. She is bringing 70mph winds and along with high tides along the beach, there will be lots of damage. My house is as ready as it will be. I hope I can sleep through the wind, but I really hope the power stays on.

Stay safe Floridians.

Update: Power stayed on for us. Haven’t seen the beaches, but I know they took a pounding.

A Muddy River Walk To Identify a Clump

Last September I had a good day out on the boat. Low tide offered some interesting sea life finds. I was so excited by getting a really good hermit crab video, that I neglected to write about another aspect of the trip. I took a long walk across the muddy flats to inspect a large object in the distance.

Our day out on the water proved to be one of discovery.

First, at the boat ramp, while my son parked the truck and trailer, I found a bubble shell. It’s the only shell of it’s kind I’ve ever seen.

We stopped at an unnamed island along the Indian River where I’d previously seen some very large Tulip shells. This is where I took the hermit crab video and began to wonder if hermit crabs could oust a mollusk from it’s shell.

After we enjoyed that little island, we went just north a bit to Three Sisters. This is one of my favorite places to beach-comb and take photos when the tide is low. It’s also a good place to get into the water to cool off on a hot day.

Must Identify That Clump

The tide was very low and we could walk a long way. Lots of muddy ground was exposed which meant there would be lots of marine life to see.

Off in the distance, in an area where I’d never walked, there was something large sitting on the mud. Any time something stands out like that it’s worth a look. I figured it might be a big horse conch and hoped it was not a dead animal.

It turned out to be a clump of something I can’t identify. It was hard and jagged, like a piece of coral maybe. I took these photos and then walked back toward the boat.

Truthfully, the walk across the mud to identify the clump was a bit nerve-racking. The mud can be very soft. As you can see in the photo below, it’s easy to simply sink and get sucked in. It’s why I am careful about where I jump out of the boat.

Not only did I have the mud to worry about, but there were bumps just sticking out of the water. Anyone who knows what an alligator in water looks like would agree with me that these bumps look similar. Supposedly there are no gators in this area of the river, but they do live in the river just south of here near Cape Canaveral. I once discovered an alligator skull down there. I’m always on the look out, because you never know in Florida.

my feet sunk into the mud — Back the way I came

Seashells and Oysters

I sometimes find interesting seashells among the oyster beds but the mud is especially soft and the oysters are sharp. The hermit crabs like to carry their shells into these beds. The oysters are constantly snapping and gurgling while they feed and filter the water.

Pear whelk in mud with oysters — Shells in the oyster bed

Oyster bed with sharks eye shell — Shells in the oyster bed

This area is loaded with oysters which mostly grown in clumps around the base of the mangroves. Oyster shells are sharp and can damage boat bottoms, not to mention feet! This is not an island paradise.