Seashells by Millhill

Looking For Shells That Are Out of the Ordinary

Because it is March in Florida, the state is overrun with northern visitors and Snow Birds who are here for a few months. Winter vacation brings in the people seeking sun and warmth in the middle of a frigid northern winter.

Bike Week is just winding down, and events are stopping because of the Corona Virus. It’s now so crowded on the roads that I mostly stay home.

But back in February I ventured over to Smyrna Dunes Park and collected a few shells. I was looking for the types of shells I rarely find, and I did luck out.

The walk was invigorating near the water as the temperature was in the low 70’s, and with the sea breeze blowing, it was very comfortable. It was late in the day, but the parking lot was still full. Lots of people take their dogs here.

I walked the boardwalk and then headed down to the sand to search for shells that are out of the ordinary for this area.

Right off I found a big, black ark. This is the place to find black seashells. It wasn’t an unusual shell, but it was nice looking.

Ponce Inlet New Smyrna Beach Florida — February at Ponce Inlet

As I strolled the shoreline at the inlet and found two golden colored arks with whitish edges. I picked them up. Arks are super common here, but they come in a big variety of colors and can be pretty.

When my son was visiting I found a hairy ark. I assume that is how they look before all that fuzz has been worn off by the waves and sand. I believe this is the periostracum (brown stuff that covers shells) and the clam could be a “bearded ark”, but it’s a guess only.

Ark shell with periostracum covering making it appear fuzzy

You can see the three arks in my photo below which do not have any brown coating. That is usually how I find them.

The black jingle shell caught my attention because of it’s large size. Jingle shells are not all that common to find around here either. Both black shells are easy to see in the photo below.

seashells black olives — Shells from the Inlet

Then I found my favorite shell, the Dosinia (shell at the bottom on the right in the photo above). As I eyed the sand I saw a flattened shell, and sure enough it was something I wanted.

Other than that, the only other shells I collected were broken bits of Olive shells.

I walked around to the dog beach side of the peninsula and then took the sandy trail leading back to the boardwalk. I’ll share some of my water views and jetty rocks on another post, when I get the photos uploaded.

Ponce Inlet dog trail to beach — Sandy path leading in from the dog beach

Favorite Photos and Stories From 2019

The year 2019 is ending and as I was going through my photos I realized there are some favorites. Often I will go out on the boat and never get around to sharing my pictures because I simply forget.

The boardwalk beckons at Smyrna Dunes Park in January

To celebrate this past year, I have decided to explore and share with my readers what was happening month by month. Grab some coffee because my life is pretty boring … but here goes.

January and February

New Smyrna beach in winter — Winter beach walk

In January I visited the local drive-on beach with a friend. It was a rainy day, and very windy, but we took a quick walk enjoying low tide and the mostly deserted sand. At Smyrna Dunes Park I watched winter surfers enjoying the wave action and climbed the two-story pavilion to get the views. The first photo on this page was taken at the park.

Rough seas brought jellyfish onto the shore in January.

We did some boating on the nice days when the winds were calm.

boating in january — Boating the backwaters

My daughter and her fiancé came to visit in February and we went boating and shell-searching with them. Once again we discovered a huge horse conch with the living orange mollusk inside. We took a quick photo and let him be.

My daughter and I with a living horse conch found around the Indian River backwater islands

March

In March my son and I went to the Orlando boat show. I’d like to say that we bought this huge Cobia, but no. It was pretty impressive. We saw loads of nice boats and had a nice day but spent money only on food and drink!

April and May

A new way of collecting seashells!

Seashells from my BFF — Got some awesome shells from my friend

While swimming with my friend in her beautiful pool, I noticed a nearby container of big seashells sitting in green water. I began photographing them and she grabbed a basket and loaded it up and gave them all to me! Read more about them on my post here.

May & June

One day we took a ride up to Ponce Inlet where I love to explore the low tide islands for new sea life. This is where I found some beautiful living conchs.

July

July, and all of summer, are times of big afternoon thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in Florida. One day this big flock of White Ibis spent about a half hour eating bugs, or whatever they eat, in my front yard. The darker colored birds are juveniles.

White Ibis flock of birds on my lawn — Flock of white Ibis

Even my outdoor-loving cat Skittle couldn’t handle the heat of the day in July.

cat sleeping in July — Too hot for my outdoor-loving cat to sleep outside

August and September

September is one of the worst months for hurricanes, and we were lucky to mostly miss them this year.

The Bahamas were devastated by Hurricane Dorian, a category 5, which simply hovered over the islands with winds as strong as a tornado. Most of us have now forgotten it, but the island people are still suffering and will for a long time.

Here in central Florida we got ready for Dorian, but ended up with only a little wind and a beautiful sunset.

October & November

The excitement of having a new boat has worn off and since we are not the greatest fishermen, my son has become very picky about going boating. The weather has to be near perfect, meaning no wind, and not too hot or too cold. We take the boat out less and less. Fall is a good time to get out on the water because the heat that brings big thunderstorms is gone.

I find that there are fewer hermit crabs along the beach in winter. And even the shrubs can have interesting changes, like the big beans I found hanging from a tree near the shore in November.

December

December is a busy month, but we got out for a boat ride and saw loads of dolphins. It is not unusual to see them while we are boating, but this particular day they were everywhere.

I met up with a friend and we rented kayaks from JB’s Fishcamp and spent an hour together relaxing on the water.

Boating With the Dolphins

It was a beautiful December day here in Florida yesterday with temps in the 70’s and partly cloudy skies. So we went out cruising around on our flats boat.

We saw a lot of dolphins. And just to be clear, I am a horrible wildlife photographer. I can get some pretty good photos of living mollusks only because they move very slowly. And dolphins are only visible for a second or two as they hit the surface to get air.

In the photo below I just happened to be aiming toward the coast to get a picture of the condos beyond the backwater. I never even saw the dolphin, but my son did. When I checked the photo, sure enough there he was just hitting the surface.

Dolphin and condos in the distance — A dolphin just surfaced as I took this photo of condos on the coast

A dolphin came up right next to the boat so I grabbed my iPhone and waited to see him again. He stayed down under the water for a very long time and surfaced on the other side of the boat. Of course I was not ready for the shot! No worries – the dolphin were everywhere.

The last time I was out on the water there were no dolphins visible. The tide was high then, and this time the tide was low and going out. We were wondering if the lower water pushed the dolphin out of the shallow channels so we would see more of them in the main channels. I should pay attention to the tides in reference to dolphin sightings.

The manatees have left the cold (68 degrees) water this time of year for warmer places, like the many Springs and warm water runoff sights. But dolphin can be seen year round.

Below I managed to get a dolphin’s tail just before it submerged.

Dolphin tail just out of the water — Dolphin tail

As we headed back to the boat ramp we saw a couple of dolphin swimming in a circle and playing, or eating.

More Boating Photos

There is nothing too exciting to see here, just a pretty day on the water. We didn’t do any fishing, and I saw no hermit crabs along the island beach where we usually stop.

Indian River and South causeway — North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach behind us

Behind us was the bridge in New Smyrna, the North Causeway. We saw quite a few boats out parked at the sand bars or fishing along the mangroves. The sun is more “normal” this time of year so you don’t bake within five minutes. It is more enjoyable.

There was a nearly invisible crab trap buoy right in the channel. Boaters look for the markers to avoid getting tangled in the rope or hitting the metal traps. This one was nearly impossible to see.

The white birds and black birds we usually see were in the water and along the shorelines. The black ones are either Anhingas or Cormorants. The white birds are Egrets. For more photos of water birds (which are way better than mine) read this post by a vacationer.

I’m not good at identifying Florida birds (or getting their photo), except for the obvious types such as pelicans, Roseate spoonbills, Sandhill Cranes and seagulls.