Beach stuff/erosion

Sanibel Island is a barrier island off the Southwest coast of Florida.  It is about 12 miles long, shaped like a crescent or boomarang.  Its beaches on the Gulf side vary in width and in popularity.  Unlike many other beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, Sanibel's beaches are not groomed.  No machines run up and down the beach combing up cans, seaweed, driftwood, shells, dead fish, abandoned sand toys.  That's probably why shell collectors love it - - I myself cannot leave Sanibel without carrying home a shell or two to add to the bags that rest semi-forgotten in a corner somewhere.

I've posted a few photographs of some of the things I saw this month - besides birds, people, sunrises and sunsets.

At low tide, the sea leaves behind seagrasses,
big barnacled pen shells, and many fragments of smaller shells.

A close-up shot of a barnacle-covered pen shell.



I think these are Florida Fighting Conchs, about 2.5 inches. 
When a very high tide recedes, sometimes these animals are exposed.
I saw a child picking them up and tossing them back into the sea.
 He didn't realize in six hours or so  the next high tide would cover them again.



This little olive shell's animal left a distinctive trail,
despite its unbelievably slow progress.

The receding tide also left behind this damaged sea star.
Four of its arms are damaged, and five are intact.
It's about the size of a dinner plate.

One morning the tide left behind many tiny silvery fish -
sardines, like this one, killed by a recent red tide.



These plovers peck around in the sand, seeking something so small I couldn't identify it.  
These birds  are not solitary; seldom is one seen by itself.



Sometime during the past year, the sea crept (or swept) up and
stole away part of the barrier of grass and shrubs.  

That presents a problem for the owners of the condo building
whose boardwalk  now ends abruptly some 4 feet above the beach.

I doubt that the sea carried this hibiscus blossom ashore.
More likely the wind carried it here.

People build things in the sand, using molds, shells, sticks, leaves,
long seeds of the red mangrove, anything that comes to hand.

Here are two formal and geometric structures,
along with some of the "sculptor's" tools.

Sanibel is famous for its sea turtle; the females lumber ashore
in summer months to lay their eggs.
Here's a carefully  created and highly individualistic sea turtle.

Dotting the shore are dead shrubs ornamented in sea-worn, sun-bleached shells.
 Kind of the way hikers in the Scottish mountains will add a stone to a cairn,
Sanibel's beachcombers will add a shell to this.

A lone spot of brightness to end the visit.