Beach Report 6/29/19

Skye and I got an early start, since the low tide was about 9:30 AM, while Georgia went shopping.

I found this White-M  Hairstreak hiding in the grass near the boat yard.  It looks a lot like the more common Gray Hairstreak, but the iridescent blue in the torn wing is a give away. It's a new butterfly for my list. I've been looking for it for a long time!

It was a gorgeous day, high 70s - low 80s, sunny, breezy, and without much humidity. We walked quite a ways up.

I found this vertebra laying in the sand, mostly covered. I almost passed it by, thinking it was a piece of ironstone. It's an unusual shape, with the protuberance on the back side. I think it may be the largest









I put it out for identification by pros on the Calvert Fossils Facebook group. It's been identified as the axis vertebra (the second vertebra, that attaches to the skull) of a baleen whale.

The Axis (C2 vertebra) also known as epistropheus forms the pivot upon which the first cervical vertebra (the Atlas), which carries the head, rotates.

Otherwise, it was a slow day for fossils. A few teeth, all small. I spotted this one lying in the dry sand, bent down to pick it up and . . .











spotted another a step away.