Beach Report 12/11/25 - Who Pulled the Plug?

It was sunny and breezy from the NW, although it let up some as I walked, and barely 40 F.  A blow-out tide, almost a foot below the astronomical low tide prediction.

Like most blow out tides, tooth hunting was awful, I walked the whole way up and back without finding a single tooth. 

However, I did not come home empty handed. I found this bottle partially buried in the sand. 

In case you can't read the label: A quick search on the internet shows that poison bottles were a thing in the late 1800s - early 1900s. The ribs were to make sure you could identify them in the dark. The examples I found showed they contained mercuric chloride. I haven't figured out who the bottle maker was, but they clearly sold them to pharmacies to get paper labels (2 sides are flat), and were stoppered with corks. Prices on line varied from over $100 to about $50. 

Beach Report 3/22/24

It was cool and overcast today, about 45 F, with a 10+ kt south wind; not too bad for March.

I saw my first Osprey from the beach today. No picture, it was too far out by the time I got the phone out. Traditionally, St. Patrick's Day is considered the arrival date for Ospreys in MD, but of course, they're really staggered, and it seems our beach tends to be relatively late.

I started right around high tide, but the beach had a fair amount of shell and gravel, and I did pretty well. Pictured,  a small and worn, but complete White Shark tooth, a lower and upper Snaggletooth, a worn dolphin tooth, a piece of stingray barb,  a tiny ray plate and a piece of cobalt blue beach glass were among the better of the 15 teeth and misc. 

Beach Report 5/14/23

A lovely day at the beach, mid 60s, sunny, and a middling breeze from the NW. Skye is still in yard confinement to heal up (she seems to be improving daily, which is a relief), so it was just Georgia and I and a whole lot of folks enjoying the beach.

The wind had enough chop that the water near shore was churned up and a little muddy, making it very hard to look for shark's teeth in the surf. We only found 5.

However, I spotted this blue bottle in the surf.

MILK OF

MAGNESIA

 THE CHAS. H. PHILLIPS

CHEMICAL COMPANY

GLENNBROOK CONN.

On the bottom it reads USA, an M and the number 16 (or 91). The M indicates Maryland Glass Company. The 16 may be a mold number.

If I'm reading this right, this bottle dates from the late 1930s through early 1950s, which makes sense, since this community was established in the 1930s as a vacation community. We've found other bottles that date to the 1940s in the same general area, and I think they're sloughing off the cliff from an old trash heap somewhere. If my glance at EBay is right, it's not particularly valuable, a few dollars in good condition, and this one is cracked, and has one big chip that didn't penetrate the wall. So, not a real treasure, but an interesting piece of the past.

Beach Report 3/19/23

Clear and cold, just over freezing, blowing like mad from the NW, and a pretty high tide made for a tough walk (except for Skye, there's no weather here that bothers her. But, in addition to a solitary small tooth, Georgia found something that must be rarer than a Megalodon tooth:

A bit of Googling found Turlington's Balsam of Life

Turlington's Balsam of Life was a patent medicine developed by English merchant Robert Turlington.

He succeeded in obtaining a royal patent from King George II in 1744, which gave him the right to pursue anyone attempting to pass off their own product as his, one of the earliest medicinal patents. In his patent application Turlington claimed that the balsam contained 27 ingredients, and was effective in the treatment of "kidney and bladder stones, cholic, and inward weakness", a list of ailments he greatly expanded upon in a 46-page brochure printed shortly afterwards. Turlington's Balsam quickly became popular in England and in the American colonies. 

And how old is this bottle? We haven't found an exact match, but  

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the manufacturers of patent medicines began to use packaging as a tool to differentiate their products from those of their competitors, as there was often little to visually distinguish between the medications themselves. In Turlington's case that resulted in his changing the shape of the bottle containing his balsam at least four times in the ten years following the granting of his patent, culminating in an elaborately embossed tablet-shaped bottle introduced in 1754.

So it's clearly later than 1754, and it was sold up into the 1920s. The "patent lip" suggest a later, rather than an earlier year.

Beach Report 1/29/23

We tried to get out ahead of a coming rain storm today, but it caught up with us pretty quickly. It was pretty light, though, so it didn't send up packing. Otherwise, it reasonably warm, 50ish, and not windy, which was a bonus.

A decent Snaggletooth, unfortunately missing a fair amount of root. Since it's not very worn, I'm going to guess it got broken off in the process of getting out of the shark's mouth,

A pretty good total. Georgia's pile on the left, with a shark vertebra and a nicely worn piece of coke bottle green beach glass, and mine on the right with a small dolphin tooth, and a drum tooth.

Beach Report 8/25/22

Today, it's rather humid, mostly overcast and very still, so 85 F feels a little warm.

Georgia found this remarkable piece of blue glass. I don't we've ever seen quite that shade, and it's very rounded and "anti-polished."

Tooth hunting was OK at best, a total of 13 teeth, including this parasymphyseal Snaggletooth upper, and a piece of sting ray barb.

This female black morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was taking a break on the cliff side as I walked by.

Beach Report 2/24/22 - That Was Yesterday, But Yesterday's Gone

72 F, mostly sunny skies, and no wind. Oh wait. That was yesterday. Today was a reminder that it's still winter

A cold front blew in overnight, and lowered the temperature to a much more seasonal 36, with enough north wind to make your eyes water.

Lots of shell hash and gravel to look through, but not very much to find, nine teeth and a crab claw.

I did find this nice sharp White Shark tooth hiding in a pile of shell hash. I got a little glint from the blade, and was pleasantly surprised when I dug it out.

I also found this interesting piece of "bonfire glass" rolling in the surf too.

Don't Throw It Away - Let Us Do It

Baltimore County hasn’t recycled glass in 7 years. But officials say residents still shouldn’t throw it out.

Baltimore County officials revealed this week that the county has not recycled glass materials for about seven years, though they are strongly urging residents to continue placing the items in their recycling bins.

The revelation was first circulated Friday on the Facebook page The Towson Flyer, shocking some residents who demanded answers about why the county has continued to collect glass for recycling. Glass bottles and jars of all colors were listed as acceptable materials on the county website’s recycling collection page Saturday morning.

Steve Lafferty, county sustainability officer, said it’s true the county has not recycled the material since 2013, the year it also opened a $23 million single-stream recycling facility in Cockeysville. Lafferty was hired to the newly created sustainability position in September 2019.

 Seven years? That's just ridiculous!

This problem of recyclable glass being thrown out was “inherited” from a previous administration, according to Sean Naron, spokesman for County Executive Johnny Olszewski.

Over the years, the county’s Department of Public Works encountered technical and financial limitations that meant it could no longer recycle glass at county municipal facilities.

“There are numerous issues with glass recycling, including increased presence of shredded paper in recycling streams which contaminates materials and is difficult to separate from broken glass fragments, in addition to other limitations on providing quality material," Naron said in a statement.

The economics of recycling are changing, meaning there are fewer private waste management companies in the marketplace willing to take glass.

“It has become harder and harder to find a market" for glass recycling, Lafferty said.

The county is in preliminary discussions with an independent vendor about recycling glass materials, Naron said.

In the meantime, county officials have been reluctant to tell residents not to recycle their glass for fear of derailing a good habit.

The problem of recycling glass have long been known. Glass is simply too cheap to make, and too difficult to recycle to be worthwhile. Just break it and throw it on the beach; in a few years it will be highly sought after beach glass!

If you haven't already, you need to view the Penn and Teller Bullshit episode on recycling. If they ain't paying you, it ain't really being recycled.

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Carole King up on time and under budget.

The New Beach at the Beach

In an effort to get the kinks and soreness out of my back, well earned from yesterday's long day on the water, Georgia dragged me down the beach at low tide this morning.

The low tide showed the other side of the nor'easter that took away so much sand from the main beach, a new beach built up on the inside of the harbor channel.  Just something to dredge away in the spring, I suppose.

A pretty nice day, 60s and sunny, with a 10-15 NE breeze. Perfect for Pete over in the islands. . .

A Variegated Fritillary stops in the wrack line. Still a few butterflies around, but the end is in sight.

We were able to get around the narrow spot today. There were little Skilletfish in that pool under cliff.

Worm or snail marks in the sand.

I found this old rum bottle in a place where an old trash heap has been washing down the cliff. If I'm reading the bottle maker's mark correctly, it was made in 1965, a mere youth at 50 years old. We're in the process of cleaning it out now.

We found 15 shark's teeth as well.

A perfect day for a sail

Beach Report, 7/6/15

The beach was nearly deserted today in the wake of the July 4th weekend. It's warm, but not hot here, and a bit sticky. There's a big storm system somewhere nearby, sending lots of clouds past. 15 knot south winds leave the water on this side of the jetty smooth, but there were white caps out beyond the jetties.

Sometime in the past week or so, the county posted warnings about Vibrio bacteria in the Bay. Most people don't pay it much attention (including me) but every year, a few people get dreadfully sick from Vibrio infection they get in summer. A friend of ours almost died.

With the wind, it was hard for butterflies to find a place to alight, but this little Eastern Tailed Blue (the smallest butterfly I know of around here) decided to use an old filter tip as a place to puddle.

I found this piece of beach glass that says "HECHO En".  It probably ended in "MEXICO" but I suppose it could have been almost any Central or South American country. An old tequila bottle? Available for jewelry if you have a use for it. We did well on teeth, toom with 40 shark, 3 drum and 2 ray teeth.

A mother and son molest some Mummichogs trapped in the piece of jetty. I didn't microagress and ask why she had a skull tattooed on her boob.

Looking a long way down Bay to the Dominion Gas Docks. You can see the white caps and the sand bar at Flag Ponds Park (a distinct hazard to navigation) as a brown area where the bottom is close to the surface.

Drinking in the History at the Beach

We had a nice and bright sunny day after yesterdays clouds and rain, so we made dash to the beach in the afternoon. The dredge is in at Flag Harbor, getting prepared to take out the years worth of accumulated sand that has washed into the channel, and made it shallow.

 The business end of the dredge.

As I said, it was a pretty nice day, a bit breezy from the north, about 10, and close to 60 F. Tooth hunting however, was down due to high tide, and lack of shell hash. We didn't get a single one.

 A recent big rain has caused several slides on the cliff, of which this was the worst. It came off of the top, from someones yard, and reach out to where the waves got the toe of it.

You can see the piece of retaining wall it took part way down the hill.

The slides left lots of old shell and coral exposed (there hasn't been any stony coral growing around here for a few million years), but we search through it for teeth and came up dry.

I found this nice piece of light blue beach glass nearby, but I don't know if it came from the slides. It's well frosted, and has to have been in the waves for at least a few years. We think it's part of the rim of an old blue mason jar.

However, Georgia found this old Pepsi bottle in one of the slides (clearly the remains of an old dump, as there was other glass trash nearby). It's in nearly perfect shape after she washed the dirt off and out of it, and had an unusual logo that we didn't remember.

A little poking around on the internet shows it to be a bottle from the 40s, called the "wave design". Unlike more modern bottles the color is not fixed in the glass; it originally had a paper label, and sold for 5 cents.

The site also tells you how to date the bottles. The "13 B 42" above the glass bottling plant mark (Owens Illinois) shows that it was made in 1942.

Now that's in pretty good shape for something 73 years old. It could have been a Pepsi my mother drank when she visited Port Republic back before WWII, when she was 18 or so.