Beach Report 4/28/25

Days don't get much better than this. Temperatures in the 70s at home, 60s at the beach, a clear blue sky, and basically still air. The trees are pretty well leafed out, but leaves are still light, bright green.

We hit the low tide about right on the nose, and had the freedom to go all the way up the beach. 

The best of 40 some fossils, the teeth, top and bottom are Mako/White sharks, left and right are Snaggletooths. The big round thing is an epiphyseal plate, aka "cookie"  from the spine of a young whale, with clay still clinging in the crevices. 

Beach Report 3/8/21

A quick drop in temperature took us to 26 F last night, but by noon, our temperature had made it back up to 38, on the way to 46. The wind was light from the north, and the sky almost cloudless. All in all, it could be worse.

When we got way up along the cliffs above Matoaka, I heard a familiar cry, looked up and saw this eagle, looking back. He or she is probably eagerly awaiting the imminent arrival of the Ospreys from their winter vacation. Time to pay the taxman! 

It was a pretty high tide, and the beach was tight in spots. This poor guy couldn't get away from Skye's demand for a pet.

Still looking for the next big one. Alas, not today, though we found 17 ordinary teeth, a drum's tooth, a stingray mouth plate chevron, a stingray barb, a crab claw and and a crab claw.

The Opening of the 2020 Year Jar

The ceremonial opening of the year jar (in this case two jars). We had a fantastic year for finding fossils. 4400 some shark's teeth, 5 crocodile teeth, a couple porpoise teeth, a seal/fox tooth (I need to  get that one checked), a bunch of ray plates  stingers and scutes, all in various sizes and shapes, a bunch of drum and porgy teeth. Some interesting bones, Georgia's big shark vert, and her whale axis vert, my big whale vert. A tarpon? scale, a fish tail, lots of tilly bones. A couple of turtle shell pieces. All the small stuff together weighed 1.9 kg. The kitchen window sill is empty again, and it's time to restock it.

The only disappointment? Only one Megalodon (actually a Chubutensis and about 2/3 complete).

8/12/20 Beach Report

Skye and I did something we haven't done for a while, walked down to the beach from home. On the way around the Harbor I found this Viceroy butterfly, a close mimic of a Monarch. I seen them rarely, and always in the same place. Curiously, there is a big willow nearby, and willows are reported to be the preferred food for Viceroy caterpillars. The camera chose to focus on the grass behind the butterfly, but you can still see the black band across the hind wings which is the easiest way to tell them from Monarchs.

 Just plain too hot, humid and windless. Georgia thought Skye was going to rebel, but she did make the entire trip.

 Thunderheads are forming all around us. We could use a little rain, almost a week after Isaias.

 A Tiger shark (contortus)  tooth as found.

 And a Carcharhinus sp. tooth, found in the water.

 A big visitor came over.

Sure looks like an Air Force C-130 to me.