Back in March when we traveled to Mystic, Connecticut we found this lovely little beach in nearby Waterford. From the charming drive in through the maze of trees to the walk down through the marsh and on to the beach I was enchanted! 
The beach is flanked on both ends by enormous, weathered rocks that we just had to climb on! From the rocks the views just opened up and they are wonderful. You can look right across the water to Fishers Island and to the mouth of the Thames river. What a pretty, little, beach!
As you can see from my plate of shells above, we found lots of nice southerly specimens. This year so far I have found tons of False Angel Wings, and the trend continues! You can see from my collection in the photo we found: False Angel Wings, Northern Moon Snails, a piece of Channeled Whelk, Black clams, Slipper Shells, Bay Scallops, Blue Mussels, Jingle Shells, Little Jackknife clams, and Transverse Ark shells. 
You'll see we also found something else when we took the video! My brother says it's a sea worm - the kind you buy for bait. 
Toward the river around the rocks we also saw Brant Geese and Red-Breasted Mergansers. This beach is one special place - I look forward to exploring it again!

Around 15 minutes from Mystic, Connecticut there is a little beach at Eastern Point, in Groton on the mouth of the Thames river. There is a park for children and scenic views all around. The beach itself is rather tiny but from one end to the other are tons of slipper shells - so many you have to be careful where you step! It is a sweet little beach nestled in between a couple of jetties. What was marvelous for this beach comber were three very interesting finds.
First of all I found a couple of shells about the size of chestnut astarte clams but something was different about these shells. When I was able to check them over carefully and compare them to the chestnut astarte I have at home; I was thrilled to discover they are Northern Cardita shells! I photographed the two so you can see the obvious differences. One has concentric ridges (the astarte clam) and the Northern Cardita has radial ribs.

Another amazing find was the operculum of a whelk! When my husband found it I was not convinced it was anything of value. When I was able to confirm what he had suspected, I was thrilled to discover that it is indeed an operculum of either the channeled whelk or the knobbed whelk! A treasure indeed! (An operculum is like a little door that the mollusk uses to close off the opening of their shell.) Here is a link to more information and photos of a knobbed whelk with operculum.
​http://barnegatshellfish.org/images/whelk/operculum_whelk_bb_01_l.PNG

You can see the operculum above; it is the dark oval shaped piece. We also discovered transverse ark shells!
Third, I usually find Blood Arks on Cape Cod in Massachusetts but this time we discovered the transverse ark which looks very similar except the little "teeth" of the shell stretches out from both sides of the hinge where as the Blood Ark has more "teeth" to one side than the other. The ponderous ark also looks very similar! This little beach yielded some very interesting treasures! Here is a short video - Enjoy!

On Friday the weather was so nice we just had to take advantage of it and head down to the coast. This time we stayed in Mystic, Connecticut and explored several beaches around that area. On Saturday we headed over to Watch Hill in Westerly, Rhode Island to walk the incredibly rich, natural area of Napatree Point. Napatree point is a wildlife conservation area on a beautiful barrier beach that stretches out into Fishers Island Sound and Little Narragansett Bay. It is the perfect place to hike and beach comb. The ocean side of the beach was strewn with many slipper shells and hard shell clams. I even found a small piece of a sand dollar shell. But my real goal was to get down to the rocks because last time I was here I found Oyster Drills and New England Whelks and I was excited to find them again. Down near the rocks there were not only these tiny snails but piles of slipper shells. It's a really cool place to hunt for shells and enjoy the view. We also found the very tiny Greedy Dove Shells which are about a half inch in length. Here is a photo of the three so you can compare them. Notice the beautiful texture of the New England whelk; it is sometimes called a Basket whelk and I assume it is because of this basket weave type texture.

After the rocky area of the beach you can walk around the spit to get to the bay side. We saw many Brant Geese and a few gulls on the end.

There is a little inlet of water called Watch Hill Cove and on it were three swans. We walked around it and found Ribbed Mussels everywhere; more than I have ever seen in one place. Ribbed Mussels are typically found in salt marsh areas like this cove. They look like their ocean going cousins the blue mussels except they are ribbed.

If you continue around the bay side there are still lots of shells to be found. It is less windy on the bay and typically a bit warmer. You can cross back over to the ocean side by way of several marked paths. This whole area is a real treasure and one of my favorite beaches! Here is the view of Napatree Point from the beginning of the trail. It really is a spectacular area!

Here is a short video of the various treasures we found.
​NOTE: the string of egg casings belong to the Channeled Whelk and it's a flap of shell (not skin) on the Lobed Moon Snail (Shark's Eye). Enjoy!

After nearly three months of being away from the beach, it sure felt good to get to the seashore again. This time we decided to explore the North Shore of Massachusetts; specifically Crane Beach in Ipswich. It cost us ten dollars to get in to park but it is certainly worth it because it is a magnificent area. 
As you will see in the video we found a great many seashells and we were so pleased to find so many false angel wings! This beach is a very large beach. It is four miles long so be prepared for a good long walk if you go. It really was a rewarding beach combing experience and we only walked half the beach! I can’t wait to go back to explore more. Hope you enjoy this short video of seashell treasures.

A few weeks ago (in December) we were on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and we visited Seagull beach in West Yarmouth for the first time.  It was a perfect beach for a nice long walk and there were tons of seashells. As you can see from the photos above there were piles of Slipper Shells (from the Slipper snail) and many Horseshoe crab carapaces (shells). As with many Cape Cod beaches the Horseshoe crab was quite prevalent. Horseshoe crabs actually shed their shells as they grow so that explains why they are so numerous. We also found several egg casings of the Knobbed Whelk (pictured above) and many Knobbed Whelk shells. It is such a sweet little beach I look forward to going back again in the future. We also shot this short video - enjoy!

With all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season it was such a treat to get away for a couple of days and enjoy the joy and peace of the ocean. I have been especially missing Cape Cod, for we have not had a chance to travel there for quite awhile. I specifically wanted to explore the shores of Kalmus Park Beach in Hyannis; which is known for it's abundant seashells.
So on a very warm December day we walked Kalmus Park Beach and it did not disappoint! From one end of the beach to the other you will find piles of Slipper shells and Jingle Shells. You will also find the varied and wonderfully patterned Bay Scallop shells. We found many partial and broken Knobbed Whelks, Northern Moon Snails, Shark's Eye Moon Snails and ribbed Blood Arks. You can see a small selection that I kept in the above photo. It was a marvelous day to be beach combing on Cape Cod! We also filmed this short video - Enjoy!

Every year we spend a few days on the Southern Maine coast and visit some of my favorite places. This year the temperatures were in the high 60’s and on Friday it was 70 degrees! The weather gave us several very pleasant beach combing days. We started at Wells Beach where we filmed this short video. 

We then walked Laudholm Farm Beach and Rachel Carson’s Wildlife Sanctuary which are two of my favorite places to walk in Wells, Maine. We were also able to explore York Beach and it’s rich tide pools on the way home. It was a fabulous trip!

Many of the shells you see in this video are typical of what we found on Laudholm Farm Beach and Long Sands Beach in York. Enjoy!

One of the best times to be at the beach is in September. The crowds have gone and the water is often at it's warmest. We found such a day on September 8th. The water was 71 degrees warm and very calm; perfect conditions for a delightful swim.
It also happened to be low tide right after lunch so we enjoyed a marvelous walk from the south end of the beach up to the north end to look for treasures. Everything seems to wash up on the north end so your sure to find an interesting mix of sea life, sunglasses, and assorted bits of trash that often yields a toy or two or three! Boars head is right behind me in this latest video. Enjoy!

August 31st
A peaceful 90 degree day spent at Hampton Beach, in New Hampshire. The ocean was sparkling, calm, and clear. Refreshing swimming at 68 degrees; a perfect day. At sunset we walked the Seabrook, Ma side of the Hampton Harbor Inlet to shoot this video of the seashells we found there. You can hear cars going over the metal drawbridge section of Mile Bridge (Rte. 1A) in the background.

In July, I had a watercolor demonstration, Seashell book signing, and paintings for sale at the very special - Hartwell House Inn in Ogunquit, Maine. It was such a wonderful experience; one we will always treasure. On Sunday before we checked out we ran back down to Marginal Way to see if we could shoot a video of the seashells found along this gorgeous quintessential Maine coastline. 

Marginal Way is one of the loveliest paved walking paths on the New England coast and I have walked Marginal Way many times over the years - but have never looked for shells until this trip. For the most part you should not stray from the path but we found a little area that was safe to climb down to the rocks. There we found a variety of Dogwinkles and Periwinkles. Besides the more common brown/black Periwinkles we found a lot of Smooth Periwinkles. Smooth Periwinkles are smaller and more colorful than the Common Periwinkles. The above photo is of the larger Common Periwinkles, Dogwinkles, also called Dog Whelks (some are all white and some have white stripes), three little New England Whelks,  and the orange/peach or white colored Smooth Periwinkles and one Tortoiseshell Limpet.

Here is the video we shot - and I meant to say SEASHELLS in the beginning...not rocks - believe me there are plenty of rocks to be found! While we shot the video we were careful not to disturb the many Eider ducks resting on the rocks close to the water. The end of the video was very shaky so I cut the end and I will post a photo of the Eider ducks below.