After a long day of radiator hoses breaking and an overheated car we made it to Long Beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts around 5 pm. It was high tide so we weren’t able to walk too far but we did manage to find a few treasures!
Note that I misspoke and called the little New England Basket Whelks - clams - ugh - for some reason I keep tripping up on those. So just to clarify, they are snails - univalves - not clams! 
We had hoped to walk much farther out on Long beach for it really is spectacular when you get past the rocks. It is also a vital area for shorebirds like Piping Plovers and Terns to nest. I had hoped to do a bit more photography but perhaps next time. At the end of the video you can see long beach, bug light, and across Plymouth bay to Duxbury.

On Monday, March 13th the weather was a little warmer...not so windy and a good day for a walk on Hampton Beach. There were tons of seashells from one end of the beach to the other. You can see from the image above, I found some nice driftwood, a huge Dog Whelk (Dogwinkle on the left), and a piece of a Ten Ridged Whelk (a rare find in center of pic), several Tortoiseshell Limpets in front center, and a New England Basket Whelk (next to the little brick piece). I took several photos of clams and other shells which I will include here. It was a great day to go beach combing as you will see! Check out my short video for more images and information. Enjoy!

Black Clam shell.

Atlantic Jackknife clam and Mussel shell.

Underside of a Sand dollar! Top side was broken when I flipped it over.

Northern Moon Snail - top part of shell.

Beautiful coloring on this Surf Clam.

The Lady of the Sea: NH Marine Memorial, by Alice E. Cosgrove [1909-1971].

It was a bitter cold, windy day on Wells beach in Maine this past Sunday, March 12th. The beach was quiet, with only a few brave souls out walking. I was glad I wore a lot of layers and a good scarf for my face. The wind was really biting. The water was rather calm except for the edges of the waves getting caught in the wind and whipped back in sprays. As always Wells beach was beautiful and made for a great walk. Besides shells, I found lots of birds to photograph, including my first ever Black Guillemot in winter plumage swimming and fishing next to Billy's Chowder House on Mile Road!   (see last photo)  While we were eating our lunch there earlier we watched a Loon fishing - and he/she was quite successful!

False Angel Wing (broken)

​Knotted wrack in a pool with stones.

Herring Gull searching for food.

The bridge on Mile Rd. next to Billy's Chowder House.

A Black Guillemot in winter plumage.

Back in January, on a warmish day, we went to Sandwich to enjoy a scone at The Dunbar House and have a nice walk on the nearby beach. As always, lunch at the Dunbar was wonderful. I just love it there; it is such a treat! Then we made our way over to Boardwalk beach and enjoyed an excellent beach combing afternoon. 
We walked both Footbridge beach (Boardwalk beach) and the adjoining Town Beach. As you can see in the image above we found lots of great treasures! An old fishing lure, False Angel Wings, Blood Arks, an Oyster Drill, Jingle shells, Scallop shells, a small Surf Clam, a Gould's Pandora, a Northern Moon Snail Operculum, Fish bones, a Mermaid's purse (egg casing for a skate), a piece of Sea Scallop, a piece of coral, Slipper shells, driftwood, stones, and a piece of jaw bone from what - I do not know. 
There were also tons of large Northern Moon Snails, Blue and Horse Mussels, and various Crab carapaces and claws. We shot a short video of some of the shells and a nice pan of the beach. Not long after we shot this video, winter storms tore this fence out and eroded the dunes. Here is the video:

And below is a photo of a Lady Crab, which has such an interesting carapace (shell). I just love that leopard like pattern. 

On our way back from Provincetown (back in Dec.) we stopped at the Head of the Meadow bike trail and beach in Truro, Ma. https://www.nps.gov The bike trail was pleasant but perhaps a little long for walking....the round trip : ) Probably much easier on a bike! After we enjoyed the bike trail we made our way over the parking lot to the beach. This beach is one of the Cape's most spectacular beaches. It was a windy, cold, day so we did not venture too far but found some nice treasures and some not so nice trash. The reason I include this balloon in the photo is because they are a real blight on our beaches and many people do not know how far they can blow, where they can end up, and what harm they can cause to wildlife. So Please hold on to those balloons - do not let them go!
​For more information check out: https://balloonsblow.org
We did find some nice bay scallops, jingle shells, little surf clams, seagull feathers, acorns, beautiful stones and a good segment of fish vertebra! We also saw more seals swimming right off shore. Hopefully the fishing was good! The scenery certainly was.

Only steps from the Provincetown Inn is this sweet little beach on Provincetown Harbor. It may have been small but it was full of lots of interesting treasures! As you can see from my photo above we found feathers (Eider duck's perhaps?), Bay scallops, Oysters, Blue Mussels, Slipper shells, Jingles shells, Quahogs, Crab claws, driftwood, Fish bone vertebra, Blood Ark shell, small Surf Clam and a seed pod. But one of the best finds was a string of egg casings from a Channeled Whelk! Here is a photo of me holding it in my hands.

It can be hard to tell the difference between the Channeled Egg Casings and the Knobbed Whelk egg casings so this time I took a section home to get a closer look. Inside I found the tiny Channeled Whelk babies...I put them in the Blood Ark so you can see them in the photo below. Here is a link that helps explain the differences:   matthewwills.com/2011/05/17/whelk-egg-cases/

Here is a photo of a Channeled Whelk (left) and a Knobbed Whelk that I found when I was a kid on the Rhode Island coast at Sand hill Cove. That Channeled Whelk is one of my greatest treasures! I have not found one that size since!

Back in early December of 2016 we hiked the Provincetown breakwater out to Long Point. The breakwater/dike is over a mile long with wonderful views of Provincetown, the harbor, Wood End lighthouse and Long Point lighthouse. We also saw a raft of Eider ducks on the bay and seagulls on the rocks. Several of the rocks were covered with broken shells, so I imagine that the gulls drop the clams on the rocks and feast on them there. Most of the shells were quahog shells, but there were also soft shell clams, blue mussels, and oyster shells. In the photo below you can see some of those shells littered around my feet.

On our way out on the breakwater we saw this male Eider by itself. It may be injured; I could see a feather sticking out a bit at the back. I do hope it is okay. 

​Near the end of the breakwater as we reached the dunes of Long Point I saw these tiny sparrow like birds. I did not know what they were....but with the help of Joppa Flats Audubon in Newburyport - now I know! They are Snow Buntings!

When we finally reached the beach over the dunes, we saw Harbor seals swimming right off shore. My husband took a short video of them. If you watch for a few seconds then he zooms in so you can see them better. They were so cool to watch!

We explored the beach a bit but did not stay too long because we needed to get back over the breakwater before the tide was too high. Several sections of the breakwater are covered at high tide. So if you do go - note the high tide time.
​I did end up picking up a few shells as you can see in the photo below. These are bits of bay scallops, a shark's eye moon snail, oysters, a ribbed mussel, and a blue mussel. I also picked up a piece of a quahog (the blue/purple piece) from the breakwater itself. 

Finally, I leave you with a few shots of the lighthouses and salt marsh.
It's a remarkable place and worth the long hike over the breakwater.

On December 2nd we arrived in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the very tip of Cape Cod. We drove over to Herring Cove beach to walk and take in the sunset. It was a windy day, not too cold, but the waves were being driven wildly into the shore. It was a bit cloudy; but the clouds served to enhance the remarkable sunset.
The first thing I noticed about this beach was the many beautiful stones strewn on the beach. Nice stones, colorful stones, all different shapes and sizes. Here is a photo of one I particularly liked.

The other thing we noticed was the many feathers! There were all kinds all over the beach. There were lots of seagull feathers, and one I believe is from a Comorant. The prettiest feathers were these small black and white striped ones that seems to be from the Red-Breasted Merganser. 

You can see the Red-Breasted Merganser feather on the left side of the dish. We also found Surf Clams, Common & Flat Slipper shells, Jingle shells, Periwinkles, a crab carapace, and some neat stones and birch bark. All in all, a beautiful and interesting collection. But the treasures did not end there....The big find of the day was the egg casing of a Waved Whelk! Here it is in my hands. 

We did not film a video about seashells this time but rather I shot a few seconds of the waves and sunset. Enjoy this glimpse of Herring Cove : )

​It was so good to get back to Wells Beach, Maine and Ogunquit for a couple of days this past weekend.  We hit Wells Beach at low tide in the morning on Saturday and had a good long walk the length of the beach. I found a beautiful pair of false angel wings and many typical shells of the area. I took photos of our finds. The gulls were hanging out and some were eating clams. I spotted only one lone sanderling looking for food around the seaweed and we watched loons fishing in the channel., The wind was calm and the sun peeked out a bit later in the morning making it very pleasant.

​After lunch at the Maine Diner we decided to go to Marginal Way in Ogunquit. As always it was a treat to walk along the rocky cliffs, enjoy the amazing views, and do a little treasure hunting among the rocks. We found lots of great shells as you will see in the video and I was able to photograph some Common Eiders and White-winged Scoters.  I just found out another name for the yellow or smooth periwinkles; they are also called FLAT periwinkles and the latin name is: “Littorina obtusata”. What a pretty name!

Common Eiders