Beachhouse Lodge dock on an extremely low December tide.
If you’ve been following this blog for the last few days, you’ll know that an unusually low tide hampered my ability to get to Cayo Costa Island State Park from Pine Island on Saturday December 13. However, I did manage to spend a few minutes hunting for shells in the exposed mud next to the BeachHouse Lodge’s dock.
Charlotte Harbor is one of the cleanest of the large bays in Florida. I saw no refuse or trash washing up. Just clean sandy mud. And some strange-looking tracks. One of them looked familiar. Here it is. Do you recognize the track below?
Track left in the wet sand by a live Olive Shell.
It is the track left by a live Lettered olive shell (Oliva sayana) plowing along just below the surface. There were quite a few of them in the vicinity. I don’t know if they were hunting for food, or looking for a mate. I extracted one from it’s half-buried track and photographed it (below). They are so shiny and beautiful.
Live Olive Shell in the mud on Pine Island, Florida.
Nearby, I noticed another pattern in the mud, which I did not recognize. Do you know what kind of animal it belongs to? (below).
This little mound of sandy mud is the sign of a Banded tulip shell.
I dug into the sand with my fingers and uncovered this Banded tulip shell (Fasciolaria lilium)! It was about 3 inches below the surface, and was quite lethargic when I placed it down on the sand. Perhaps because of the cold temperature. Of course I put it back where I found it after I took this photograph.
A live Banded tulip shell on Pine Island.
It’s amazing how much nature you can discover in 5 minutes.
