Another shell,

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Now I've got me going ever more slowly over the sand.
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Hum, a pointy bit!  I wonder if it's a...










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Yes, a Carrier Snail.  They must go dormant or something occasionally, because their shell gets bits of coral or sometimes shells embedded on the surface.  They'd have to be stationary when the shell grows, to have the the coral or shell stick so completely to the snail's shell.  This little guy is actually as big as I've seen them.  His collection is so heavy!
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OK, Gastropod.  It's a Gastropod.
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His portrait, upside down, then I turned him over and left him to struggle along under his heavy load.

I saw one (the shell, the critter was long dead and gone) in a sea shell store window once that had a $200 price tag!  It was amazing, a perfect spiral of pretty little sea shells.  No lumpy dead coral like on this fellow.

I always wanted to get a lot of these guys and keep them in a bin of shells, so they'd all have pretty collections.  But I've never figured out how to do that.
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What else do we have here?
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I see you!












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Swish, swish away some sand, then gently and carefully dig my hand under the side, and...










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Ta Da!  A Red Heart Urchin.  A big one.  They shove their way through the sand just under the surface all day.  Using all their zillions of short spines for propulsion, somehow.  They come to the surface at sunset, something about there not being enough oxygen in the sand without sunlight.This guy really is big.


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Upside down, to his dismay.  Or are we a her?  Ha, I can't tell, and don't really care.  I'm not even really sure what's the front end!  But I think it's at the top of the photo.  The spines are wriggling frantically in a slow sort of way.  Red Heart Urchin races would be terminally boring to watch!

The spines on the bottom are in patterns for moving about, and picking through the delectable eatery in the sand.  I read that Urchins as a whole are picky eaters.  And one more thing, that white spot on the right?

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A tiny crab that can often found on this kind of urchin.  Called, what else, a Heart Urchin Pea Crab.  I've seen two on one urchin, but usually only one, never several or many.

And one fish.  This female Peacock Flounder is either full to bursting with eggs, they're in mating season now, or she ate a fish that she could only barely get into her mouth.  Fish do that all the time, take really big bites.  They don't have my Mom around to tell them not to.

Ah, well, sorry I'm so late this day, gosh, it's afternoon!  Where does time go?  Thanks for stopping by!

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