Matt Blaine wrote:

> I am wondering if anyone has any collecting suggestions or tips
> for collecting micro shells. I have read the COA page on it and
> have been advised to go along the high tide line and "scoop"
> them up.

* our advice, from http://pinicola.ca/cldm.htm is: "The most diverse
drift is at the uppermost line of highest tide or flooding, or skimmed
off by filters of grass from the current or eddies. collecting is best
after the water level has fallen about 30 cm from the crest, but before
subsequent rain or trampling has disrupted the concentrations of
water-sorted shells. You want to gather these top handsfulls of
shell-rich drift, and you'll soon learn to recognize them by their
uniformly fine texture - whether you can see the shells of Molluscs in
the handsfulls or not. In ditches, streams, and rivers such
concentrations are often found after floods or spates above or below
bridges or culverts. They may be filtered out of passing water by
seive-like vegetation, or winnowed by the circular movement of
whirlpools or eddies. Sometimes very concentrated deposits are formed
under the overhanging lip of sod on the top of a bank. In lakes or
marine shores shells may be concentrated in gaps in shoreline vegetation
or where waves turn on themselves at the ends of docks, breakwaters, or
logs. On some marine or lake shores you'll also want to pick up the
sunken drift that accumulates just at the foot of the beach slope,
either underwater or revealed at low tides. The best concentrations
often occur a few tens of metres beyond where you've thought of giving
up because the drift, while voluminous, doesn't include any
concentrations of shells. Scoop the richest handsfulls into a plastic
bag, insert a tag bearing a unique identifier, and tie it closed."

fred.
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           Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
Frederick W. Schueler, Aleta Karstad, Jennifer Helene Schueler
      RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
     (613)258-3107 <[log in to unmask]> http://pinicola.ca
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