Dear shellers,

Not too often that I get a chance to check a beach right after a major
storm.

I printed out Bill Frank's guide to shelling in the Jacksonville area
because I knew I'd be passing through. Tropical Storm Gabrielle had just
drenched Florida on the weekend and I figured that the wind direction might
replicate Bill's Nor'easter conditions favorable to shelling there.

Well, I got to Jacksonville with the sun low in the sky and the drive across
the city is endless. I had to abandon my goal of getting to one of the sites
that Bill lists because it was getting too late.

The first beach (Atlantic Beach?) I could get to wasn't a beach at all at
that time. Each surge of waves covered the entire slope and chunks of
(small) dune were coming down. I had to leap to avoid getting soaked.
Homeowners must be quite alarmed.

I drove further north to continue my return to North Carolina. Next morning,
I took a detour to Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast.

As the tide receded, there were copious amounts of exposed living Mulinia
lateralis (Duck Clam), More obvious were the numerous live Kiener's Whelks
(Busycon carica eliceans) with many more dead or empty. There were also
many, many sand dollars trying to hide from ultraviolet on the exposed
sandflat. And I've never seen so many sea pansies. A good number of large
Oliva sayana with banding of its "letter" patterns.

I was just thinking that I'd never encountered a live Nassarius trivittatus
and that I ought to ask the listserv about that when I started finding lots
of them (either live or recently dead).

The Nassarius acutus population was so numerous with its trails and small
bumps in the sand that it rivalled populations of N. vibex (although that
favors muddier sand).

There was not much variety in the drift, although I wasn't checking real
carefully because recently my back punishes me for bending much. I found
only a handful of Epitonium, two different species.

Has anyone else gotten a good harvest from Gabrielle or Erin? Any
significance to the variation of interior color in Kiener's Whelk from
orange to cream to white?

David Kirsh
Durham, NC