Good morning! I don't usually say much on the list, but I had to say one more thing today!! Thank-you Karen for this e-mail to the list!!! This is my favorite part of being on the list. I love hearing about the shell trips and the experiences getting the shells!!! Thanks! LaVerne ******************************************* >From: KAREN VANDER VEN <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: John Lloyd State Park and Just another South Florida afternoon >Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 11:13:32 -0400 > >I'm not sure John Lloyd Park is a secret since it's been discussed >on this list. But here's an update from a recent trip when I had >a free afternoon for a return visit. Beach shells on the S. FL east >coast ? Never, except here... > >So I went north along the beach, checking out the sand ridge high on >shore, looking for little shiny protuberances and poking with a stick >every now and then. And soon the tiny treasures began to pour >forth. Several perfectly fine oliva sayana were the only larger shells. > >I finally got to the end of the beach where the canal from Port >Everglades runs out into the ocean. Leaving the sand ridge, >I went to the shore line where little puddles of grit larger than the sand >offered promise. Even more treasures. > >While I was bent over searching this, and standing up every now and >then to put my finds in the little baggie, a young woman approached >me and handed me a half of a bivalve on a piece of rope. When I turned >it over, there was an American flag painted there using some kind >of glowing material that added texture. She told me that she was giving >them out to people. I thanked her, put the necklace around my neck, >and, warmed and smiling, continued my shelling. > >Finishing, I stalked back up the beach to pick up my beach bag >with towel, shorts, hardcover novel that I never sat down to read, >goggles, and other items. I finally realized that it was gone. > "Who would want my beach bag" I grumbled, my warm feeling about the >shells > and the gift giving way to annoyance and anxiety. I continued to search >for it, distracted a bit by an almost perfect 2 1/2 inch pair of rosy > pinna carnea in the seaweed. > >Finally I gave up and started back to the car. Then I got an idea. Perhaps >someone had fished through my bag and then thrown it in the garbage. >I peered in every garbage can. No bag and no shells either. Then I >spotted a big dumpster. I climbed up the side so I could peer in >and I couldn't believe it. There, just out of reach, was my bag, >intact ! I climbed down, back up with a stick and fished out the bag. >At the car, I took another look at the American Flag on a shell. >I could tell that it was a glycmeris undata underneath. > >Bearing in mind that all shells I found were small (except for the olives >and the pen shell) and that some were faded, what did I find on this >little >adventure? There were: terebra dislocata, cerithium eburneum, cerithium >lutosum, turritella exoleta, favartia cellulosus (I'm pretty sure I got >this right), columbella mercatoria, fasciolaria tulipa, busycon caricum, >murex recurvirostrus rubidus ( OK, so the "rubidus" was gone but the >shape unmistakable!), marginella guttata, dentalium species, natica >species, conus species, cyphoma gibbosum, trivia pediculus, strombus >alatus (juvenile), melampus coffeus, olivella mutica ( really nice, shiny >and colorful), olivella floralia, bulla striata, mitra nodulosum ( rather >un-nodulose, to be honest), turrid species (ostrearum ?) rissoina >decussata, nassarius vibex, among others. I left the pretty crabbed nerita >versacolors. I'd swear there's a colubraria lanceolata ( in very poor >condition but recongizable). Other intriguing looking species I can't ID at >all. > >Anyway...just another South Florida afternoon. > > >Karen > >PS - In case anybody has made it this far - I must stand up to be >counted - I like the humor on the list. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp