Starfish & Sea Urchins!

Went to Kure Beach for some fun in the sun.. and fun it was! It was quite a day. My boyfriend and I couldn't stop finding all sorts of treasures, most notably lots of starfish and sea urchins! But there were other random cool things, like a piece of some kind of animals jaw, a giant crab claw, fossilized barnacles, plenty of scallops, and lots of sea sponge and sea whip type stuff. Lots of good stuff for decorating! Here is a gander:

Look at all that good stuff and such pretty colors!

You can see some of the bones in this one

The fossilized barnacles! There is an awesome swirlie in there! I did not find this unfortunately so no bragging rights for me.. but luckily I get to look at it everyday!

The other side of fossilized barnacles

All our starfish and sea urchins cleaned and drying!

Great shelling day!

Great day.. just sad its over.. until the next time..

Hurricane Irene pictures

Here are some pictures from when Irene finally passed us and they allowed people back on Wrightsville Beach to see what she left for us.. This was my first time ever going to the beach after a Hurricane but I have often dreamed of the awesome things I would find if I ever got the chance!

Look at all of that debris!!!

A horseshoe crab covered in barnacles washed up

I finally noticed that large group of people way out in the distance and soon realized that was where the jackpot was!

Starfish

 
 

That pool didnt use to be there!

Irene

Well it certainly has been good shelling ever since Irene came around! My boyfriend and I went to Wrightsville Beach immediately after they allowed people back on again after Irene passed.. it was crazy! It was still pretty insanely windy, so you could barely see or you would get sand in your eyes.. but we stuck it out for about half an hour before we couldnt take it anymore. There were a lot of people on the beach for it being so gusty but we finally understood why when we got to one spot... There were tons of horseshoe crabs, starfish, whelks, other shells and just overall debris. It was craziness! I never see that stuff on the beach! My boyfriend managed to snag one of the dead horseshoe crab shells and he also found a fossil shark vertebrae! I was stuffing whelk shells in my pockets or wherever I could find room!

Everything we found during our half hour on the beach directly after Irene

Look at the horseshoe crab!

A closer look at the shark vertebrae

So with the shelling that good then, we of course had to go back the next day and the next... It was unreal the amound of whelks that got washed up. Most of them older and worn, but still very cool. I now have an abundance of them and am not sure what to do with them! I have already decorated most of my house with them and still have lots left over! Here are a few other highlights from the days after Irene..

This HUGE clam got washed up.. he was still alive so I put him back but I have never seen such a fatty clam before.

I love this guy. Im a big fan of worm shells and this is like a little colony.. it was attached to a rock but once removed it revealed a little world of swirlies. I love it!

Although this angel wing is cracked and has a hole, I still adore it. This is first entire one I have found so I was quite excited! They are so beautiful!

And last but not least, a baby sea turtle skull. I did not know what this was when I found it but am sure glad I kept it. I love finding bones on the beach.

Thats all for now. Lots more stuff was found but it was almost too much to document! So until the next hurricane.. happy shelling!

Kure & Wrightsville Beach

So the pics Im posting are a combination of from almost a month ago at Kure Beach and some more recent stuff from Wrightsville Beach. At Kure, it was my first time going and it was awesome! Full of different things that I dont usually see at the other beaches. For starters, I found my first starfish! I mean I've found them before but not dead so I can keep it! I found a little guy and one that was missing an arm. I also found plenty of live ones that washed up that I did my best to return to the sea. I also found the TINIEST sand dollar. He is so little and cute and I love him. Also found a good amount of false angel wings, some shark teeth and a spiny jewel box! All in all, its been a pretty good month!

Some false angel wings, scallops and swirlies

The tiniest baby sand dollar! Isnt he the cutest?!

Busy shelling summer!

Man, I have been slacking on this! I've had quite the busy summer though. I spent a month at my most favoritest place, Topsail Island. During that time I did a lot of shelling.. My main goal was to find a ton of shark teeth.. and I think I succeeded! By the end of my trip and searching all over, I ended up with 942 teeth! There were plenty of small ones but I found some real nice ones too! Besides that, I found tons of broken moon snail shells to add to my bowl of swirlies, scallops, baby ears and I even found a wentletrap which I've always wanted to find! Still no complete scotch bonnet but I found several busted ones.. Im getting closer to a complete one! Here's a look at my finds from the first two weeks of my trip! I had boat access during that time so I was able to find a significant amount more than the last two weeks of my stay.

Sooo many shark teeth. The shark tooth hunting this year was the best its ever been! Significantly better than Wrightsville Beach!

Shark teeth & sand dollars!

A closer look at some of the nicer shark teeth

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! 

 After my third week and doing the majority of my hunting on the sound side I had some different stuff.. like lots of coral bits, worm shells pieces and some pen shells. Also A LOT of baby ears. I was finding them left and right! Here is a gander at what I got:

These were some of my favorite little finds, I really liked these two worm shells and two baby sea urchin skeletons.. and My Wentletrap, isnt he cute?!

Thats all for now until I find my other pictures!