Coquina are tiny little clams which are seen at the water's edge, or the "swash zone".  When the waves come up, and the sand is loosened, they wriggle down into the wet sand; after a bit they squirm back up again and the next wave carries them to a different place, where they wriggle down again. They are all different colors. Here is a movie:

The coquina feed on small particles in the sand and water, and the fish and shorebirds, as well as the olive snails, feed on the coquina.

 

An update on the skimmers from a week or so ago.  The chicks are getting bolder and wandering outside the confines of the nesting area.

The black skimmers are nesting, far down the beach past the Don CeSar, even further down than they nested last year.  The nests are simply little hollows in the sand.  If you get too close one or two skimmers will swoop and "bark" at you until you move away.

It doesn't look like the chicks have hatched yet, but last year I got a picture:

It is unfortunate that the 4th of July cooincides with the hatching of chicks because the fireworks startles the parents away from the nest; the chicks get confused and wander off, and some get trodden on.

Skimmers are comical-looking, with their over-sized orange beaks and long ungainly looking bodies on stumpy legs; but airborne they are fascinating and beautifully graceful, gliding low over the water, beaks open, hoping to snag a fish...

Note: The next day there were chicks--maybe they were there all along but hidden in the nests.

Yesterday there was a turtle nest marked out in front of the Don CeSar, the first one I've noticed this year.  Usually they're further up, away from the water, near the dunes.



Of course, it's possible this nest was there the day before without my seeing it, as I was a bit distracted by the sight of two spoonbills, a very rare occurrence indeed!  I was very excited but couldn't get close enough for a decent picture.  They are a lovely pink color which doesn't really show up well in this picture.

Yesterday I went down to the beach early and was rewarded with the sight of a Great Blue Heron.

He was just standing in the surf with walkers and joggers passing by him.  He let me get quite close.

I also saw a speckled crab, which was dead.  He let me get even closer...

This morning there were groups of rays patrolling the beach, working together to catch the little fish that congregate near the shore:

 

These rays are not bothered by people at all, they simply weave in and out around the swimmers, always staying as a group, sometimes close to shore and sometimes just beyond the sandbar--wherever there are schools of little fish.  I'm still trying to figure out what kind of rays these are; are they lesser devil rays, because of their dark color and the fact that they're scooping up the the little fish with forward-facing mouths?  Or are they cownose rays, which are brown, with downward-facing mouths, and which eat crustaceans and mollusks?  It's very confusing.  These rays are definitely eating the little fish because sometimes the fish jump right out of the water to get away...

I've seen stingrays at the beach as well, usually in the summer, but these are sand-colored and hide just under the sand near the shore to catch their prey.

This evening there were olive snails everywhere on the beach.  The tide was out and the olives were making all kinds of patterns in the wet sand. The olive shells here at Pass-a-Grille beach are known as "Lettered Olives".  You can read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettered_olive

Today there was a sandcastle near the Don CeSar with a marriage proposal on it...

Not the first time a sandcastle was built near the Don.  Earlier in April there was another one:

And another further down the beach, with some nice shell detail:

And again, one evening, a mermaid resting on the beach with seaweed hands and hair...