If you look closely you'll notice little holes here and there on the beach, with little bits of sand and whatnot near them, like this. These holes are the burrows of Ghost Crabs (also known as Sand Crabs).  You don't usually see the actual crab, because by the time you've spotted the little hole, the crab has long since spotted you and zipped inside. These crabs are very small and quick, and they match the color of the sand exactly.

Can you spot the crab?

Here is a video of a Ghost Crab at its burrow.  My apologies for the wobbly camera-work; I'm zoomed all the way in so as not to scare the crab away.

Thank you David for composing the music for my video!

Now that we've set the clocks forward we can start going down to watch the sunset after dinner.  The sunset this evening was wonderful.

The water was like an abstract painting.

I went down to the beach early this morning--well, early-ish.  I was hoping to see more interesting birds, like the spoonbills I saw once before when I went to the beach early.  The wind was blowing fairly briskly and it was cold (at least, it felt cold to me: it was in the low fifties).  There were no spoonbills, but a couple in wedding garb were having their pictures taken.

Nice dress but she must've been very cold (the photographer is wearing a jacket with the hood up)! There are a lot of weddings on our beach.  On most nice weekends you'll see a be-ribboned arch somewhere on the beach, white folding chairs set in rows, flowers.  Of course, with a beach wedding you can't predict what the weather will be like, or how windy it will be.

Another beautiful day.  I don't know why this happens, but some days you find more of one particular kind of shell, and today I found a lot of one of my favorites, the comb bittersweet clam.  Usually I find one or two, but today I found over 30!

I like how each one is unique, each pattern different; even the tiniest shell has its own individual design. Beautiful things are not always symmetrical, predictable. And often even what is not "beautiful" can still amaze and impress us.  As I reflected on this I thought of Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "Pied Beauty."

GLORY be to God for dappled things—

  For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

    For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

  Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

    And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

  Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

    With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

                  Praise him.

Very windy again today, but sunny and warm.  The wind was blowing the sand into patterns:

The wind also stirs up the sea oats which grow on the sand dunes.  The trailing tips of the sea oat grasses blow back and forth in the sand, leaving interesting little patterns.  There may also be some little creature footprints mixed in there, as well as ghost crab tracks.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day.  Sunny and warm, with only the barest wisps of clouds in the sky.  And the water was so clear (no seaweed) and calm, and so much warmer than just a week or so ago (that is to say, not freezing).  Amazing.  It's spring in Florida!

I was not the only one enjoying the day.  I saw a group of Willets (a kind of sandpiper) dozing in the sunshine.  They like to stand on one leg for some reason.

Sometimes you find things on the beach that make you wonder.  The apple is understandable; someone finished eating and just threw it down on the beach.  The same goes for the orange (except that someone forgot to eat it).  Fruit makes a great snack to take along for a day at the beach.  But an entire bunch of celery?  An onion?