In Part 1 I arrived on Corolla and took a hike along a trail through the woods and then visited a lighthouse. Now it’s time to go to the beach.
But first I got to move all my stuff into the rental house. Sharing it with ten people and a dog for the next week. (I would not want to live here full time — the kitchen is on the 3rd floor! Nice view, but a lot of hauling distance for food and garbage.)
So I got situated, helped the others unpack when they arrived, and then, well, spent most of the week visiting the beach at least once a day.
The houses were separated from each other and the boardwalks connecting to the beach by trees and hedges. These in turn were heavily occupied by sparrows, catbirds, mockingbirds, and flycatchers. Two mockingbirds had nearby house roofs as their main displaying spot for establishing territory. Lots of birdsong to listen to while sitting by the pool reading.
Lots of spiders about. Jumping, Orb Weavers, and what I call “glass spiders” due to their translucency — which are probably a type of cobweb spider.
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The beach itself is primarily quartz sand. Liberally mixed in is a lot of shell bits that are in the process of being ground down. Some black garnet sand is mixed in as well, but not enough to form any real “black sand” layer. The shells along the beach are a mix of various clams, some whelks, and Atlantic scallop. The last noticeable due to their black color as compared to the very colorful Gulf scallop. Very few of the shells are intact since the wave action rapidly erodes and breaks them.
Gulls sighted were mainly Laughing Gulls with some Herring gull and Ring-billed gull mixed in.
Watching pelicans fly/glide just above wave height in formations of 5-6 birds is sort of fascinating. And they seemed to have a routine since I saw them going by headed south at about the same time every evening.
Grackles and Crows worked the beach during daylight hours competing with the gulls to pick up food scraps and pick at whatever the tide had left.
Crabs generally did a quick scuttle back into their burrows when anyone approached. At sunset they were generally hanging out at the surf line and would scuttle into the surf to avoid you.
Also seen, but not photoed, was a 1” or so long isopod that if uncovered by a wave rapidly tunneled back under the sand. Probably a variety of sea louse. Maybe the North American equivalent to Eurydice pulchra.
And once I found some very loose sand that was somewhat protected from the wind I saw these as well…
And there were some Eastern Fence Lizards running about by the pool one afternoon. About 8” long and readily identified due to their pale blue coloring on the throat.
The Osprey flew over the beach fairly regularly. I wonder if this is an adult from the family whose nest I took a picture of in Part 1.
* — Mentioned in an older bucket was people leaving beach gear out that possibly interfered with turtles trying to lay eggs. The chairs in this photo (lower left) were rentals that a service put out first thing in the morning, and took in just after sunset. We were using our own chairs, but I did notice how these chairs were handled. The main threat I faced when walking the beach at dusk was possibly not seeing a sand excavation made by humans earlier in the day.
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Now It's Your Turn
What have you noted happening in your area or travels? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.