Beach Gifts

Driftwood.

Surf Clam shell colonized by Serpulid Tubeworms.

The Plumed Worm (Diopatra cuprea) fastens bits of shell to its case.

Here’s one I took apart. At least nine species of mollusk shell represented here. The tubes were a surprise.

Casings of some kind of Parchment Tubeworm (Family Chaetopteridae).

Bryozoan remains, with Polychaete worm tubes on it.

Another piece of driftwood, with shipworm holes. “Shipworm” harkens to their centuries of threat to wooden ships, and wooden pilings, but they’re not actually worms. They’re bivalves, wood-boring clams.

Striped Bass, I think, and at 3.25′ long, those were some serious fillets. (Not too far away, feathers and other bits of a Wild Turkey.)

Dune Sandbur (Cenchrus tribuloides), extraordinarily sharp.