Foto Friday - A treasure on the beach . . .

If you haven't noticed already, then I have to confess . . . yes, I am a nature nerd.

I have loved nature ever since I was old enough to remember,

playing with crawdads in the creek behind my house, and growing maple trees from the helicopter seeds.

That desire to be close to nature has only grown stronger as I get older,  and there is magnificent beauty in all of it. But the beauty isn't just in the seeing of it, as much as how it all works together 

especially when the hand of man does not disrupt it.


Develop an interest in life as you see it;
the people, things, literature, music -
the world is rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

- Henry Miller


Most of the treasures I find are not riches like money or jewels that are hoarded, but rather the kind of gems that one holds precious in nature, that are not stored but are priceless.

While at the beach last weekend hundreds of thousands of little treasures were being exposed with the washing of each wave, and I was barely quick enough to get a picture before they disappeared.

These little gems are called coquina clams and are an extremely important part of a healthy beach eco-system, and when the sand and water are clean they will multiply. And multiply the have . . .

 
They are a bivalve mollusk that hangs out in the tidal zones of sandy beaches and are always very active, actually migrating up and down the beach with the tide. When the waves come in and they are exposed they are sometimes carried back by the retreating waves and as the water starts to settle they quickly bury themselves just under the speed of light. Interestingly they bury themselves vertically which sure takes up a lot less of their viable real estate.

You can see that they come in a lot of colors, my favorite being the ones that are striped and I'm kinda
partial to the pink ones too! These guys are filter feeders and because of this are considered an indicator
species and important link in the food webs. They feed on small particles of algae and are in turn fed upon by fish and shorebirds. They even find their way into soups!

In this picture you can see their siphons (one for inhaling food and the other for exhaling waste) and in some you can see their foot or large muscle that they use to bury themselves with.

Here, a seagull chasing a black skimmer that just caught a fish in hopes of stealing it! Little bugger....

Here was a girl that day that decided to see how far she could bury her legs in the sand,

and I happened to capture a moment where she was watching a clam . . . bury itself! 

I love the beach and am drawn to it everyday like a butterfly to nectar.
And it's true that when you forget yourself and open your eyes to all the things around you that you
look at but do not see, you realize that this world is bigger than a you and a me.

Have a wonderful weekend - look around I'm sure you find a treasure too!

Love, Kim
XO