Beachin'

The plaque in the condo says it all:

I love "my" beach. 

It's wide, with firm sand for easy walking. There's public access, but not many people. Cars can drive on it, but only on a single track in a single direction, far from the water and the pedestrians. 

The beach is lined with condos and houses, but there are low dunes in between. The dunes are protected -- boardwalks are used to get to the beach. (The white thing is a gate with a lock and a code. We're security-obsessed around here, for no reason that I can see.)

Sunsets are best on the opposite side of the island, but they can still look pretty good from here.

At first the beach seems fairly boring. The shells all look alike (I think they're called arks--the ridged scallop-like shells on the lower left below). Then you start to see that there are lots of differences in size and coloration, and some white clams in the mix. The razor clams called jackknife clams are abundant in spots. The occasional olive shell turns up, or a horseshoe crab shell, or what I think are sharks'-eyes. I've found two of the elegant angel's wings. 

Dainty speckled crabs leave shells behind, and I've found a few nice whelks. I'm not sure how I'm going to drag all this home (plus the auxiliary stash out on the porch).

Google is our friend, but there are still questions. Why are there gazillions of jackknifes in one spot and none a little farther along? How do some shells get cemented to another? Why were lots of living black bivalves washed up on the incoming tide one day and none the next? For that matter, why do seagulls and terns congregate in certain spots, then suddenly bail out and go somewhere else? And who gets to decide? There need to be information booths up and down the beach!