This morning, I stumbled upon a sand dollar, only the second time that's happened in the eons that I've been beachcombing. Actually a marine animal, not a shell, the keyhole sand dollar lives on the floor of the ocean, usually in and around the Caribbean Sea. So this guy was a long way from home. And dead, of course.
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| Sand dollars, bleached white by the sun, are a rare find on northern beaches. |
Every beach has its own culture and even that changes with the tide. The morning after my son's wedding in Westhampton a couple of years ago, I took a walk on the beach in front of the hotel. It was littered with large clam shells, something we don't find in abundance on the beach in Montauk. I lugged two shopping bags full home. This was news to Dot, my daughter-in-law Jennie's grandmother, who lives in Westhampton. "We rarely see them," she said.
Still, I've been meaning to go back to Westhampton to check it out. Then this fall, buckets full of them showed up on our beach. Go figure.
A walk on the beach by the lighthouse last week yielded a bounty of the largest oyster shells I've ever found out here;
The beaches at Lazy Point, scallop shells of every hue;
And the beach right here, in front of the Atlantic Terrace, snail shells uncommon for their size and color.
Shells or not...beauty and the beach.
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