Diario de susanhewitt

I have been in Sanibel, Florida, for two weeks now, and will be here another week. The weather has been very calm indeed, which is pleasant, but not great for shelling.

I have visited a number of the local beaches, both on-island and off-island.

Turner Beach, at the southern tip of the island of Captiva, across a small bridge from Sanibel, has aways been one of my favorites. I find it to be great for finding rarities, especially the smaller species.

Yesterday in a two-hour visit, I walked northwards along the beach, following a small, very narrow trail of washed-up shells. It looked not at all promising, but here is a list of the rare and overlooked species that I found. Sometimes I knelt down on elbows and knees to search through what looked to me like promising patches of very small shells.

Barbatia domingensis -- one valve

Divalinga quadrisulcata -- one valve

Callucina keenae -- four valves

Americardia keenae -- one valve

Basterotia quadrata -- one valve

I also found one valve of Arcopsis adamsi, but it somehow that valve did not make it home with me, and also, sad to say, I did not photograph it in situ.

And also I am listing two species that are more abundant (not rare) but which are usually overlooked:

Cavalinga trisulcata -- seven valves

Ervilia concentrica more than 25 valves

As a curiosity, I have added in an image of a small but cute colony of bryozoans, Discoporella umbellata.

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I had forgotten that last year and the year before in December I was on the worldwide leaderboards for the most observations and the most species in that month.

We are only halfway through December right now, but it looks as though I may make those leaderboards again this year.

https://www.inaturalist.org/people

Also it looks as though I will pass 100,000 observations in a few days time.

All good stuff.