Tag Archives: sea pansies

New Developments

I’ve run across so many new critters over the past year that my nerdy excitement is in full gear. Some of these critters have been found while doing private beach programs, which is super cool for those who are adventuring with me, and here are a couple of those…

And some of these have been found while wandering alone…

This excitement over new critters leads me to the following developments. First, as y’all know, I’ve been doing programs for the Coastal Discovery Museum for two years now, with the school programs being especially dear to me. Going forward I’ll be adding private beach and nature programs as well. Does someone in your group have a particular love of dolphins, horseshoe crabs, or some other critter? These programs can be tailored in length and content to the desires of your group.I plan on the programs being at Mitchelville Beach, but if you are staying at a beachfront location, I can come to you instead if you prefer. I am obviously not on the island all the time, so I will start posting the dates I am available for tours at the top of the Part-Time Local Facebook page. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, just email me at mary@part-timelocal.com or send me a message on the Facebook page and we can discuss the details.

The second development involves the development of this website. I’ll be adding all these new critters to the “Critters” section of the site, but I’ll also be reworking these pages some to reflect a more correct taxonomy, or classification, of the critters. After I update a particular critter page I post it to the Facebook page so y’all can easily check out the changes if you’s like.

A Wee Bit Dangerous, a Whole Lotta Funny…

I recently spent the afternoon on a beach adventure with a friend, her daughter (also a friend), and her three girls. These girls have gone on a number of beach adventures with me and are growing up to be fine beach nerds, my protégés making Miss Mary so very proud.

We were walking alongside a series of deep tidal pools with the girls trailing behind when, hearing a bit of commotion, we turned around to see only the head of Protégé K sticking out of one of the pools. The first frightening thought for the three adults was that K had dropped into an exceptionally deep pool, but it was quickly obvious, with a huge sigh of relief, that she was just “swimming” in the pool.

We watched as her sisters, Protégés C and L were dancing around, cheering her on. But then the cheers and laughter became screams for her to get out. K  (and we) were momentarily confused, but then K was also screaming and running from the pool. We rushed forward, and peering into the water could see that the pool K had been swimming in, in fact, all of the tidal pools, were teeming with Blue Crabs, some of them VERY LARGE. K could have easily been the victim of the fierce claws of crabs just acting to defend themselves.

Once the hearts stopped racing, the laughter set in and we busied ourselves counting crabs and trying to scoop some up in our buckets for closer inspection. We even found what appeared to be a mating pair (the male was cradling the female). As the water settled and cleared in the pool K had been in, we saw that not only had she been swimming with Blue Crabs, but there was also unbeknownst to her, a fairly large Horseshoe Crab.

With the excitement done, when continued our adventures, and even catalogued a few new critters like Sea Pansies and a Sea Anemone different than what I have seen here before.

Now I have to share the VERY disappointing aspect of our day’s adventure- the TRASH. I always make it a habit to pick up trash while walking the beach, a habit the girls have also picked up (YaY!), and although some days I come back with more beach garbage than beach treasure, this day set a record for the amount collected, not a record we were happy to set.