![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/PeepsCrescentonNaturalCrooksDotCom.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nCrescent Beach Offers Plovers, Sandpipers and Other Shorebirds<\/h2>\n
There were several other types of small shorebirds hunting with the plovers.<\/p>\n Then a flock of crows arrived and all of the Peeps flushed and moved a long distance away.<\/p>\n A larger Spotted Sandpiper flew in, though, and picked through the wrack, ignoring the noisy Crows.<\/p>\n I continued to amble along the beach looking at all the flotsam and jetsam the waves tumbled to my feet.<\/p>\n There were hard-shelled clam shells, some slipper shells, periwinkles, Irish Moss and a variety of other sea weeds.<\/p>\n When I looked up, I noticed an Osprey was hunting over the water on the far side of the Causeway.<\/p>\n The first place we saw these strange rubbery sandy rings was on the ocean floor at the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick at low tide years ago. At the time, we couldn’t figure out whether we were seeing a huge amount of pollution or garbage or something natural. Since then, we’ve discovered they are natural.<\/p>\n In fact, these weird rubbery things are egg collars laid by Moon Snails. They are perfectly natural. This is just a fragment of one, although it’s large as you may be able to judge by the size 8 footprint beside it.<\/p>\n And this is the type of Moon Snail that makes them, although this is just an empty shell.<\/p>\n I saw exactly one piece of sea glass which I left for another collector. It’s become quite a desirable thing these days, so some people even deliberately break glass and leave it at the shore’s edge to get tumbled smooth.<\/p>\n I met the SemiPalms again a few times along the beach. They would be startled into flight fairly regularly by people jogging or walking their dogs too closely to the flock. Personally, I stayed further up the beach and let them find as much food as they could.<\/p>\n Although it was a calm day, the incoming tide still made some lovely white foam when breaking over the rocks at the ends of the beach. I enjoyed just watching for a few minutes before heading back to civilization.<\/p>\n I was hoping to see birds at the beach, but I hadn’t really expected to see any butterflies. To my surprise, though, I did see<\/p>\n a few Painted Lady butterflies on the plants at the edges of the beach, and<\/p>\n what looked like a Virginia Ctenucha moth sunbathing on one of the large boulders protecting the causeway from the winter waves.<\/p>\n Even as I was leaving Crescent Beach, I was already plotting to get back there the next morning, when I’d have another 50-odd minutes before the tide began rolling back in.<\/p>\n Related Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Join In <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s always a hint of mystery to exploring a beach in the early morning. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[688,682,684,17,680,686,683,233,509,86,681,407,382,687,685],"class_list":["post-6411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rambles","tag-atlantic","tag-bald-eagle","tag-collar","tag-crabs","tag-crescent-beach","tag-irish-moss","tag-moon-snail","tag-nova-scotia","tag-osprey","tag-painted-lady","tag-semi-palmated-plover","tag-spotted-sandpiper","tag-virginia-ctenucha","tag-waves","tag-wrack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6411"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6417,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6411\/revisions\/6417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalcrooks.com\/rambles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\nA flock of Semi-palmated Plovers were at work on the beach beside the parking lot.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nBeachcombing for Seaweed and Shells<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nWhat Are These Rubbery Sandy “Gaskets” or Collars on the Atlantic Ocean Beach — Are They Garbage or Pollution or Natural?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nMore Shore Bits and Bobs<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nWatching the Waves<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nButterflies at the Beach<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nFortunately, though the fog banks hovered low over the land, they stayed off the Beach.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>Do you have a favourite beach to comb? Please share your recommendations with a comment.<\/p>\n