HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS!
We have another great week of exploring under our belts, enhanced by the extreme low tides of the past few days. The Stars and Stripes were celebrated on the shoreline with multiple Sea Stars scoring triumphant points along with the striped rays of a Brittle Star and striped legs of an Asian Shore Crab! We found almost everything under the sun in our hunts. You name it: Moon Snails, young immature lobsters, crabs carrying eggs, a Chiton, clams (some jumping) of all sorts, sponges, beach fleas, urchins, sanddollars and anemones. All these animals are there if you have the patience and perseverance to hunt for them. One of our best hunters is shown with a tiny lobster and 3 red Blood Stars…..choice finds!

We had a beautiful ride to the outer islands on the Yankee under the capable hands of John and Ben. The seals basked in the sun on East Brown Cow, and Great Blue Herons maneuvered in the tree tops to feed their young. Chuck Wyman was out there showing his form as he braved the winds to sail his catamaran. What a beautiful sight!

We also celebrated the 4th with some fantastic sand sculptures that included multiple castles, one decorated with beautiful purple Horse Mussel shells brought in from Gooseberry island! There was also a handsome dog (in honor of the owner's dog left behind), an accurate portrayal of a Sea Turtle that had laid eggs, with some hatching out baby turtles! What an imagination! There were also Egyptian pyramids and well sculpted Sphinxes to delight viewers before the tide rolled in (sadly) to erase these creations. In the picture to the left you see some of the activity on Sanddune Beach to celebrate July 4th….kayaks ready to launch and the catamaran awaiting an outing, plus a bit of Egypt!

Also part of the holiday celebration was the picking of strawberries in Bowdoinham. How plentiful and yummy were they! The red color typifies the celebration. We also had a foggy outing at Totman Cove which was productive. We found Surf, Soft shelled and Razor clams and watched them dig out of sight as the tide came in. This is a great place to find live Sanddollars and we weren't disappointed. There were abundant Moon Snails, even several showing us how they wrap their foot around clams and snails to earn a meal. The tide was again extremely low making these finds more possible without snorkeling. Now, the tides will moderate and to find them we will have to do some diving. The water was warm and comfortable in that shallow cove. The fog, however, never lifted enough for us to see across to Hermit Island.

7/5/08 Ronnie, celebrating a great 4th!