Exploring at the Seashore

Do you want to go for a walk? Well at our house as any dog owner knows, that creates a lot of excitement! Meet our bundle of energy, Jasper who loves to take walks on the beach. How about we take you along on a virtual  walk and show you what sort of things we see? Our favorite time to explore is early in the mornings and later in the evenings when there's hardly anyone around, sometimes we'll have the beach all to ourselves!
One early morning we stumbled upon an old glove that had no doubt fell out of one of the fishing boats, it intrigued someone to go take a sniff! His nose sure gets a workout while we walk, it's so funny how their nose will often lead them and with us it's our eyesight that captures our attention.

Many times as we've walked along the beach Jasper sniffs all the way while I scan the shore for beach glass and things. One sunny morning, sad to say there was a close call, if not for us, then for the next barefooted person.  We stumbled upon a barely submerged razor blade! I picked it up and was shocked at the discovery since we have super clean beaches. That just proves we always needs to watch where we step, obviously!

But on a happy note we do find some pretty awesome things like sand dollars, if you are lucky! Sometimes there are piles of driftwood to collect for display purposes or as with me to create with! I'll share that with you in another post. What I love most of all is the beach glass that gets washed ashore, sometimes there's lots and other times you see a bare beach. I was lucky this particular morning, which was extra special because my Aunt was home visiting from another province and she wanted some beach keepsakes to take home with her.

Sometimes you'll find the oddball item which makes you pause and wonder, what's that? Or what 'was' that? Oddly enough I found a bone that belonged to a seal, maybe? It looked like a T shape and I was curious to learn where it may have came from, thus I took this photograph, do you know what it belongs to?

Then I found a "Mermaid's Purse" as we call it, which is the egg capsule that carries the embryo of small sharks, skates or rays that breed in our ocean.

Last, but not least are cod ears which are tiny findings that often go overlooked because of their size. The correct name is otolith. It is a shell-like structure in the inner ear that reflects growth patterns of the cod fish the same way as the rings on a tree stump! Here's a close-up view of one we found.

I hoped you enjoyed seeing the things we found at the beach, I'm sure we'll be able to do it again someday as you know how much somebody loves to go for a w-a-l-k!!