Chocolate Jimmies? I think not.

Don't they look yum? If you're a tourist and you've ever walked on a Hilton Head beach, you may have seen these little holes with the jimmie-shaped pellets on top, you may have wondered what they were. The holes belong to Mud or Ghost shrimp, and the pellets are shrimp poo!

That, mud, and other feces from sea-life gets mushed together into this:
(You don't know how hard it was to take this picture...)

More on Cannonballs...

I'm pretty sure that this Cannonball jelly was still alive at the time this photo was taken. It was pulsating very slightly. In addition to that, it looks like a sphere, while the dead one below has deflated. :(


These jellies are strong swimmers, but I guess they have to wash up some time. :S

My sister found one jelly that had a rock crab stuck in it! The crab's normally hard shell was all soft and gushy.. O_o... I think that the crab tried to eat the jellyfish, but got trapped inside and died. I don't think the jellyfish tried to eat the crab because I've read several places that these jellies only eat zooplankton.

Lotta Jellyfish...

Hwhooh! We've been getting a lot of jellyfish lately. :) And I got some nice photos which I'll post.

Most of the time, for my 'research' on the local wildlife, I usually use my indispensable book, the Tideland Treasure, but this time the book didn't help me out much. The jellyfish pictured above is a Cannonball jellyfish, or Cabbagehead, but Mr. Ballantine, (the author) captioned it as 'Jellyball'. Is this a nickname for it maybe? I googled Jellyball but got no results... >_<

But all that aside, more about the jellyfish! This Jellyfish washes up in droves in the spring, and this kind doesn't sting! I've probably astounded a couple tourists by picking them up. :D (The jellyfish, not the tourists.)

I also found out an interesting thing about them. I'm not sure whether they just do this when they're dead, but when you touch the red stuff, it comes off! (See picture at right.)

Phlegm Attack!

Is this a melted jellyfish? Shark guts? Egg sac mucus? Heaven knows what it is..

My sister found this scentless sludge on the beach, and we have yet to discover what it was. :)'

Erm

I haven't been on in a while... This was mainly due to the death of my beloved camera, so I haven't been able to put up pictures. :( But my Mom has generously lent me hers, (:D),and I'm gonna start putting up artwork too.


Just how many "re-openings" can we survive?