Walton-on-the-Naze

Well the weather forecast was for cloudy and rainy...no big surprise there, hoowever, it did turn out to be the nicest day of the Holiday weekend. Low tide was for 2:15 PM but due to an off-shore storm breeze, the tide came in higher and quicker than estimated. Undaunted, I proceeded down the beach looking for whatever was possible to find. My first find was a Neptunia contraria which had a unknown concreation about its bottom end. The next find was a tube worm in London Clay formation which is now sitting in soaking water to release it. I aslo found what appears to be an old shark tooth that has been beaten up pretty bad, however, before I officially call it a tooth, I need to do somemore reseach as nature has a funny way of playing tricks on us. It could just be a piece of London Clay formation that has been a pedastal (sp) for an actual tooth which, over time, has been water washed to look like a tooth After wandering about the beach area for a couple of hours, I started in on the cliff line which had changed substantially since my last visit and there was more evidence of several Red Clay slumps. Looking through those, I found a couple of other shells, including the N. contraria and Glycymeris glycymeris. Continuing along the cliff line to other slumps I located a pocket of broken shells and within them was one shell I hadn't seen before so it remains unidentified. After a short break, I decided to move along the shore avoiding the incoming tide as best as possible, and search further down the Naze in some of the gravel beds that were exposed. After someting like three previously unsuccessful trips to locate sharks teeth, I finally found one! It also remains unidentified but it isn't a Meg, that much I know. I was at the first gravel bar, tide rushing in and I looked down and couldn't believe waht I was looking at...a real shark tooth...I quickly picked it up just as the tide overran the gravel bar and I had to move on. Perserveance pays off! It was the only tooth of the day, but it was still great to finally find one. Eventually, the tide one out and chased me off the beach. Here is a something I would like to point out...I'm pretty sure I read something similar in some of Palebums' posts...be careful when cleaning your finds. In the "Haul" picture, on the right hand side, you'll notice the ruler. On the 19 and 21 cm marks are tiny shells that fell out of a couple of the shells while I was cleaning them. They haven't been identified either so who knows...maybe a new species!?! Anyway, our next big trip is to Charmouth...close to the Lyme Regis area...Ammonite/Fossil heaven in January so this is probably the last post for some time. Appologies to those of you that have dial-up...I am working on a new picture software to hopefully keep them small so you can download it quicker. Scubadoc...