Since there is so little going on here during the cold, I'll tell you about our experience walking the beach here in SW Florida. Yesterday my wife and I went out to the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel and did some collecting. The best days only happen a few times a year, in the winter, after a rare cold front passes through. That only happens 3 to 6 times from November to March. The front brings winds from the NW which never happens any other time here and they wash more good live stuff up on the beach. My wife collects shells and takes photos, I tear apart sponges looking for small critters. It was a fun day as we both have just started doing volunteer work for the Bailey Mathews National Shell Museum as Shell Ambassadors. We help the snowbirds and vacationers idea shells and explain the beach eco systems. I draw a lot of attention because I'm the only one tearing sponges apart.
Yesterday's collections:
4 yellow snapping shrimp (aka pistol shrimp)
3 green snapping shrimp
10-12 porcelain crabs in various sizes and colors
2 amenones
Finally a sea squirt tunicate that is a bit bigger than a golf ball
The tunicate in in my 65g shallow reef and has burried itself in the sand with just the tip of it's... it's... mouth(?) sticking out of the sand.