Edisto Island Page 5


*Live Oak Trees, Quercus virginiana, also called Southern Live Oak Trees*


*Live Oak Trees with Spanish Moss*


*Ruddy Turnstone at low tide*	*Shorebirds eagerly foraging at low tide*


Diamondback Terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, *probably cut by a boat propeller that bled to death near St. Helena Sound* -- Diamondback Terrapins live in brackish water found in sounds and creeks. Increasingly, they are dying in abandoned crab pots. Called ghost crab pots or derelict crab pots, those are pots that broke free of their ropes and floated away. They become mired at the muddy bottom of the sound. Crabs and small turtles that enter cannot exit and die.

Photos of a live Malaclemys terrapin or Diamondback Terrapin generously shared by Jeffrey C. Beane, Collections Manager for Herpetology, North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences


*A future Tiger Woods*


*Mired in mud*


*Live, large Horseshoe Crabs, Limulus polyphemus -- For the full story, go to: http://communities.brunswickvoice.com/main/default.asp?item=2202345*


*A helpless live Horseshoe Crab*	*A live Horseshoe Crab digging into mud*


*Live, large Horseshoe Crab*	*Horseshoe Crab shell, nearly 13 inches wide*


*Eggs inside shell of dead Horseshoe Crab*	*Tricolored Heron foraging*


*Tricolored Heron foraging*


*A Happy Camper*	*Unlike golf cart crossing signs where I live, this reflects Edisto Beach.*


*A live Spider Crab on a Cannonball Jellyfish*	*An exceptionally tall Brown Finger Sponge*


*Jellyfish of the genus Stomolophusos, species unknown -- I found many on Edisto Beach and one on Eddingsville Island*


*The full Mystery Tree. For details, go to: http://communities.brunswickvoice.com/main/default.asp?item=2202347*	*The heart of the Mystery Tree*


*The top of the Mystery Tree*	*Smooth Sailing; for details, go to: http://communities.brunswickvoice.com/main/default.asp?item=2201225*


*Sea Anemone, species unknown, along with Sea Pansies*	*Two of the same species of Sea Anemones*


*Channeled Whelk, 7.5 inches long*	*Lightning Whelk on Channeled Whelk*


*Pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata, Pontederiaceae*


*Some of South Carolina's tallest Palmetto Trees. Inodes Palmetto, in Edisto Beach State Park*


Wilson's Plover, Charadrius wilsonia, on third egg with two newly hatched chicks in front of her. For further details, go to: http://communities.brunswickvoice.com/main/default.asp?item=2203208	*The third egg, left alone while parents were supervising the* *precocious siblings*


*Wilson's Plover, male, returned to protect egg after I photographed it.*	*Standing over egg in this photo. This baby hatched within a few hours.*


*Wilson's Plovers -- newborn and mother*	*Wilson's Plover, newborn*


*Wilson's Plover, newborn*	*Wilson's Plovers -- mother and chick*


*Wilson's Plover, female*	*Wilson's Plover, male*

*Striped Hermit Crab, Clibanarius vittatus, crawling in whelk shell on beach*