Sunday Afternoon Beach Walk

We have had rain for the past 3 days, but today the clouds disappeared and we had a sunny, beautiful day. It was so warm at the house, I expected the beach to have a lot of walkers and joggers. But the wind at Isle of Palms was very chilly and strong and there were few people on the beach this afternoon.
Most of the starfish have been swept out in the ocean, just a few left for the birds to feast on. The sea gulls are plentiful, but sluggish and not in a hurry to get away from this human.
The beach was not as full of neat shells today, but I did find another sea urchin test and then found this dead sea urchin with spines still attached. ( To get a closer look, just click on the picture.)
Although a sea urchin is an invertibrate, they have developed "bones." inside the body, around the mouth, is a stucture called Aristotle's lantern. It provides attachments for muscles thaat move 5 shiny white teeth to scrape rocks, as they eat the algae from the rocks.
If this sea urchin were turned over, you would see a hole about half the size of the test and the teeth would be around that hole.
Pen shells are starting to show up on the beach. Last February they were all over the sand, just like the starfish in January. It will be fun to see if that occurs again.