Notes from the Edge

Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them. Joseph Joubert Happy Labor Day from Sundial Charter Tours

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." George Bernard Shaw. Georgia native, 9 year old Samantha does Cart wheels on the "Little Tybee Unplugged". #foreveryoung #natureconservancy #familytime #sanddollars (at Little Tybee Island)

Beautiful specimens; bony fish Vertebrae and bill fish tail found along Savannah River bottom this week. The word fossil is derived from the Latin word fossilis, meaning 'dug up'. Thank you to Lori Hickey for photos. #fossilhunter #bonyfish #bountiful #tinytreasures #ichthyosaurs

Monster Mako; sorting through the haul back at the O'Malley cottage after a great morning with excellent company. Terrific fossil diversity; dolphin tooth, half Megalodon, large billfish tail, bony fish vertebrae, near 3"Mako, dusky, lemon, sand tiger, extinct snaggletooth, and China ballast from a ship. #fodsilhunt #savannahriver #georgiageology #miocene #mako #mermaidcottages #sundialchaertertours

Callinectes sapidus the Latin name for the Blue Crab means savory beautiful swimmer. Blue crabs molt 25 times in their first year of life and they can swim six miles in a day. The sapphire blue pigment of their claws are eye catching. #bluecrab #molt #fierce #beautifulswimmer #crabboil #visittybee

Hang in there Jordan a.k.a. turtle man. He and his girlfriend live in a Houston neighborhood near Bray bayou. They have a few inches of high ground, separating them from other neighborhoods. On the phone you can hear the pouring rain in the background. They have several folks and a lot of pets with them. He has been the zoo keeper at the Houston Zoo and now is director of the Fresh Water Turtle Alliance, some of you may remember him as a naturalist on Sundial Charter Tours. @jordanturtleman #staysafe #turtleman #freshwaterturtlealliance #comehome #bayou #houstonzoo #nimbleminds #wetpianos

Bigger things eat the things that eat the Marsh, and thus the Marsh is the broad base of a marine - food pyramid that ultimately breaks the surface to feed the appetite of man. - John McPhee from the book Encounters with the Archdruid #johnmcphee #saltmarsh #spartina #foodweb #hunderedmiles #conservation

Pair of Bottlenose dolphin lead us through Mosquito ditch. People often marvel at how we find our ways through the maze of tidal waterways inside Little Tybee, dolphin do it without navigation equipment. They use sonar and their 3.5 pound brain to navigate; no charts, no G.P.S, no cell phones. The enchaphalitic quotient; brain to body mass ratio is only out matched by humans. #encephalticquotient #sonar #bottlenosedolphin #marinelife #tidalcreek #tours #charter #littletybeeunplugged #fallingtide

MUD WORTHY MEGALODON The moment that lies between laying eyes on a Megalodon and before you pick it up are similar to the high hopes you have when you first set your hook into a fish. Getting muddy on the Savannah River while surface hunting for fossils #greatexpectations #afterglow #known #hunt #tybee #chartertours #sundialchartertours #tybeecottages #riverecology #riverdredging #spoils #falcate

Captain Ryan spotted a Female Blue Crab just below the water's surface, clinging to a piling covered with Acorn Barnacles on the outgoing tide. Blue Crab can swim five miles in a day. The orange buoys with numbers Mark the Crab traps of commercial crabbers. #barnacle #beautifulswimmer #crabbers #bluecrab #visittybee #natureboy

In the path of totality, Charleston Naval Station. Sundial is closed for the solar eclipse. #solareclipse #followsuit #Charleston #dayoff #countdown (at North Charleston River Front Park)

SOLAR ECLIPSE tomorrow; will Shark's teeth fall from the sky? Pliny the elder, around 70AD, Believed that Shark's teeth were triangular objects dropped from the sky during Lunar Eclipses. Megalodon are an extinct shark up to 65 feet in length and weighing up to 65 tons. #Pliny #eclipse #legend #megalodon #visittybee #natureboy

Observing Bottlenose dolphin in the wild, are in my top ten for most enjoyable past times. They are second only to humans in their encephialization quotient a.k.a brain size to body mass ratio. #oceansmarts #encephslizationquotient #marinemammal #bottlenose #pods #vidittybee #littletybee

"But what is happiness except the harmony between a man and the life he leads?" #childhoodfriends #beachlife #bocci #savannahbeach #reunion #visittybee #goodtimes #beachcandy

Ghost crabs are most active at night. periscopic vision allows them to see 36o degrees. They cannot see up and I grabbed this unsuspecting guy out of a tide pool. Their burrows extend 4feet down, where they spend their days avoiding birds and the likes of me the hands on naturalist; I got pinched. I released him and he ran into the surf where he will wet his gills before returning for his night job, garbageman of the beach. #garbagemen #aggressivenaturalist #ghostcrab #littletybee #wildwassaw #periscopicvision #visittybee #beachecology #marineeducation #naturetour

You have to love the Southern toad; although nocturnal, secretive and camouflaged this one was quite forgiving of my handling. #camouflage #southernboys #nocturnal #fallline #pronouncedeyes #exopthalmic

Father and son fossil hunt today. #timewellspent #fossil #teeth #Mako #whalevertebrae #lemonshark #hemipristis #chicago #worththedrive #dusky