Monday, May 25, 2009

WHAT the . . .

hell IS this ???  it looks like soft serve ice cream sand.

there were hundreds of them scattered on the beach. i'm quite sure they were NOT man made. are they from an animal?  are they from a certain wave pattern? is it el nino? el nina? ufo's?

wilma and i were completely baffled and sort of creeped out by these mysterious frosting piles on the beach.  if you know what they are, please do tell !

(click on the photos for closer observation)

14 comments:

kate richey said...

Well...the closest guess I can find through my internet sleuthing is that these are "casts" made from Acorn Worms.

Check it out:
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/s311.htm


Ewww.

-Kate

rae dunn. said...

kate...

you're RIGHT !! nice detective work. but actually, now i think it is REALLY creepy.

EEEEWWWWWWW fo sure.

rae dunn. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kate richey said...

Way creepier than we could have imagined. I'm going to try to forget all about the acorn worm now.

Eww. Double eww.

rae dunn. said...

so gross. wilma is getting a double bath session.

cindy shake said...

I think I'll stick to my first thought -a pack of wild sand doggies must have visited the beach and left little sand doodies...

nadine said...

I'm glad the chances of actually seeing them are so slim. Nature is so bizarre...

Anonymous said...

I've spent my life on the beach, and they are quite common. Simply casts from the common sand worm.

Anonymous said...

unbelievably cool! would love to have come upon them

JosieJurczenia said...

They look like one of John's sculptures gone crazy.

rae dunn. said...

this is what i learned: these are acorn worm casts. the acorn worms swallow mud and sand and process these for edible bits. at low tide, they stick out their rear ends at the surface and excrete coils of processed sediments called "casts." this is all that most people will see of an acorn worm !

i go to this beach almost every day and have only seen this scene TWICE.

i also coil build my work and am drawn to these coils.

fascinating.

jen jeglinski said...

Amazing! I've never heard of the worms or have seen anything like it. Perhaps you'll be making some variation of these casts in your work now.

Unknown said...

I know this is past news, but I MUST ask the question.... How big are these acorn worms? cuz that's no small pile of soft serve worm cacca, politely referred to as 'casts'.
The diameter being roughly the size of said worm's A-hole, that's one big and creepy size worm, me-thinks.
Quite a lot of them out there too.
EEEEEOOOOOWWW!!

jennifer lorton said...

How wild! I've never seen anything like that. Thanks(I think) for sharing. ewww!