Now Chris...We all know that there are no fossils in those cliffs..   Therefore it is a waste of time and you shouldn't go down there anymore.. LOL!    DW has me set up to post now so I will get busy and put some trip posts up soon. So unless the Nature Center Camp group that I'm taking to the bay tomorrow drowns me you will be seeing some posts from the bay soon.

Recently I was down at the cliffs (I'm from New Hampshire) and met up with a friend from Indiana for collecting. We did find our usual number of teeth but what made this trip great is the fact that I found 2 complete sand dollars and my frien found 4. Even better is that he found a complete inflated sea urchin. That is the first one that I have ever seen come out of the cliffs in the 17 years I have been going down.

Yes I got out on once last week and found an arrowhead!  It was beat up but my first in Maryland...I will post this week.

I have not been to the Willows in quite a while, but I did see that flounder kill a couple weeks ago north of the Willows.  It seems like the water quality changes on each trip I make to the bay.  Some times its clean and clear and other times its nasty.  Either way I always wipe off at the car nbefore leaving.

Say guys, after talking to the beach patrol yesterday, turns out what's been occurring is something called a "red-tide".   There is a waste treatment plant apparently just north of Chesapeake Beach in the town of North Beach.  Occasionally it overflows or something and that's when they try to post signa on the beaches regarding the  increase in bacteria.  One of the guys on beach patrol told me that as far as parasites go, he is aware that many of the commercial crabbers/fishermen catch a parasite from the fish they catch. 

Below is from Wikipedia ...

"Red Tide" is a common name for a phenomenon known as an algal bloom, an event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column, or "bloom". These algae, more specifically phytoplankton, are microscopic, single-celled protists, plant-like organisms that can form dense, visible patches near the water's surface. Certain species of phytoplankton contain photosynthetic pigments that vary in color from green to brown to red, and when the algae are present in high concentrations, the water appears to be discolored or murky, varying in color from white to almost black, normally being red or brown. Not all algal blooms are dense enough to cause water discoloration, and not all discolored waters associated with algal blooms are red. Additionally, red tides are not typically associated with tidal movement of water, hence the preference among scientists to use the term algal bloom.

The term "red tide" is often used in the United States of America to describe a particular type of algal bloom common to the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and is also called "Florida red tide". This type of bloom is caused by a species of dinoflagellate known as Karenia brevis, and these blooms occur almost annually along Florida waters. The density of these organisms during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per liter of seawater, and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue.

"Red tide" is also commonly used on the northern east coast of the United States, and particularly in the Gulf of Maine. This type of bloom is caused by another species of dinoflagellate known as Alexandrium fundyense. These blooms of organisms cause severe disruptions in fisheries of these waters as the toxins in these organism cause filter-feeding shellfish in affected waters to become poisonous for human consumption due to saxitoxin.

The most conspicuous effects of red tides are the associated wildlife mortalities among marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals and other organisms. In the case of Florida red tides, these mortalities are caused by exposure to a potent neurotoxin produced naturally by Karenia brevis, called brevetoxin.

Daryl.