Mother's Day trip to Walton on the Naze

[thelivingdead531]

Bear with me on this trip report, as I'm uploading photos from various devices and attempting to tell a non-boring tale.

 

This past Sunday, 13 May, I went on a fossil hunting trip ALONE for Mother's Day (best Mother's Day ever)!  This meant that I could be out as long as I wanted to be, no one to rush me or complain or tell me they have to go to the bathroom a million times. I had an amazing trip, and was very successful in my finds!  I've been to Walton twice before and was not nearly as successful.  

 

So here we go, I left my house around 11:30am and arrived at Walton at 1pm.  The high tide was at around noon, so it was just starting to go out, which I figured would be good for getting first dibs.  The weather said it was supposed to be overcast and rain, thankfully it didn't rain on me, and the sun ended up coming out for a very nice day.

 

[thelivingdead531]

Thanks to seemingly recent, and very large, cliff falls the pickings were abundant.  In the past my finds were mostly partials and quite small, but on this day almost everything was intact and quite large! As the tide was going out, I found quite a few little crabs hiding in small pools of water in the London Clay.  I got a couple of pictures, but we kept our distances from each other. 

 

I spent a total of 3 hours on the beach, as I was so engrossed with my finds.  Now, I've never had luck with shark teeth at Walton.  The best I came across was a small fragment of a sand tiger tooth on my first visit.  So, I was determined to pick up something on this trip, especially since there weren't many people on the beach.  About an hour and a half into my searching I was starting to become discouraged again.  I'm walking along the London Clay, looking in little pools of rocks, shells, and pyrite wood.  I'm berating myself in my head for not being good at finding shark teeth, and maybe that it just isn't in the cards for me again, when I look down and lo and behold...an intact tooth!!!  I almost jumped out of my skin with excitement.  I looked around to make sure no one was close enough to snatch it from me before I could get a picture.  This is one of my most exciting finds of the day and I'm proud of myself for not quite giving up.

 

[thelivingdead531]

The next few photos are of the general landscape of the beach and some shells from the Red Crag that have washed down into the London Clay.  I think my fossil hunting shoes have seen better days and may be on their last leg (ah ha ha).  My feet were a little wet after this trip.

 

[thelivingdead531]

After a few hours, I decided to start heading back as I wanted to make it into the visitor's center before they closed.  I stopped by the large cliff fall seen at the beginning of the photos to see if I could find anything good on the top of the sand.  I found a little bit of smaller shells, but nothing like the large ones I was picking up off the beach earlier.  

 

[thelivingdead531]

I finally made it back up the visitor's center in time to grab something to drink, use the toilet, and buy my son a small gift containing various little fossils.  I got a couple of photos of their display cases that shows the different fossils that can be found at Walton.  Sorry, the pictures didn't come out as good as I hoped they would.  

 

In a little bit I'll put up pictures of my finds for all to see.

 

[thelivingdead531]

So here are my finds after I finally cleaned them off and dried them out (thankfully I have a three tiered baking rack that worked perfectly. The largest bivalve (actually 2 compete for title of largest) is a Glycymeris that is perfectly 6cm wide. The smallest bivalve, which I believe is also Glycymeris, is 5mm. The largest gastropod, a Neptunea, is 8cm long. The smallest gastropod, which I haven’t ID’d just yet is 6mm. 

[thelivingdead531]

My shark tooth, sand tiger I believe. The next two shells I wanted to showcase a little. The tower shell (I haven’t been able to find actual names just yet) is the most complete of its kind I’ve found so far. Most were just fragments before, but I found several more intact ones on this trip. The other smaller shell I’m having difficulty finding any photos online that match it. I haven’t found anything like it before and this was the only one on this trip that I found. So if you guys know anything more about them, I’ll gladly take that knowledge. 

 

Anyways, that’s its for the trip! Thank you for looking and I hope I didn’t bore you too much!

[Taogan]

The gastropod on the right is a Trivia, probably T. coccinelloides. Nice specimen

 

 

[Fruitbat]

Looks like you had a fun trip!  Congratulations on your first intact shark tooth find at the site.  Thanks for sharing!

 

-Joe

[Innocentx]

Not boring! Looks like great fun and very nice tooth to show for it.

[Pemphix]

Nice collection !

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice report and some lovely finds! 

I'm so happy that you found your shark's tooth. 

The 'tower shell' is Turritella turbona, I think,. 

The little cowrie is indeed Trivia sp. 

It's nice to have a day to yourself sometimes. 

[Kosmoceras]

Good finds, there are a few particularly nice shells in that lot. Your “tower shell” is probably Turritella incrassata, but please take a photo showing the aperture straight on and we can get an ID for you.

[Phevo]

Nice trip report and finds, it looks very similar to some of our clay deposits over here

[jpc]

poor little cowrie has to run around with such a trivial name. 

Thanks for the great non-boring report.  

[FossilDAWG]

Glad you had a great day.  

 

Don

[thelivingdead531]

3 hours ago, Kosmoceras said:

Good finds, there are a few particularly nice shells in that lot. Your “tower shell” is probably Turritella incrassata, but please take a photo showing the aperture straight on and we can get an ID for you.

Thank you! Do these photos help? The original shell in question in the first photo is on the far left and on the far right in the second and third photos. The other shells were the rest of the better examples I found that day. Are they all the same species? Thank you for your help!

 

It would help if I attached the pictures, huh?

 

[thelivingdead531]

Thank you everyone for your kind words! It was one of the best trips I’ve had so far. I’m glad I could share it with you all.

[Kane]

A lovely trip and well deserved time to yourself.  Some lovely finds there, but very happy that you were able to catch a shark tooth!

[Bobby Rico]

Great report and some great finds.

[Monica]

Happy belated Mother's Day, Candace!  And I'm glad to hear that you managed to get out for a little you-time without the kids around!  (I can totally relate, by the way - I was hoping to get out to do a long fossil hunt last Sunday, too, but of course my chores got in the way so I only managed to get out to my local spot (about a 10-minute drive away) for about 1 hour, and my kids came with me so it wasn't the most relaxing time, but the weather was beautiful so it was still pretty enjoyable ).

 

Well done with the finds!!!  That shark tooth is sweet, but all of those shells - wow!!! 

[Darktooth]

Glad that you had a great Mothers Day! Nice finds!

[Kosmoceras]

18 hours ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Thank you! Do these photos help? The original shell in question in the first photo is on the far left and on the far right in the second and third photos. The other shells were the rest of the better examples I found that day. Are they all the same species? Thank you for your help!

 

It would help if I attached the pictures, huh?

 

Thanks for the photos - Turritella incrassata

[thelivingdead531]

3 hours ago, Monica said:

Happy belated Mother's Day, Candace!  And I'm glad to hear that you managed to get out for a little you-time without the kids around!  (I can totally relate, by the way - I was hoping to get out to do a long fossil hunt last Sunday, too, but of course my chores got in the way so I only managed to get out to my local spot (about a 10-minute drive away) for about 1 hour, and my kids came with me so it wasn't the most relaxing time, but the weather was beautiful so it was still pretty enjoyable ).

 

Well done with the finds!!!  That shark tooth is sweet, but all of those shells - wow!!! 

Happy belated Mother’s Day to you as well! I’m sorry you didn’t get to have the trip you wanted, but at least you still got to do a little hunting on a beautiful day! Thank you for the kind words, I love all of these shells. It was a great day for me! 

[thelivingdead531]

1 hour ago, Kosmoceras said:

Thanks for the photos - Turritella incrassata

Thank you, I appreciate the ID!