Hello Beachcombers!!
Two things for today’s blog. First, it’s the time of year that the sea turtles on the East Coast head south for the cold weather months. Sometimes they struggle to do that. Tides and winds can work to to trap turtles and resulting in them becoming cold stunned to the point where they lay dormant at the high tide mark, unable to move. One of the wonderful extras of Beachcombing is you walk the beach 365 days a year, or certainly try to walk it 365 days a year. The New England winters can make that hard.
As you can see by this sign, there are some steps you can take to help if you find a stranded turtle. As you look for your treasures also look for turtles, you may end up saving one!!
Secondly, here are some wonderfully smooth pieces of sea glass, some of my best pieces. By far the most difficult sea glass to find is Red. It’s probably the first piece you noticed in this photo. Finding Red is extremely rare. I know some collectors who have never found one or go their entire lives only find one or two pieces. There are many reasons for red to be so rare. To make red glass in the 1700’s or 1800’s glassmakers had to add an expensive gold oxide powder to it. This fact alone made red glass rare, it was too expensive to make. By the late 1800’s red glass had become a common color for glass warning lights used in the transportation industries for railroads, boats etc. With Lead being used to make red glass and the introduction of plastic Red glass is barely made anymore.
We would love to see your pieces of red glass too!! If you have one post it!! For information on how to help stranded Turtles please call: 1-508-349-2615 ext. 6104