Baby clams are cute

All the years I've been going to beaches, I've never seen live baby clams. I've collected their open shells that look like butterflies in various shades of purple and pink but I've never seen them move while they were closed. I saw it for the first time a few days ago.

It's was at once beautiful, miraculous and weird. I was standing there when a wide mass of them washed in on the surf. The water receded from around my ankles and suddenly they disappeared into the sand at my feet. A little way down the beach, I could see hundreds of them pop back out again.

I watched for a long time. I tried to get some video of it happening. Sadly my cheap camera wasn't up to the task. They moved too quickly to catch, even on video. I ended up deleting all the footage I took. But I doubt that I'll ever forget how it looked to see them erupting from the sand, glittering in the sun.