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It's called a windrow, but it's really a window. It's the line of shells and seaweed and trash that the waves leave on the beach. Generally it's left at high tide by the last wave that makes it there. It may be reworked again by the next high tide. When you walk it, you see what's in the sea. You see shells of animals that died not long ago and not far away. You see seaweed that was recently floating happily out in the nearby part of the ocean. Sometimes you find trash, and you know where trash comes from. You can even find fossils. This is especially true where sea cliffs back up the beach and storm waves slowly destroy them one hammer blow at a time. But some fossils are very hard. Fossil shark teeth are dark gray, and they are impregnated with various minerals, making them even harder than teeth usually are, and they last for millions of years. And sharks have a lot of teeth!You can find fossil sharks teeth on Galveston Island, at Cape San Blas in Florida, and on many other beaches around the northern Gulf Coast of the US. 

After a major storm, the windrow can contain some wild stuff. Shrimp fecal pellets by the millions look like greenish pieces of pencil lead. Baby sand dollars as delicate as snow flakes. Stuff that lies on the bottom pretty far out on the shelf, stuff that would never make it to the beach under normal conditions. If you like to collect shells, go to the beach after a storm. But don't go swimming until the waves subside, walk along the new windrow left by the storm. It's exhilarating.