Beachcombing Breeze
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For me, this is the perfect evening… taking a walk on the beach without any rush, without an agenda and being happy with whatever I find.
That’s how I felt this week. I just want to melt into my beachcombing and have my mind completely focused on… well… focused on NOTHING. Ahhh. It worked. And as soon as I started breathing, feeling the warm breeze and being so happy to have my toes on the sand after a long week…. the rest of the world melted away.
That’s when I found WENTLETRAPS! …And SAND DOLLARS!
I get a little “edgy” when I cant get my fix of the beach. Yes, I know, I’m VERY fortunate to be have access to the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva as often as I do but this week was so busy catching up with life in general (we all know how that goes) I didn’t get to get my normal beach therapy. There is one thing I NEVER take for granted… beach time. That’s why I think it’s important to share it because I loooove looking through wrack lines like this one near LIGHTHOUSE BEACH and knowing you love it too…
I even think it’s cool to see SEA PORK…
I was thrilled to find my treasures to take home but my favorite thing on the beach I found this week (that I couldnt take home) was seeing a mama SNOWY PLOVER and her babies. So sweet!
They are so hard to see because they blend in so closely to the sand but I snapped a few pictures of them without getting too closely to disturb them. And I got a little video! Enjoy the THREE SNOWY PLOVER BABIES AND THEIR MAMA video and if you are near SW Florida, join us on the iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa tomorrow- Sunday May 18, 2013 at 1pm at Captiva Cruises. Call 239-472-5300 for reservations.
But for now… enjoy the SNOWIES! 
Boom Shellalaka!
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Boom Shellalaka, Baby! Now that’s some extreme shelling! Wendy and Gerry from NY found all of the shells the last 2 days shelling from Blind Pass Sanibel to Bowman’s Beach then displayed this awesome shell photo on the iLoveShelling Facebook page to show us. Wow! I hope you can see what a variety of seashells this it.
Our buddy Donnie The Shellinator snorkeled that same area to hit the “Boom Shellalaka” too! OMG Craziness!
Our friends Dick and Mary can also scream “Boom Shalaka!”. They hit the mother load at Gulfside City Park while wading in the water to find these gems. Congratshellations Wendy, Gerry, Shellinator, Dick and Mary!
Last week, the shells were piling up on the beaches during the Shellabaloo but now you have to get in the water around knee deep to score like these folks. Hmmm…. but now that I think about it, the big HORSE CONCHS and JUNONIA were also found in the water last week. Clark and I walked the Sanibel Blind Pass beach and didn’t find anything until we waded in the water in the evening while the tide was going out. I found a gorgeous FLORIDA CONE with a purple tip. BoomShellalaka!
This past December was the first time I had ever seen this wooden sea wall exposed about a half mile from Blind Pass on the Sanibel side… then the sand covered up again over 3 months time. Now it is exposed again with more erosion within a month. It’s crazy how the sand shifts but that’s how strong the Gulf Of Mexico can be with the help of tides, high winds and strong currents… AND that’s why this is such a good area to shell in as well.
This is where I found my sweet FLORDIA CONE and Clark found 2 ALPHABET CONES in knee to shin high water.
It’s also a great place to see the changing colors of the sky at sunset as well. Ahhhhh
Oh how I love evening shelling…
Shell ‘N Tell At Shellabaloo 2
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After you enjoy feeling the excitement of finding shells on the beach, you get to enjoy the excitement all over again when you show them to someone else that “gets” what you found and knows how you feel. That’s why our Shellabaloo 2 “Shell ‘N Tell” was one of my favorite days of the whole week during Shellabaloo. Do you see what Michele (Ohio) is holding in her hand in the first photo with her husband Bill? She found a JUNONIA! But that’s not it… she found what she calls “The Trifecta!”… A large HORSE CONCH and a large WHELK along with her JUNONIA. Do you think she was a happy girl or what! So happy for you Michele!
Here are some of her other finds (minus the JUNONIA since she was showing it to the others when I took this) …
For the week of Shellabaloo 2, I made up another Shellinger Hunt. The hunt is really meant to just have fun learning about different shells and not to overlook some of the common shells like JINGLES and KITTENS PAWS because…. well… because I think they are beautiful too! So you will see some of the displays with a dozen JINGLES in a COCKLE SHELL because that was point for the Shellinger Hunt. It wasn’t about who could find and take the most shells off the beach- it was all about enjoying the shells that were found… and some bigger points for finding things like The Sanibel Six or finding the rarer shells. It was so much fun to see these shellers find shells they’ve never found before and to rediscover the ones that can easily be overlooked.
On our last day, I asked everybody to bring their fave finds and/or their entries for the Shellinger Hunt at our home base at Island Inn so we could all see what everybody else was collecting. We set up tables for each person to display their shells and it turned out to be a mini Sanibel Shell Show!
Terri (NY) made a beee-uuuteeeful display of her favorite finds.
Lee and Susan (Cuba) narrowed down their favorite finds on a cooler tray for the Shellinger Hunt…
Of course I added a BEACH BLING category on the hunt ( i Love the BLING!) so it’s so funny they added a dried up fish tail that looks just like a MERMAID and a washed up fishing bobber as the faves in that category. LOL
Rick (Texas) brought a plate of his fave shells… the miniature shells. I just love how everybody organized their shells so creatively!
Rick’s wife Murfy showed her faves along with her favorite vintage shell book…
There is one shell in the middle of the others that is a little different. It looks like some sort of a TURITELLA… which I dont think is native to this area. I think it is either a FOSSIL shell that found it’s way to the gulf on a high tide from sidewalk fill or it was left over from a party or wedding after someone bought shells to decorate with. Hmmmm.
If there was a prize for being creative… Sharene and Tom (Ontario) would have won for creativity!
Rusty and Donna (Apopka, FL) narrowed down the favorites and of course it included an ALPHABET CONE and the SEA WHIP that had the ONE-TOOTH SIMNIAS I showed you in the first Shellabaloo 2 post.
Roger (MO) told me that his favorite shells were the minis he found at Lighthouse Beach. It was his first time finding WENTLETRAPS, RICE OLIVES and TUSKS so it was really fun to find something new.
Margie (AL) is so adorable! Her favorite shell was the PONDEROUS ARK because she loved the black PERIOSTICUM (the shell’s “skin”) on the white shell so that’s all she collected. She is going to make a black and white frame for a mirror when she gets home so I hope we get to see it!
Cutie Pie Becka needed her own table to make room for all of her newly found treasures.
Kendra (IN) had a sweet organized display of her favorites but also for the Shellinger Hunt.
She was so afraid she was going to lose her first TUSK SHELL so she wrapped half of a bandaid around it so she would know where it was (on the blue plate). LOL
Pat (Boca Raton, FL) had an amazing display of shells and BLING for the Shellinger Hunt.
While I was oooohing and aaaahing at all of her finds, she pointed out a piece of BEACH BLING that she wanted to know what it was. Whoa! Pat! You found the OPERCULUM to the SHARKS EYE! Clark just found our first ones just last month so I was absolutely thrilled for her that… A) she saw it and picked it up… and B) that she knew it was something special to show at the Shell And Tell. See why I love these shellers? Who else would think this thing on the beach was cool…
Speaking of awesome shellers, unfortunately, Gina couldn’t come to the Shell ‘N Tell but I still have to show you one of her exshellent finds… Gina found a yellow SEA WHIP. We find the purple ones a little more often but not the perfect yellow ones like hers. And no, I couldnt get her photo either because she was a little camera shy but Ha! I took a “long-arm shot” with me in it so we could get her picture and the SEA WHIP. LOL And yep, you guessed it! There were two ONE-TOOTH SIMNIAS on it!
I have found yellow SEA WHIPS before but never one with the yellow ONE-TOOTH SIMINAS on it. Yahoo! Gina did! Such a treasure!
Okay back to the Shell ‘N Tell with the rest of the awesomeness…. Here’s Cindy with her huge HORSE CONCH I showed you in my last post! Now you can see all of the other fabulous shells she found as well.
She also found a big ALPHABET CONE …which is part of 2 sets of The Sanibel Six for her Shellinger Hunt finds. She found a FLORIDA CONE to make her other set. And look at all of the SHARKS TEETH!
Okay… It’s time to announce the winner of the Shell And Tell and you won’t believe this prize! The winning sheller went home with a silver JINGLE SHELL necklace made by Sealife By Congress. It is beautiful! This new Sanibel jewelry store in Periwinkle Place Shopping Center is filled with seashells, SEAHORSES, DOLPHINS, STARFISH, SAND DOLLARS and every other sea life in gold, silver and with tasteful gemstones as well. I was thrilled they wanted to give our winner this perfect shell necklace.
After much laughter and ado, we narrowed the winners down to Michele (with her JUNONIA and HORSE CONCH) and Cindy with her HORSE CONCH based on their points score…
Before we announce the winner, Cindy and Michele clicked their CONCHS as if it was a toast. Cute and so much fun!
Drum Roll Please! …. wait for it…… The winner is Michele! Her JINGLE necklace is perfect for her! Congratshellations, my friend!
I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun both Shellabaloo 1 (in January) and this Shellabaloo 2 have been since it really brings amazing people together with not just shelling in common but we all seem to be like-minded in so many other ways. It’s quite a bonding experience, I must say. Thank you Island Inn for hosting such a great Shellapalooza. I’m sorry to say that I don’t know when the next one will be- no dates of been set yet for this 4 day Shellathon but as soon as we’ve come up with a plan, you will be the first to know.
But wait! I’m gathering a group of shellers for an afternoon of shelling at Cayo Costa next Sunday May 19 from 1-4pm on a Captiva Cruise. Join us! CLICK HERE for more info or call 239-472-5300 and ask to come along for the next iLoveShelling cruise!
Total Coup at Shellabaloo 2!
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Total coup at the Shellabaloo 2! Woo Woo!
We are all so happy for Cindy from Missouri after she found this shellacious empty HORSE CONCH on the beach at the Island Inn yesterday during Shellabaloo 2. She is still two clouds above nine since she found it in the water in the midst of a pile of PEN SHELLS. How awesome! Congratshellations!
But wait… let me back up for those of you who aren’t quite sure what SHELLABALOO 2 is exactly. Island Inn Sanibel put together a 4 day, 3 night shelling package including 7 meals, a beautiful goodie bag, a trip to the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum and asked me to gather and guide this group of shellers to the best possible places to find seashells and treasures from the sea. What? Hang out with a bunch of folks that love shelling as much as I do? Shell Yaya! So I had to give it a fun “shell” name (of course- it’s the iLoveShelling thang!) … so “SHELLABALOO” was born.We had the first Shellabaloo in January… and it was a Baaa-laaaast! So we had to do it again with this unbelievably fun gang…
Before I show you more a-mazing shells that were found by these shell hunter extraordinaires, let me introduce a few more of my new friends to you that I didn’t get to show you on the last post. We started off at a cocktail party at the Island Inn where I met Becca (Ft Myers), Margie (Alabama) and Paula (Alabama)…
Helen and Cathy both came from Arkansas to join the shellastravaganza…
Although this is a little blurry because of a ”long arm” self portrait …Clark was there to meet everybody to share a few of his “Super Sheller” secrets as well.
It was a fab party thanks to cuties Blanaid and Jessica! They worked out all the details on behalf of the Island Inn…
I promise to get to everybody else too but let me get you to the beach pictures. I showed you our day at Gulfside City Park and the gigantshellous mound we hit at Blind Pass Captiva on Tuesday on my last post…
Yesterday we did a full shelling day on the secluded island of Cayo Costa by way of a boat cruise by Captiva Cruises. How fun!
Terri (NY) and her mom Darlene (CA) got to enjoy a perfect day on the water…
On the way, we saw DOLPHINS as we passed the private island of Useppa and several other pods in different areas but you know how that goes with wildlife… out of prob 20 shots, this is the only semi-good one. LOL
Once we got to the boat dock at the Cayo Costa State Park Ranger Station, we took an island style “shuttle” to get to the beach side.
We hit the beach to find clear aqua blue water and a wide stretch of beautiful beach all to ourselves…
I was so surprised to find an area with oodles of SHARK’S TEETH and other FOSSILS like this STING RAY BARB on the far right of my hand!
I showed Terri what I found and within minutes she found a handful of her own…
Donna and Rusty (Apopka, FL) found some too!
They were filling up a smaller tub inside their buckets to catch all of their SHARKS TEETH…
Susan (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) was thrilled to find SHARK’S TEETH too!
She showed me her SHARKS TEETH, then asked me about another piece she found… Oh Yaya! It’s a FOSSIL PUFFER FISH MOUTHPLATE!
Cindy and her husband Roger (MO) said they spent a whole day in Venice, Florida last year but didn’t find one SHARKS TOOTH. They were both thrilled to find their first ones!
Lee (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) had the eye for bigger shells..
He found a bag full of double SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS and some LIGHTNING WHELKS…
Kendra (Indiana) was coming back with a full shell bag too…
After a picnic lunch and a full gorgeous day on Cayo Costa, we boarded the boat to head back to Captiva…
But do you think we stopped shelling once we got back??? No!!! These are my kind of shellers. Half of the group headed to Lighthouse Beach to find out how to find WENTLETRAPS…
Yep. We found them and lots of other minis…
The evening’s perfect low tide left a wrack line of tiny treasures…
Lee, Tom and Sharene (Ontario, Canada), Lisa (NJ) and Kendra (and me!) all had quite a spectsheller day…
I have more to show you but… ACK! I’ve run out of time! I have a few more introductions and some VERY amazing finds (just as amazing as Cindy’s HORSE CONCH!) that I will show you at our “Shell And Tell”. We had our own Sanibel Shellabaloo Shell Show- so stay tuned! Here’s a sneak preview…
Yahoo! Shellabaloo 2 Is Here!
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An amazing group of 24 shellers have gotten together from all over the country (and even Canada and Cuba!) to share the Shellabaloo 2 shelling experience on Sanibel and Captiva! It all started last night with cocktails and fabulous dinner at Island Inn Sanibel to share in our excitement for the next few days of our shelling adventure. Our dreams came true after seeing the shellacious shell pile waiting for us at Blind Pass Captiva this morning.
There were oodles of shells waiting to be uncovered. Terri found a gold mine of goodies all in one spot. She found the Sanibel Six in less than an hour!
Then I heard that familiar little yelp… you know, that one when someone finds something really good. Susan (from GTMO Cuba!) found an ALPHABET CONE!
Shelling Sistah Lisa (NJ) found her own seashell honey hole right near the jetty rocks…
She found a WENTLETRAP! We find them often on Sanibel but rarely on Captiva so this was a really good find there. She also found a FLAT, WORMIES, a KEYHOLE LIMPET, and WHELKS…
Tom plucked a beautiful BANDED TULIP out of a scoop of shells he was sifting and Sharene matched him with an awesome NUTMEG…
Nice, huh?
After a picnic lunch, we moved on to shell at Gulfside City Park to find huge wrack lines of shells and BEACH BLING. I think Rusty and Donna love Beach Bling as much as I do!
They found a purple SEA WHIP with two ONE-TOOTH SIMNIAS on it!
Along with finding lots of other goodies, Pat’s (Boca Raton) fave was this delicate PAPER FIG…
These photos are only the tip of the iceberg of the shells found today and only a few of the spectasheller folks I’ve had the privilege of hanging out with the last 2 days.
The Shellabaloo 2 will continue for two more days of shell filled fun so I will have lots more photos and introductions to make of my new found shelling buddies. If the weather and shell piles continue like today, we are in for another exshellent day in store for us tomorrow. I’m psyched!
Florida Seashells 2013
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i Love Florida! Whoever made this wonderful seashell sign made out of ARKS, must love it too because after a couple of days of rain (to water the plants) and continued wind this week, it has turned into spectacular weather on the beach with shells starting to roll in on the east end of Sanibel near Lighthouse Beach.
You know I love peeking in shell buckets so I figure you do too, right? Marybeth (from RI… but too shy for the camera) had such a beautiful collection of mini shells in her pink bucket separated by her larger shells in her bigger blue bucket. I think my faves would be the DUSKY CONE and WENTLETRAP in the pink bucket and the NUTMEG in the blue bucket.
Ronetta from Indiana forgot to bring her shell bucket along on her beach walk so she cradled all of her faves in the palm of her hand…
Since she didn’t have much room, she collected some mighty fine primo shells. I know you spotted that candy but I hope you can see how gorgeous that SHARKS EYE is with the bright blue center. We call that a “Paul Newman’s Eye”!
I also met Julie with her mom Pat from St Louis.
They had only been on the beach 5 minutes when Julie found this perfect PAPER FIG with such fabulous color…
I found a few goodies too but I stopped in my tracks to see this BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER…
I’m still trying to learn the different breeding plumage since most bird species change colors with their breeding seasons.
This BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER is dressed in its “Adult Breeding” plumage with the black belly. I’m not even sure I would recognize this bird in “Adult Non-Breeding” plumage since it doesnt even have the black belly. Really… if you can believe it… there is a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER without a black belly. Hmmm…. shell identification is so much easier!
You can see where we found most of the best shells and the birds by this next photo. You can see the lighthouse way in the background at the furthest point which is about a 15 minute walk.
Remember I showed a picture of the erosion at Tarpon Rd Beach Access on my last post ? Well it is already built back up as of yesterday evening… and there are shells on the beach! Yep, it can happen that fast, folks. AND…. There should be even more shells showing up soon because right now as I write this Sunday morning, we have experiencing 20mph north west winds. That should push more shells on our shores any day now!
