Super Shells On A Super Moon
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A wagon full of shells – WOW!
Tulips and one True Tulip
A table of shells.
Olives
Colorful Scallops
2 Pieces of Lions Paw on 2 Separate Days – BIG WOW!
Look at all the Horse Conchs.
Color Your World With Scallops – Tray 1
Tray 2
Tray 3
Tray 4
Basket of Fighting Conchs
Look at these Buttercups!
Simply Beautiful!
Minis!
Tools of the TRADE
After the SUPER MOON, I heard that my friend Alison had collected A LOT of really good shells. It was not until I talked to her a week later when I realized by the tone of her voice that I really needed to go look at these shells. WOW! She shelled for four days after the Super Moon on Beach Access 5 & 6. All the shells in these photos were collected during these four days of fabulous shelling.
Color Your World With Shells
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Howdy!! Captain Brian here to share some news. Hot off the Press! The Sanibel Shell Fair announced the theme for the 76th Annual Shell Fair in 2013 will be “COLOR YOUR WORLD WITH SHELLS”. In the spirit of the Sanibel Shell Fair, I dug through the shells on my back porch and arranged some of my favorite shells of color. For you miniature shellers out there, the Sanibel Shell Fair has added a “new” scientific class for miniature shells. In this category, the maximum shell size for miniatures cannot be longer than 1 inch. So, it’s time to get out those tweezers out and get the minis!
On a Nature Note – One of my favorite trees, the Royal Poinciana, is in bloom now. I just had to stop and snap a few pictures today of this flowering tree in bloom. If you are on the islands now until late June, you can catch a first hand look at this magnificent tree of color.
Introducing Guest Blogger… Captain Brian Holaway
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Everybody needs a vacation… even when you live in a paradise like Sanibel. So, I am unplugging from online life for a week or so to take a break and recharge the brain. I know! You need shelling reports! I am NOT leaving you high and dry without shelling updates so…. Captain Brian to the rescue!
Captain Brian Holaway will be right here posting his fabulous photos of our local beaches just like he does on his blog Capt. Brian On The Water . You won’t miss a beat to get your up-to-date shelling fix. Fair? Okay, if you haven’t heard me talk about our good friend Captain Brian before, he is the best shelling guide I know.
.. and he REALLY loves shelling too. Can you tell?
Oooooh… He has a box of BABY’S EARS!
Ahhhhhh… WORM SHELLS!
He even collects TUSK SHELLS like we do but we’ve never found one this big!
Wow! Look at these gorgeous shells…
Did you notice he has The Elite Three? A JUNONIA, SCOTCH BONNET and LION’S PAWS.
Captain Brian has a great eye for shells but he also has a great eye for nature and wildlife. He is in the Florida Master Naturalist program to promote awareness, understanding, and respect the environment of Florida’s natural world.
See? I’ve left you in very capable hands.
Margarita, please. (Oh sorry, I’m just getting ready for vacation.)
So enjoy the next few posts by Brian then I will be back with a refreshed mind and hopefully some awesome shelling reports to share.
Oh yes, I’ll have that margarita with salt. (Oh sorry, again.. I keep getting interupted)
See you soon, dear friends!
Sllluuuuurpppp. Ahhhhhhh
History of Sanibel Lighthouse Cottage 3
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Move over Nancy Drew! There’s a new girl on the beaches of Sanibel solving our own Beach Bling mysteries.
In a few posts a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned there are some chunks of concrete, bricks and debris I’ve never seen before that have been uncovered because of beach erosion by the Sanibel lighthouse. Remember?
The first thing that caught my eye was this piece of concrete with a layer of aqua linoleum or tile adhered to it. Hmmm. Where did it come from? I wanted me a piece of that aqua Beach Bling!
Then I saw pieces of red brick scattered around…
There were random bits and pieces of concrete every where…
So I put on my Pamsy Drew hat and tracked down the very man that buried this rubble 40 years ago… Charles LeBuff.
While working for US Fish and Wildlife Service, Charles LeBuff lived in the beach cottage called Lighthouse Quarters 2 (which is still there today) in 1958 through 1979 when the Sanibel Lighthouse facility was headquarters for National Wildlife Refuge.
page 43 in Charles LeBuff's J.N. "Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge (my edit in red)
Jackpot! He knows the history of each of those pieces of rubble and wrote two books telling the story!
As he stated in his book, Lighthouse Quarters 3 was built in 1942 to house the Coast Guard’s wartime beach patrol. Then became a guest cottage rented to Service employees for vacation retreats.
page 155 Charle's LeBuff's book Sanybel Light (my edit in red)
Unfortunately, the cottage was torn down in 1969 because a Washington office employee complained about an odor of stinky bait which had been left in the unplugged refrigerator. At that time, the regional refuge supervisor thought that shutting the cottage down would be easier than maintaining it so they tore it down. What?? Was he crazy?
page 44 Charles LeBuff's J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge
Charles said when they tore down the cottage, they burned the wood and used heavy equipment to move all the other remains of the building (concrete, bricks, etc) closer to the water. Charles pointed out that the aqua color on the concrete was the tile floor of the cottage.
The bricks were from the chimney of the cottage…
After demolishing and burying this cottage 40 years ago, he recognized each piece of this “Bling” and told me what it used to be.
Sanibel lighthouse cottage 3 page 41 in Charles LeBuff's book J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge
concrete sanibel lighthouse
Isn’t it so interesting how much you learn from getting out on the beach just to go shelling? I did see lots of good shells getting stuck around those concrete chunks but my curiosity about that “Bling” got the best of me and I didn’t pick up one shell.
rocks sanibel light house
Talking with Charles at “the scene of the crime” was fascinating. Of course I thought y’all would enjoy hearing him as well, so I made a short video so you could meet this memorable man.
I was tickled to hear him tell the stories about the “old days of Sanibel Lighthouse” and I also enjoyed browsing through the pages of his two books… “Sanybel Light” published in 1998 and his latest one “J.N.Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge” published in 2011. You can find the books here on Sanibel at MacIntosh Books where Charles works on Sundays or on his website Sanybel.com. 
I’m so happy to tell you that the wonderful couple that now live in Lighthouse Quarters 2 love shelling too. Here are Judy and Dennis who have been in the cottage for 10 years and are now…. the “keepers of the Lighthouse”…
PS- Speaking of shelling at the lighthouse, Donnie found major treasure over the supermoon weekend. A JUNONIA! That makes #2 for him almost in the same spot as finding his first one six months ago as I showed in Another First Junonia. Congrats again Donnie!
Breaking The Case of Lightning Whelk Eggs
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I wasn’t able to enjoy the shelling while the super moon tides were at the lowest this weekend since I was tied up with other “stuff”. But high on the wrack line there are still so many LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CASES on the east end beaches of Sanibel.
Since I’ve been dissecting some of the BEACH BLING I’ve found over the last week (like the SEA WHIPS), I decided to go ahead and open up one of the dried out LIGHTNING WHELK EGG “disks”.
There are teeny tiny little LIGHTNING WHELK shells in some of the disks.
Isn’t that just a wonder? Talk about miniatures!
I didn’t find that many discs with baby WHELKS in them in this case because it looks like most of them “hatched” already. You can see a little round hole on top side of the discs… this is escape hatch! They use this when they are ready to explore their brave new world.
Just to show you how teeny tiny the WHELKS I popped out of the case were, I’ve added one of these little juvies in this Wheel of Whelks surrounding a penny.
PS-Since we didn’t get to shell the super moon tides, I thought I’d show you what Donnie and his girls found…. a GOLDEN OLIVE!
photo by Donnie Benton
He also sent a photo of all his goodies. Dang! I hate that I missed it.
photo by Donnie Benton
PSS- I’ve been on a researching binge lately so now I’ve broken another Sanibel mystery case wide open… stay tuned!
Beach Bling Clinging To Wing Oyster
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I found more shells clinging to SEA WHIPS! This time I found quite a few ATLANTIC WING OYSTERS hitch hiking on those beautiful SEA WHIPS I talked about on my last post.
Notice how pearlescent the inside is! I didn’t want to break the two valves apart but you can peek in to see the beauty.
I found quite a few of these attached to the SEA WHIPS I found in the BEACH BLING last month.
I know, this WING OYSTER doesn’t look that pretty hanging on to this gorgeous purple WHIP but he would definitely clean up nicely if I chose to untangle him.
I’m just always amazed at what I’ve overlooked before.
I didn’t find all of these on the beach in the last month. I looked through some of my other SEA WHIPS I collected through the years and low and behold… I didn’t even realized I had perfect specimens of ATLANTIC WING OYSTERS wrapped up in my WHIPS.
I can’t believe I can’t find the photo (sorry!) …. but at the 75th Sanibel Shell Fair and Show this year there was a display of an ATLANTIC WING OYSTER still attached to a SEA WHIP. I kind of laughed to myself because at first it looked like a dirty purple SEA FAN with some junk not washed off. Then I put on my cheater glasses to look at the display. Cool! A WING OYSTER treasure! I love it- I learn something new every day.
After looking closely at the larger double shells, you’ll be able to see that both the sides don’t match. The two valves are completely different sizes and even the shape is different too.
You might not think these shells are pretty enough to toss in your shell bag, but at least when you see those SEA WHIPS, you might be able to find a little hidden treasure that most other people would pass right by and never see.
