Boxes and Boxes of Sanibel Seashells
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Shells, shells and more shells. Leroy can’t get enough seashells!
He loves to walk the beaches of Sanibel to collect any type of shell he can find to bring home then clean, oil, categorize and box them all up in his garage. I see Leroy on the beaches quite a bit so he invited me over to see his collection.
He categorizes them at home AND he’s a volunteer at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum to organize shell collections that are donated to the museum. See? He can’t get enough of shells. I got tickled at this next box since those gorgeous CONES were mixed together with all of the other ”UNIVALVES”. He said “I have a method to my madness… I just don’t have enough of those categories to have their own box yet since we just moved here 2 years ago”. Yep, that would take a lot of CONES to make enough for their own box… for sure!
He also likes to collect BEACH BLING! You know I love me some BEACH BLING too. This was my favorite in his collection… a PURSE CRAB that still had all of it’s legs attached.
This is kinda wild- ALLIGATOR GAR jaw bones…
Before he moved here, he used to collect GEODES from New Mexico…
He gave me a GEODE that was formed inside a fossil shell and a few yard shells. This is the first time I’ve seen a SEASHELL GEODE. Thank you so much for the tour, Leroy, and for my new “sheode”! (FYI-”sheode” is not a scientific name, I made that up- heehee)
Sanibel’s Blizzard of Birds
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It’s snowing on Sanibel! Well…. maybe not that typical cold stuff but it sure looks like a snow blizzard to me.
It was like the movie “The Birds” for a minute or two while SS Kelly, her daughter Brianne and I were walking the beach when billions of birds crowded the beach. Brianne took the first brave steps to clear the path…
They weren’t afraid of anybody, they were hanging out on the beach just like we were…waiting for some shell action.
Then Kelly caught one! LOL No, no, no… Just kidding. She was getting out her video camera so I took a picture of her. That SANDWICH TERN looks like it is in her hand!
Take a look at the very cool video Kelly took of these “Snow Birds”…
When Shelling Worlds Collide
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Ken found an extraordinary JUNONIA! I introduced you to Ken on my last post “Saving Another Sanderlin…Andy!“…. but remember I told you things were getting a little crazy? It’s because I was listening to Ken’s heartwarming story of his JUNONIA when all of our iLS worlds collided. Now that you’ve heard about Alyssa’s SANDERLING, I have to share the story of this extremely precious JUNONIA…
Ken’s sister Chris introduced the family to her passion of beach combing while on their annual visit to Sanibel. After being on the beach with Chris the first time, Ken’s wife Sue understood why her sister-in-law loved shelling so much and became hooked right away so she tried to get Ken to shell with her with no avail…..at first. This is Ken and Sue…
Ken thought shelling was more for people who just liked walking on the beach until…. you ready for this? Sue called Ken over to the computer one day to show him all the cool stuff Clark finds on the beach then she showed him Donnie’s shell posts on iLS too. An “Aha moment”! He started to get it. He finally realized it’s all about the treasure hunt! Now he’s a sheller and it all began with his sister Chris sharing her passion.
Donnie, Ken and Clark
Then Sue said to me… “Our family love love loves your website, including Ken’s youngest sister and our shelling buddy Chris. Sadly we lost her in August, at age 38 to ovarian cancer. The last time we saw her, I whispered in her ear that we would think of her every time we were shelling, and if there was a way for her to communicate that she was OK, she could guide us to a junonia. In the fall, her sisters sprinkled some of her ashes in the Gulf off the Lighthouse Point. On Tuesday morning, the fist day of Ken’s shelling vacation, he waded out in front of the Light House and found a beautiful junonia. The following morning he found an angel wing in the same spot. While it was a bit emotional when he first found it, we have been grinning from ear to ear since!
This is the same photo (Sue took the picture) I showed you on my last post when I said things were getting a little wild. Somehow, this photo makes a little more sense to me why all of our worlds were brought together at this very moment. Alyssa found another Sanderling while Mother Earth Marilyn was there again for the rescue….. then ME Marilyn was there to witness the heavenly JUNONIA being found….. when one of the reasons Ken was inspired to shell was because of Clark and Donnie…. then Karen shows up with her iLS shirt to explain how we all know each other… then Andrea joined us because it makes us realize all of these people are part of our iLoveShelling family. Bonded by the beach.
Saving Another Sanderling…. Andy!
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I was shocked when Donnie’s daughter Alyssa showed me a SANDERLING she was cradling in her hands. She had found the little bird on the beach unable to fly so she picked him up because she thought his wings were broken. Oh my! But hold on, the story gets a little crazy so let me back up a bit so I can explain the whole experience.
Clark and I ran into Donnie and his two daughters at the lighthouse beach this morning so I wanted to take a picture of all of them together. We’ve heard all about Alyssa and Holly so we finally got to meet them…so adorable, huh?
Holly couldn’t wait to show me her shelling bucket full of cute shells she found…
Alyssa is an amazing sheller (to see her past finds CLICK HERE) so she was finding all sorts of great shells but she had befriended a tiny little LEOPARD CRAB…
As I was talking to another couple that hangs out here at iLoveShelling, Ken and Sue……
Then the craziness began!
Alyssa brought the little SANDLERLING over to show me, so I called Clark back over to help with the bird. Guess who he brought back with him…… Mother Earth Marilyn!!!! OMG Do you remember her? I met Marilyn last year because she helped me rescue Sandy The Sanderling! What are the chances?
In the midst of all this, I saw Karen from Kansas with an iLoveShelling tee on so I had to call her over to say “hi”. So before I knew it, we had a whole group of iLoveShelling-ers standing there all together! From left to right- Andrea (Pompano, FL), me, SS (shelling sister with her tee!) Karen, little Holly, Donnie, Allysa (with the Sanderling in her hands!), Ken, Super Sheller Clark and Mother Earth Marilyn who cannot take her eye off that Sanderling 
. I would have loved to stay and talk to this fabulous crowd but we had to get ….. errrr… “Andy” The Sanderling to CROW asap.
The doctor at CROW said his wings were not broken. She said it was it was probably neurological issues caused by RED TIDE. Yikes! She said there is no medication for this but keeping him warm with fluids will be the best way to nurse him back to health to release him. She didn’t see why he wouldn’t make a full recovery. Thank you again CROW! But the big Thank You goes to you, Alyssa, for rescuing this handsome little creature, Andy the Sanderling.
Rare Sighting! Mauve-Mouth Drill Egg Case
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This is so wild. Attached to a SUNRAY VENUS CLAM, were fresh egg cases that these MAUVE-MOUTH DRILLS just produced!
MurexKen found this fascinating nest just after MurexAlice had shown me those cute little MORTON’S EGG COCKLES on yesterdays post (hmmm- the “egg” theme continues, huh?). I was tickled that he called me over to show me this egg case that I’ve never seen before. The babies look like little pods of pollen sitting in a beautiful flower. Mk and MA are quite a pair for finding the unexpected!
I’m not quite sure, but I think the shell on the left was still laying some eggs. I hated to disturb them so after taking a few photos, we returned the mollusks and eggs to the water to make sure they produce healthy babies.
You can see this one’s aperture with just a bit of the “mauve” showing around his body.
Oh wait…. just in case you can’t remember what a MAUVE-MOUTH DRILL looks like when you find them empty on the beach, here are a few pictures to refresh your memory…
Now you’ll see why they call it “mauve-mouth”. They have a mauve or purple in the aperture when they are alive or freshly dead.
Out of all these shells in our collection at home, I could only find one that had a mauve mouth.
I don’t find MAUVE-MOUTH DRILLS that often so to see live ones that are laying eggs was really pretty exceptional. I’m not sure if this would be considered scientifically ”rare” to see this out beach combing, but it was rare for me. Great finds MK and MA!
Sunny Side Up Egg Cockles
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This is no yoke….. errr… I mean joke! The inside of this MORTON’S YELLOW EGG COCKLE is really this yellow! And some of the exterior patterns are just as pretty.
We found quite a few of these on some of the sandy mud flats at Cayo Costa.
There is such a variety of patterns on the interiors and exteriors of these cutie little shells.
Yep, I said “little” shells. Wanna see how little they are?
I would have completely missed these little guys if it hadn’t been for MurexAlice pointing these beauties out to me. I felt so lucky to be able to beach comb with her since she showed me another cutie little shell I would have missed. This is the FLORIDA LYONSIA…
It is so delicate and paper thin I thought I would break the valves apart before I got home to photograph it. But… Yes! It made it home with both valves still attached. I rinsed the shells off but those little grains of sand seem to be attached so I let them be.
I’m not sure if you can see the iridescent shimmer to it, but it reminds me of a tiny little ANGEL WING with a pearlized finish.
Okay, let me back up a bit before I forget to show you this….I mentioned the MORTON’S YELLOW EGG COCKLE in previous post “I’m Telling On Some Tellins” and it reminded me of an orchid plant. I got a comment from Jackie saying that it was the Oncidium orchid that it looks like. Yes, that’s it! I found a photo from Wikipedia that will show you why it these shells remind me of an orchid. Do you see why now?
