Seashell arrow

Clark and I parked at Fulgur Street (click on street name for a map) beach access this morning and took the advice of this PEN SHELL arrow pointing west to find shells. It gave us the right of way! We found shells…. lots of them.

Today's shell collection

We found so many different types of shells and this is just a sampling of what was on the beach. There were oodles of MUREXES, OLIVES, TULIPS, CONCHS and WHELKS that we didn’t even pick up. Most of these were found along Middle Gulf Drive…. including that FLORIDA CONE and that sweet baby TRUE TULIP nestled in the middle.

Chiton

Chiton

I met Randy from Iowa who showed me this SHARK’S EYE that had a CHITON ( yes, it’s a mollusk) stuck to it. Okay, ya’ll know I love shelling and love everything marine (even SEA PORK!) but the chiton kind of …errrrr….. creeps me out. Maybe it looks like a bug or something? LOL I don’t know. Although, since reading about it , I didn’t realize that once the mollusk dies those individual plates (that look like armor) fall apart so when they wash up on the beach they can be recognized by their butterfly shape. I might like the shell plates- I’ll look for those.

Sharks eye with chiton

Randy’s shark’s eye with chiton

The TIDES have been super low and will continue to get even lower this next week so there should be some awesome shelling. I’ll try to get out early tomorrow morning to catch the -0.7 ft low tide … and if you are in the area, you should too!

So what do you think… are these RING-BILLED GULLS Kissing or fighting?

Kissing birds

Fighting for a shell?