Middle Gulf wrack line

Wrack of clams

All along Middle Gulf Drive beaches on Sanibel, there was a nice wrack line of PEN SHELLS and soooo many different CLAM shells. The first one  is the SOUTHERN QUAHOG clam.

Quahog Clam ID

Southern Quahog Clam

It really has those beautiful blue stripes running through it but one of the most incredible things about this shell is that you can count the rings on this clam to tell how old it is…. like the rings of a tree! The second incredible fun-fact is that an Arctic QUAHOG found in 2007 was to be considered one of the oldest living animal on the planet. 405 year old! To read the whole story click on National Geographic.

Egg Cockle

Egg Cockle

I found several EGG COCKLE clams. They are as smooth as silk and actually feel like an egg in my hand.

Buttercup Lucine

Buttercup Lucines were everywhere

The BUTTERCUP LUCINE is another shell crafter favorite, as you can imagine with that pretty yellow inside.

Disk Dosinia ID

Disk Dosinia

There were even more DOSINIAS every step of my walk.

Ponderous ArK

Ponderous Ark

And oodles of ARKS with both side still attached.

Beached Clams

Double ark and other clams

I didn’t see many of the regular faves like the CONES or CONCHS but  the west winds will be moving in for the weekend so we might have better luck finding those and a TULIP or two. The best find of the day I saw was by Alice from Chicago. She was collecting the Buttercup Lucines and lots of the other clams but she was most proud of this perfectly large ANGEL WING. Great Find.

Angel Wing on drift wood

Alices' Angel Wing on drift wood