Sanibel sunrise with gull

It was a super weekend with a “super moon”, super sunrise, super shelling, super dolphins and super sunsets. I am still over the moon (heehee) after seeing that dolphin rushing towards me yesterday morning at sunrise so I’ve added that video again at the end of this post. Hope you don’t mind.

Super moon shelling

The full  moon was setting over Sanibel leaving a low tide and live shells exposed on the beach. I always love to see live shells at low tide and especially when they are healthy and happy eating a scrumptious meal (sorry Mr Fighting Conch).

Lightning whelk eating conch

I was so amazed at how black this WHELK was devouring the other shell . It looked like a tar blob oozing out of his shell. Okay, let me make sure you know….this is not tar…this is a MOLLUSK!

Live Pear Whelk

Look how cute this live PEAR WHELK is! He’s doing a great job of making his way to deeper water.

Listen to the moon

Diana got out on the beach at 5:30 with a flashlight to take advantage of the full moon low tide yesterday morning. Notice the moon setting behind her right next to her ear…. I think she is listening to what the moon has to say. She found lots of FIGHTING CONCHS, a gorgeous double SUNRAY VENUS, BANDED TULIPS and lots of other shells.

Diana's seashells

Right after I took this picture and admired the moon again, I turned around to ogle at the sunrise view again and that’s when we both saw the dolphin splashing in what looked like golden water. I lost track of exactly where I was since I followed them along the beach a little ways but it was somewhere between Holiday Inn and Sundial.

Sanibel Dolphin at sunrise

It’s so much fun to see Dolphin so close to the beach whether they are feeding or playing. They corral the little fish up to the beach so they can easily pick out the ones that want to enjoy for breakfast. I happen to think they have a great time putting on a show as well.

Beachcombers with dolphins

Shellers watching dolphins

Since there were two low tides yesterday, I went back to the beach in the evening….

Sanibel shell seeker

Todd (PA) was searching for shells in the low tide surf while his girlfriend Courtney was on the beach finding goodies.

 

Sanibel beachcomber courtney

She found a beautifully colored PEAR WHELK, CANDY (JUVENILE HORSE CONCH), TURKEY WING, LIGHTNING WHELK, NUTMEG, BANDED TULIP and a little tiny OLIVE.

beachcombing shells

So along with all of the  other super-ness of the weekend, you can see I met some super shellers.

Super Moon over Buck Key