Archive for May, 2011
Warm Welcomed Weekend
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This is how our weekend started off on Friday. A calm, coral sky at sunset with a few shells scattered along the beach.
Gulf Oyster Drill
This is the cute little shell in foreground of the first photo. Cute, huh? It’s called a GULF OYSTER DRILL and this is what the aperture looks like…..
Gulf Oyster Drill Aperture
We are starting to see lots of live COQUINAS right at the surf’s edge getting washed up then quickly digging themselves back into the sand.
There were a few Sanibel Stoopers enjoying the warm evening and the semi low tide pools off Middle Gulf Drive.
I was so touched that Matt (OH) was collecting shells to make jewelry for his girlfriend. What a guy!
Matt (Ohio)
We got a chance to stop by Sanibel side of Blind Pass this weekend too but instead of shelling the sand bar, we walked the beach down to the bayou where I spotted this GREAT BLUE HERON in flight.
We were surprised to see so many shell piles!
There were lots of FIGHTING CONCHS and WHELKS but I didn’t see any SAND DOLLARS until I met Stephanie from Ft Myers. She found about 6 SAND DOLLARS in her shell bag.
Stephanie seashells
I havent had the chance to clean up the 14 inch HORSE CONCH Clark found this weekend (he’s still beaming) but tomorrow I’ll get that cleaned up and take a few photos then show the rest of the photos of our fabulous boating day.
surf shells sanibel
We looked towards the pass and saw the rain coming. Head for the hills!
Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as we honored the memories of our fallen U.S. service men and women.
Super Sheller Clark Found A Huge Seashell
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They don’t call Clark “Super Sheller” for nothin’. We took our boat to Cayo Costa for the Memorial Day weekend and since we haven’t been out there for a while, we headed in different directions to cover more ground…er… sand to find some shells. About 45 minutes later, Clark called me on my cell phone and said “Get ready for this one!”. Hmmmm. What did he find?
A 14″ (fourteen inches!) HORSE CONCH!!!!!
I got the shelling Rock Star on video…… (it might take a few seconds for the video to load, so hang on….it’s pretty cute)
Phooners Found at Sanibel Lighthouse
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You probably do the Stoop while you are on Sanibel…. but do you Phoon? This was my first experience with phooning so I got a real kick out of it (no pun intended 
). Definition: To Phoon is to do a pose in a “running man” position. Phooning is accepted anywhere and wherever there is a camera.
Meet the phooners…. Laurie (IL), Kim (IL), Chablis (IL), Wendy (CO) and Katy (CO)
Kim is a phooning expert, has a blog called Snug Harbor Bay where she talks about her neck of the woods, does geocaching (she had to explain that to me too) and of course…she’s a sheller. She is an interesting busy, busy bee!
Chablis was the lucky phooner who found the nice BABY’S EAR and after looking at this TULIP SHELL EGG CASING, we decided to put it back in the water since it was still very hydrated and the sacs looked like they were about ready to pop out. We’re keeping our fingers crossed they survive.
Tulip Egg Casing
Clark and I took a walk together later on in the day further west of the lighthouse near Seaside Inn and I found a BABY’S EAR too!
I spotted another MARGINELLA! Now that now that I have them on my radar, I’ve found a few more.
Marginella on the left
Clark picked up an EGG COCKLE since we haven’t seen those in a while either.
Egg Cockle shell
This is the first SEA BEAN I’ve seen in a while too….
sea bean in the sea weed
That’s what we do when we can’t find the SANIBEL SIX, we sift through the sea debris and look for “oddities” that we don’t normally see. Wait! Hold on! I didn’t mean Phooning was an oddity! It’s not an oddity…… it’s a photo-optity.
Olive Circles In The Sand
Posted by: | CommentsReally low tides expose parts of the sea’s floor we normally don’t get to see. This past week during the evening low tides, I videoed a live SHARK’S EYE in my hand and also showed you the STARFISH cruising the tide pool on my last post Go Starfish Go. Well, I’ve got another video for you too…. a live OLIVE scooting along in the sand near the east end of Sanibel near the lighthouse. It is nice to find shells to take home but it’s even cooler to see live, healthy creatures hanging out in their own little world. Enjoy!
Go Starfish, Go!
Posted by: | CommentsOr…. go little mini HERMIT CRABS! I caught a speedy LINED STARFISH on video at the lighthouse beach last week at low tide making use of the hundreds of legs he has. Do you think Mr. SEA STAR was running after these mini HERMIT CRABS to have a nice little appetizer? They are carnivores so I could have interrupted dinner time- oops!
Finding Peace With Shells On The Beach
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I found shell Peace at Gulf Side City Beach yesterday evening. Literally!
Sanibel low tide
It was the perfect word to describe my walk at a low tide with temperatures in the mid 80s. Peace.
Ellen's Wentletrap
Not that I was eaves dropping (well trying not to), but I overheard a couple trying to figure out what they had found on the beach. I just had to see! It was a pretty large WENTLETRAP! They knew it was special.
Bill and Ellen after finding their wentletrap
There were lots of egg casings like I saw on May 18 on this stretch of beach too. This one is a MUREX EGG CASE.
Murex egg case
Woops! I goofed when I named the egg case on my MAY 18 post a TULIP egg case- it isn’t and I corrected it! It was a HORSE CONCH EGG CASING on my other post- thank you Sanibel Sisters! The one below is a TULIP EGG CASE.
Tulip Egg case
This is a SHARK’S EYE MOON SHELL SAND COLLAR. The eggs are mixed with sand and a gelatin mixture to protect them by forming this collar. Weird, huh?
Moon snail egg collar
I was very impressed when I met Caroline and her mom Bonnie. We were showing our shell finds to each other and Caroline knew every name of each of the shells…. PAPER FIGS, OLIVES, CONCHS. Bonnie says that Caroline loves everything to do with nature so she soaks up every bit of information she can find. I can’t believe I didn’t get pictures of their shells but I sure got a cute picture of the two of them…
Caroline and Bonnie (Cincinnati)
