shark eye moon sand

After 25 mph winds swirling from north, south, east and west this weekend, the Gulf of Mexico was rockin’, rollin’ and doing the twist to help churn up those seashells. Since there was no clear wind direction, yesterday late afternoon we ran down to Blind Pass Sanibel at low tide (-0.4) to check out the sand bar. In just a short time, Super Sheller Clark scooped up this huge MOON SNAIL, aka the SHARK’S EYE , with his shelling backhoe. You can’t really tell how big it is in the photo above so this’ll give you an idea of how big it is…

Shark's eye moon shell

I thought this was THE find of the day but Clark told me had another one that was his favorite of the day by far….an ALTERNATE TELLIN with both sides still attached.

alternate tellin double

I never would have thought he would choose a TELLIN as his favorite over a that SHARK’S EYE but our tastes change and grow for finding the unusual. I still haven’t had a chance to clean this one up but you can really see the colors by looking at this side…(oh, and take a look at how far out we were on the sand bar from the beach)

inside alternate tellin double

inside alternate tellin double

We found lots of FIGHTING CONCHS that we left on the beach for others to find.

Fighting conchs

I did keep one. This juvenile FIGHTING CONCH has the prettiest markings, I just had to put it in my pocket.

beautiful conch seashell

I met Shelling Sister Moira! She always loves the updates of Blind Pass so now she got to see it for herself…..  with her hubby Marty. She has on her brand new iLoveShelling Tank Top! Fresh off the press!

shell seekers moira

She found this live OLIVE in her net and quickly dug a little spot in the sand to put him back.

live olive in net

There are quite few ways to collect shells. Like Clark, Moira and Marty like the scoops but Theresa prefers to lounge in the water and let the shells come to her in the tidal current. Then stack ’em up!

stacked seashells

I saw Faye and Penny (May 12 post) finding more goodies like this double SPINY JEWEL BOX.

spiny jewel box

As I walked up to the beach to gather my things, I saw this dried out STARFISH (SEA STAR) on the high tide line.

dancing sea star

Since I was occupied with this STARFISH, Clark decided to check under the Blind Pass bridge to see if anything had washed up there. I heard him yell to me. I picked up the pace to see what he had found. Oh Lawd! A huge shell pile!

shell pile bridge

Aha! This is where they all were. There was a long deep line of shells on the bay side of the bridge with the shells pushed back into the bushes. A beautiful TRUE TULIP!

true tulip in shell pile

Cindy (MD) and Patty (VA) had already found the gold mine and had planted themselves right smack in the middle of this shell heaven.

seashells by cindy patty

In just a few minutes we found great shells and Patty found a KINGS CROWN, 2 FLATS and a FLORIDA CONE!!!

seashells by patty

I found a KINGS CROWN too!

kings crown in shells

And an APPLE MUREX…

apple murex scallop

Okay, I’ll fess up. We couldn’t stay any longer because… okay….. I’m a huge “Survivor” fan and last night was the finale. Clark and I have been addicted since the very first show. Maybe because they are surviving on an island? I don’t know.. I just looove it and I would have hated it if the tivo didn’t record it. Yay Rob!!!

clark giveaway shells

Shelling Sisters with our matching tanks. Check out our new caps too (one has lights!) at SHOP.

shelling tank tops

Click the picture for more info!

Sanibel best bar

sanibel beach