Archive for April, 2012
Collecting Colorful Seashells In The Gulf
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Mother Nature has been providing lots of gifts from her sea this week! Not only did she give us all the Beach Bling on the east end, we were finding some excellent shells off West Gulf Drive west of Tarpon Bay Road this weekend.
In the water at the shoreline, Clark found a few ALPHABET CONES, colorful juvie HORSE CONCHS, SHARK’S EYES, dark colorful LETTERED OLIVES and BANDED TULIPS, a double CALICO CLAM and a double ALTERNATE TELLIN.
I was shelling the nice piles on the beach…
I found this sweet little pinkish FLORIDA SPINY JEWELBOX…
And 6 sets of pink and yellow ALTERNATE TELLINS. Here are two of them…
Candy!
Just in case you didn’t catch it in the first photo, take a look at how pretty and dark orange this FLORIDA CONE is. Clark found this just as we were about to leave the beach. It’s my fave shell of the weekend!
Beach Bling Is A Wonderful Thing
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If you want to learn the types of seashells, sea life, vegetation and what the different kinds of mollusk egg cases look like and live in the Gulf Of Mexico, you’ve got your chance this week. It all washed up on the beach on the East end of Sanibel.
You can see it for miles. So many mollusk egg casings and PEN SHELLS galore!
MERMAID PURSES! Well, they are really SKATE EGG CASES…
HORSE CONCH EGG CASINGS (I shot this with the Nikon J1)…
WHELK EGG CHAINS…
Lots of CRABS too. This one is a STONE CRAB…
My friend Jane called me and said she found a dead crab shell on the beach that had a NAUTILUS shell pattern. She has found a NAUTILUS before so she would know! Wanna see? CLICK HERE . So I went to see this crab…and it does have that pattern! It’s a FLAME BOX CRAB…
I also saw lots of SEA WHIPS. This was the first time I’ve ever found a WHITE SEA WHIP…
We normally just find the purple SEA WHIPS but when I went to see Jane’s FLAME BOX CRAB she showed me this bright yellow WHIP she picked up as well.
There were oodles of PURPLE SEA URCHINS also ( J1)…
I always get questions about the bones on the beach. They are from the bait in the crab traps… not random dead carcasses. LOL
I also get a lot of questions about this guy on the left. It’s a SEA CUCUMBER…
Don’t worry, I saw lots of shells too. Mainly, the double DOSINIAS.
Cyber Sheller Alert! This next photo is really big so you can do a little shelling and blinging…
Looking through all this BEACH BLING, there are little treasures that look like this so you have to look closely…
Some goodies were still washing in at the shoreline as well…
The big find was by Seth (FL)! He found this huge HORSE CONCH on the sand bar near Donax Rd. Here he is with Erin and Reese…
See? BEACH BLING is a wonderful thing… (J1)
PS- Some of you know I’ve been testing a new Nikon J1 camera. It isn’t very spontaneous but when I do catch a nicer shot than with my spontaneous, trusty, easy, clear Panasonic DMC…. I’ve noted it.
Always Meeting New Shelling Friends
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Sanibel’s Blind Pass has been so much fun the past week with high winds from the west pushing in the seashells.
I’ve met so many nice shellers enjoying every minute of their seashell treasure hunting.,,like Patty (VA) who found a nice piece of JUNONIA!
She and her friend Cindy (MD) said they met so many cool shellers too and were thrilled with all their finds.
Some of the shellers they got to meet were Kathy and Paul (Utah) who are back in town. In my post Junonia Necklace I showed Kathy with her wire wrapped JUNONIA she made. I’m sure she gave Patty a few tips on making her JUNONIA piece into a beautiful necklace as well. Here they are again!
They found some beauties. Two gorgeous SHARK’S EYES, their TRUE TULIP had amazing color and I wish you could see how purple their APPLE MUREX was in person.
Kristy and Dave (MN) found some spectacular goodies as well.
Look how dark those KINGS CROWNS are… and with nice spines! I know, the ALPHABET CONE ain’t so bad either, huh?
Kathy (NY) was working that shell “backhoe” nonstop.
She put back quite a few live FIGHTING CONCHS but eventually found a few empty ones she could add to her shell bag.
I saved the best shellers for last. Now how cute are these little girls! Sisters Maddie and Gillian from Ontario were so excited about their seashells they collected and identified each of them by name.
Maddie told me that earlier in the week she saw a SEAHORSE on the beach that had lost his breath so she put him in the water to see him come to life again. She saved a SEAHORSE like Carol in my Saving A Sanibel Sea Horse post! They are so special so good job Maddie! Here are some of the shells she and Gillian had just found…
The shelling should still be really good the rest of the week so don’t worry if you are coming in for the weekend. Happy shelling!
Leg Breaking Extreme Shelling Caught On National TV
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Shelling on Sanibel was featured on CBS Sunday Morning today! And I made the cut along with Leroy!!! Waaahoooo! After you see the segment, I’m sure you will have questions about that crazy woman pictured above. I promise I will explain but first you have to watch CBS correspondent Bill Geist “shell out” this fantastic piece on our beloved island of Sanibel and her seashell treasures. (Click on the video to get it to show up -sorry I’ll try to fix it- but come back here to read the rest of the story.) Still can’t see it? CLICK HERE
Wasn’t that fabulous? Okay, yes, that crazy lady who talked about breaking her husband’s leg was…. ahem….. me. Bill Geist had asked me if I was an extreme sheller. Hmmm. Me? Where do I start? Then the leg-breaking incident popped into my head. Before we lived on Sanibel, Clark and I came for vacation to shell the beaches just like most of y’all. The first morning out on the beach, we had a little fun competition finding shells. At one point when I was doing the Sanibel Stoop, Clark gave me a little push so I lost my balance and fell in the sand. We laughed and laughed at being silly shellers but then I planned my attack. He was wading in the shallow water, when I decided to take my “shell revenge” 
. I guess I was too obvious since he dug his feet into the sand to keep his balance when he saw me make my move for his shell. Unfortunately, he dug his feet in too deep (See? It wasn’t completely my fault! LOL) and I caught him at the wrong angle to push him out of the way. His body spun side ways but his leg didn’t. His shin bone snapped in a spiral break that sounded like a gun shot. I know… awful, right? I felt so badly! That was probably 17 years ago and as most of you know, he healed just fine and it didn’t slow Super Sheller Clark down when it comes to finding shells. So now you know the rest of the story.
Thank you Sujin, CBS and Bill Geist for coming to Sanibel to show the world why we, they, y’all and …… i Love Shelling!!
Ever Changing Blind Pass Sanibel
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It sure feels good to find an ALPHABET CONE again! I’ve been stumped finding the SANIBEL SIX lately so I was excited to find this baby within a half hour of arriving at Blind Pass Sanibel yesterday evening for a somewhat low tide at a .4. I still didn’t find the SANIBEL SIX though since I couldn’t find a TULIP that was in good enough shape but I’m subbing that bright orange CHESTNUT TURBAN on the right as a good find to be very happy.
See how that sand bar has moved right to the beach now? You never know what to expect the beach to look like until you walk out and see if for yourself. Always a surprise.
The tidal pool was loaded with live FIGHTING CONCHS …
On the other side of the tidal pool, shellers were lined up along the shoreline to catch the seashell loot washing up to the beach.
I met so many cool shellers like Joe and Kerry from Sebastian, FL…
..and Karen and Steve from Michigan…
Karen found two gorgeous bright orange CHESTNUT TURBANS.
Here are Tim and Mary Ann (NY) showing off Mary Ann’s cool shell sifter.
I think the prize of the evening was Tim’s incredibly large FLORIDA SPINY JEWELBOX with attached valves. It’s terrific!
Anna (West Virginia) was tickled pink as she filled up her strainer with shells.
She found FIGHTING CONCHS, MUREXES, COCKLES, SCALLOPS and a pretty little TRUE TULIP.
Bob and Johnnie (TN) were on one of the shell piles searching for minis.
And they found them! I loooove this tiny little lemon yellow ROUGH SCALLOP…
They found some other colorful cuties too including a sweet FLAT SCALLOP…
It was a fabulous night meeting so many nice people and seeing the shell piles on the Sanibel side again.
Thank you Donnie (the cone man) for letting me know I needed to get down to Blind Pass to see this! Yes! I needed a break from that stupid camera any way. No, I didn’t take any of theses photos with the J1 and by the word “stupid”, I think you can tell I’m still frustrated with it ;( . Anyway, I took a quick little video with my trusted little Panasonic DMC-ZS6 to pan the beach to show you exactly what it looked like and how the beach has changed…. yet again. Oh, and sorry about the sound. The wind noise is horrible but oh well, I just wanted y’all to see it any way.
UPDATE! Set your DVRs and Tivos for Sunday morning!!!
I forgot to mention the Sanibel/seashell story I spoke in my about March 1 post should be airing this Sunday, April 22nd on CBS Sunday Morning.We don’t know exactly when the segment will air, but the show is on 9 – 10:30am (EST) and Bill’s pieces usually run towards the last half hour of the show (10-10:30 Eastern). The disclaimer is that this is TV, and anything can happen – so it is confirmed best to all of our abilities.
Shelling Out For A Camera
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I’ve been a little distracted lately….I bought a new Nikon J1 camera and there’s a huge learning curve to get easy, clear photos. For me, it’s hugely expensive but I’ve been wanting to do some posts with crisp detailed photos of some of our amazing shells. I’ve also gotten requests to show photos of how we display our shells in our home. I’ve just never liked how my photos in my house turn out so I “shelled” out a few bucks for the J1 that has a regular lens and also a zoom lens. I’m so nervous to buy a new expensive camera since I’m so …ummmm…. “un-dainty”….especially on the beach. The jury isn’t out whether I’m going to keep it or not so I can’t take it to the beach yet so these are the best ones for practice. Our kitty Dustie wanted to be a model!
Awwww. Of course Smittie wanted to pose too…
A little over an hour ago, I saw one of the SCREECH OWLS peeking out from a hole in our palm tree next to our porch. They just made this their home a few months ago. So cute! I grabbed my new camera and changed the lens to the zoom lens. My first practice shot outside! I could never capture him with my Panasonic DMC-ZS6 because he would fly away or duck back inside the tree so I can’t compare the photos yet. Wow, I’m happy with this shot! Can you believe we get to see this guy and his girlfriend most evenings on our porch?
I’m also getting close to cracking the case of the aqua concrete blocks that have been uncovered at the Lighthouse Beach that I showed you on my last post. Those are pieces of a cottage that was torn down over 40 years ago. I’ll have details on my next post! (this next photo taken with my old camera)
PS- I’ll let you know what happens with the J1 but right now, if I can’t get more than five photos to turn out in two days, it’s going back to Costco.
