seashells captiva beach

 The shells at Blind Pass have shifted from the Sanibel side to a huge beautiful pile on the Captiva side because of a few days of northwest winds earlier in the week.

Blind Pass Captiva May 29 2012

 It was like old times watching the shells roll up in the surf only to quickly fall back in the Gulf playing catch me if you can. I thought I caught “the big guy” when I saw the tip of this JUNONIA right on top of the pile. Dang! The whole back end was gone. Oh well, he’s still pretty.

junonia top captiva

 I did find a prize when I met Candy and her sister-in-law Angela. I am soooo tickled they are in their iLoveShelling tank tops! Awww- so cute.  Thanks you guys!

candy angela seashells captiva

 Talking about cuties… Jordyn and her mom Lisa were enjoying sifting through the big shell pile too.

jordyn, lisa shelling captiva

They had started filling up their shell bag with the SANIBEL SIX. They got the hardest one to find… the CONE but still needed the TULIP (I think the WORMIE makes up for the TULIP!).

shell bag captiva florida

Then Jordyn held out a shell that they said they couldn’t identify. I looked at the shell and had to laugh. No! I didn’t laugh at them… I laughed because Tricia Gorman had just posted (2 days ago) on iLoveShelling Facebook page a “mystery shell” she found at the Sanibel lighthouse. It was the same shellIt’s a land snail but for some reason the name of it always escapes me.

rosy wolf snail shell

So since I can never remember the name of it, Holly Giehler identified it as a ROSY WOLF SNAIL. Yes, that’s it! Holly, you have got an eye! Remember her? She was the first one to guess where our Thailand CONES were found too. So thanks to Tricia, Holly, and Jordyn I don’t think I’ll ever forget the name of this land snail that sometimes washes up from the Gulf Of Mexico on our beaches. It’s a ROSY WOLF SNAIL (Note to self: remember this!).

rosy wolf snail aperture

Although we had more lines of SEAWEED than usual washing in with the waves and shells, the Gulf was a brilliant blue with shades of aqua and green highlighted with creamy white caps coming in from the north. I captured just a few seconds of this on video. Enjoy the wind, water, waves… and shells! (oh, and please ignore that big splash on my lens. geez. I got a little too close!)

FYI- Dredging will start at Blind Pass beginning next week and run through August to open up the pass. When they start pumping the sand on to Bowman’s Beach… there could be shells, people! Click HERE for details.

FYI #2- More Thailand pics coming soon. (but don’t worry! I’ll keep you posted on Southwest Florida beaches too)

seashell beach southwest florida