Sanibel Strawberry Pickin’
By
I had a craving for a STRAWBERRY at Sunday brunch time yesterday so I was unbelievably excited to feast my eyes on a shellicious treat… a DOVE STRAWBERRY COCKLE.
I just wrote that post Frazzled By A Gaggle Of Cockles last week and realized we didn’t have the STRAWBERRY COCKLE in our shell collection so I’ve been searching high and low all week. While visiting with a friend on West Gulf Drive, we walked the beach to find mostly bivalves scattered along the beach so I didn’t even bother looking for the SANIBEL SIX. Thats when I noticed just about every other variety of our COCKLES were exposed at the low tide.
My mouth started watering thinking about finding a STRAWBERRY. It looks so familiar I just couldn’t believe this shell was so elusive. So I looked beyond the PRICKLY, the PAINTED and the GIANT COCKLES… then half buried in the rich, creamy sand I picked out my very own STRAWBERRY COCKLE.
I felt like I found a JUNONIA! … errrrr… Okay, maybe not that excited, but just as excited as maybe a SCOTCH BONNET. Yea, that’s it… like a SCOTCH BONNET.
Have I seen them before and just never gave it a thought to pick it up? Hmmm. I dunno. I know, I know. It’s not like it’s the most gorgeous shell on Sanibel but don’t you ever wonder what you are missing when you have your eyes only set on finding one particular shell day after day? Who knows what else we are missing!
I think life is like a box of chocolate covered STRAWBERRIES, you just never know what you are missing until you’re happy finding something unusual instead of what everybody else is looking for.
LOL Enough of my “life” theories! We all know it’s fun to be competitive and find the biggest and best shell that everybody else is looking for. LOL It’s just fun to learn about and find yet another seashell on our beaches… especially when it looks like a strawberry.
That makes me want strawberry shortcake now…..rotten diet!!
. Thank you for always teaching us, Pam! You are awesome!!
Another lesson learned, thanks Pam! You now have me wondering if I’ve ever seen a dove strawberry cockle before. I’ll need to pay closer attention to cockles next time we’re down! You compared it to finding a scotch bonnet, which happens to one of my favorite shells, and I’ve been wondering if many of these have been found after the storms?
Ah… a really nice valve, really beautiful! I was thinking I may have found one worn valve last year, but I just looked in my box of Sanibel bivalves from last year, and also on my list of what I found, and it was in neither place, so obviously I didn’t find one.
Strawberry cockles are very common on Nevis, but that is another species. Until quite recently they were both thought to be the same species, but there turns out to be not only these two, but two more also!
I would like to look at this valve when I am next on Sanibel, to learn a bit more about this species!
There was a paper that came out this year in The Nautilus about this species and the two other newly defined species. I haven’t read it yet but I really need to.
Thanks Pam for reminding me!
Hi Susan, is The Nautilus a magazine, scientific journal? If its a magazine I might wanna subscribe to it!
we do not have such stuff in Asia, all rather, rarely have such stuff over here! 
Joash Tan,
I found this link on line for The Nautilus.
http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/6170
Hi again Joash,
Here is a page about “The Nautilus”; it’s a scientific journal published out of the Sanibel Shell Museum (Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum):
http://shellmuseum.org/nautilus/index.html
There is a publication that is more of a magazine than that, and that’s “American Conchologist”, published by Conchologists of America.
http://www.conchologistsofamerica.org/publications/table.asp
And there’s a British one called “Mollusc World”:
http://www.conchsoc.org/MolluscWorld
And a French one (it’s not all in French, but mostly in French; can you read French?) called “Xenophora”:
http://www.xenophora.org/fr/xeno/xeno_sommaire.php
There may be others that I don’t know about, but I don’t know one that is pure magazine, not scientific at all.
Wow!!! Thank you so much! Now a magazine-like publication that can actually capture my attention! The closest I ever had was the subscription to nat geo!
oh but sadly, I can’t read French but I guess the others will be more than sufficient to keep me busy this holiday! 
thanks again Susan! 
Hi Joash
I subscribe to the American Concholgist magazine. I find it’s very interesting and it has a lot of colored pictures. I am not a scientist, but I usually find something interesting to read. You will need to become a member in order to get the magazine.
Pat
Oh, thank you!
I guess that’s what I need! 
lots of pictures and images… Will subscribe to it as soon as possible! Thank you so much! 
Haha!
there seems to be so many species of strawberry cockles! Over here we too have our variant specie as well, with the same common name, the strawberry cockle! However, it looks kinda different, with a yellowish base with red dots sprinkled on the top. Really wish I could be there to pick strawberry cockles with you! Thanks so much again pam! 
Pam, your “life” theories encourage me. In life we may not all be junonias or scotch bonnets, but God loves pulling the little strawberry cockles out of the sand. Your words keep me in Sanibel even when I’m miles away. Maybe I’ll see you next week somewhere by the ocean.
Just got back from Sanibel. My shells have all been cleaned and now the fine tune sorting begins… Maybe I found one of these, we’ll see! All I know is that Sanibel has taken my love of shelling and turned it into an addiction!
Can’t wait to return for the holidays and look for a strawberry. I have always loved the cockles and found lots of big pairs last year. I put small shells in them and tied with a red bow for valentine gifts. Love learning about new shells- thanks, Pam.