florida seashells 2013 shelling

i Love Florida! Whoever made this wonderful seashell sign made out of ARKS, must love it too because after a couple of days of rain (to water the plants) and continued wind this week, it has turned into spectacular weather on the beach with shells starting to roll in on the east end of Sanibel near Lighthouse Beach.

shells inside pink bucket

You know I love peeking in shell buckets so I figure you do too, right? Marybeth (from RI… but too shy for the camera) had such a beautiful collection of mini shells in her pink bucket separated by her larger shells in her bigger blue bucket. I think my faves would be the DUSKY CONE and WENTLETRAP in the pink bucket and the NUTMEG in the blue bucket.

seashells inside shell buckets

Ronetta from Indiana forgot to bring her shell bucket along on her beach walk so she cradled all of her faves in the palm of her hand…

ronetta sanibel beach shells

Since she didn’t have much room, she collected some mighty fine primo shells. I know you spotted that candy but I hope you can see how gorgeous that SHARKS EYE is with the bright blue center. We call that a “Paul Newman’s Eye”!

nice shells sanibel island florida

I also met Julie with her mom Pat from St Louis.

Julie Pat St Louis shelling sanibel

They had only been on the beach 5 minutes when Julie found this perfect PAPER FIG with such fabulous color…

perfect paper fig sanibel island florida

I found a few goodies too but I stopped in my tracks to see this BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER

black-bellied plover sw florida

I’m still trying to learn the different breeding plumage since most bird species change colors with their breeding seasons.

florida Black bellied plover eating

This BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER is dressed in its “Adult Breeding” plumage with the black belly. I’m not even sure I would recognize this bird in “Adult Non-Breeding” plumage since it doesnt even have the black belly. Really… if you can believe it… there is a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER without a black belly. Hmmm…. shell identification is so much easier!

Black-bellied Plover Sanibel Florida

You can see where we found most of the best shells and the birds by this next photo. You can see the lighthouse way in the background at the furthest point which is about a 15 minute walk.

seashells on sanibel island beach

Remember I showed a picture of the erosion at Tarpon Rd Beach Access on my last post ? Well it is already built back up as of yesterday evening… and there are shells on the beach! Yep, it can happen that fast, folks. AND…. There should be even more shells showing up soon because right now as I write this Sunday morning, we have experiencing 20mph north west winds. That should push more shells on our shores any day now!

Tarpon Beach Access Sanibel