running for the golden sunset

The Sanibel sky after sunset last night had an amazing effect on the clouds and reflection on the water. My lens caught this little boy raising down the beach like he was running for the gold in the sky as it changed colors. This morning I felt like I was running down the shore line at Lighthouse Beach  trying to find my seashell gold. I finally found some!

my shelling adventure today

I started at the tip of the island at low tide to find just a few beautiful SCALLOPS…

sanibel lighthouse low tide clouds

After walking a 1/2 mile or so, I started to find a few shells like this little HORSIE (HORSE CONCH) and another perfect BANDED TULIP but htey both had cute little HERMIT CRABS in them so I put them back where I found them in the water.

hermit crab in horse conch sanibel lighthouse

I saw plenty of shells in the high tide line dried out on the beach so I walked over to see if there was anything there besides white bivalves like ARKS and bleached out CROSS BARRED VENUS CLAMS (not that there’s anything wrong with those! ha). I spotted spots! OOOOO I found little piece of JUNONIA.

junonia piece mixed with bivalves

That’s when I met Robin and John from Texas…

robin john texas shelling sanibel

They found some nice shells like a double SUNRAY VENUS, LACE MUREX, APPLE MUREXES, FIGHTING CONCHS, a juvie TRUE TULIP and a couple of PEAR WHELKS.

seashells found at sanible island lighthouse beach

After seeing that JUNONIA piece, admiring their shells plus seeing that horsie I couldnt have, I knew I had to put a move on it and start searching a little harder. Ha! Thats when I saw those pretty APPLE MUREXES AND that bigger orange HORSE CONCH half buried in the sand. I rinsed them off when I got home to see how pretty they are. Yup! Not too shabby…

todays shells sanibel lighthouse beach

But I still have to show you some of the other photos from last night afterglow of sunset…

dusk sanibel island florida cloudy sky

It was dreamy…

seashell beach sanibel island drama sky

We just had to stand there and stare at the brilliance…

stare at the sanibel sky

If you are in the area of Sanibel, Florida, join us tomorrow (Thursday Sept 12, 2013) for the iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa! FYI- We are now leaving from the dock at South Seas Resort instead of McCarthy’s so be at the South Seas entrance gate by 12:30 to catch our 1pm boat launch. Hope to see you.

seashell shelling trip pam

I took a little video of how far I walked from the tip of Lighthouse Beach and how I found that nice HORSE CONCH. It’s just raw footage but at least you get to see what I saw this morning. If you want to walk along with me, here ya go…