low tide shelling on sanibel

There are many different approaches to finding shells on Sanibel. Shellers like Clark love to walk the water’s edge to scoop up shells with a shelling backhoe… I love to explore all of the wrack lines on the beach by walking in a zig zag formation. Some shellers snorkel for their shells. Some shellers love to find a pile of shells on the surface of the dry beach then sit and sift. Eldon from Indiana likes to find an area with shells half buried in the wet sand then start digging a hole.

eldon indiana finds shells on sanibel island florida

As I walked up to Eldon at Sanibel Lighthouse Beach with a smile on my face watching his clever work, he reached in that hole and pulled out this gem of a shell… a perfect bright red TRUE TULIP.

true tulip shell yellow glove

And that wasn’t his only treasure that was unearthed from that hole… WHELKS, CONCHS, OLIVES, NUTMEGS, MUREXES and so much more…

shells filling mesh bags sanibel florida

Of course as always at low tide, I saw live MOLLUSKS as well. Live LETTERED OLIVES were making their tracks throughout the damp sand (check out olives spelling out letters on my  post Olive i Love Shelling) making fun curly Qs and letters of the alphabet…… OMG! Oh Wait! Holy Cowrie! That’s a GOLDEN OLIVE! a L-I-V-E GOLDEN OLIVE!

live olive making tracks on sanibel island

Oh. How. Beautiful. As much as I wanted to pick this fella up and examine the whole shell, I left him exactly like this so I wouldn’t disturb his mission. Since GOLDEN OLIVES are just a color form of the LETTERED OLIVE, I’m really not sure if they will pass on the color form in the breeding process or not. Hmmm. Not sure if the color is in the DNA or from the eating habit or environmental factors. I didn’t have time to research it but in any case, I didn’t want to change anything in his environment by picking him up… if there is even a slight chance that this color can be passed on in breeding, I didn’t want to be responsible for upsetting him in any way. I know my theory is probably silly (MOLLUSKS get displaced all of the time- its nature!) but I sure felt better about watching and not touching.

live golden olive making tracks

I finally got my video downloaded from my day at Gulfside City Park on November 3! I just said how much I love to explore the wrack lines in “Z” formation, but I’m fickle about shelling… I always change it up and I also loooove to shell in the tidal pools at low tide. So I invite you to virtually take a walk with me by watching this video of my low tide shell collecting day at sunrise…