shells from blind pass

Earlier this week there were all sorts of seashells washing up by the jetty rocks at Blind Pass on Captiva Island.

shell mound with shellers

OMG It was a sight to behold.

shells in waves

Although most of the FIGHTING CONCHS you see in the photos were still alive, there were lots of shells there that were completely empty but you had to be fast to get them in the surf. I only had maybe 3 seconds to see the shells in a crevice between the rocks before the water rushed in and swept them away. So much fun!

conch shells piled in rock crevace

Because of the high winds last weekend, the gulf water got pretty rough and the waves kept piling shells up over and over.  It’s an amazing sight to see since we don’t get to witness that every day. 

shells on the beach

Carole from Wisconsin found some awesome shells- that’s her hand in the top photo with the ALPHABET CONE.

finding shells

There was a crowd out there scooping in the water, digging around the rocks, doin’ the sit ‘n sift, and like me…  pacing back and forth scanning and pouncing. Here are my fave finds … oh yea, baby, it’s just a piece but it’s the prettiest  piece of JUNONIA I could have found. But what beats that for me is the IMPERIAL VENUS (resting between my pointer and middle finger). We rarely find IMPERIAL VENUS CLAMS so for me this is an exshellent find (IMHO – in my humble opinion). I was also really happy to find the sweet little lemon SCALLOP (aka LEMON PECTIN), CARRIER SHELL, BITTERSWEET and the fabulous chuck of CORAL.  There were quite a few LIGHTNING WHELKS and MUREXES  but these were particularly pretty to me.

junonia emperial venus bittersweet

So… I made a video! Like I said on one of my previous videos- Im having some trouble uploading videos clearly to the internet. Please tell me if it comes out clear to you and it’s worth doing it this way from now on? It was so cool revisiting it, so I sure hope you like it too. Enjoy the shelling adventure with us at Blind Pass…

Join me on an iLoveShelling Adventure on a boat cruise to the out islands- CLICK HERE

Pam-rambo-sanibel-shell-trips

PS- We had a huge storm that swept through SW Florida this morning so all of our beaches have changed since I took these photos. After the storm calmed down today, I went to the Sanibel Lighthouse and found the road was getting washed away near the fishing pier parking lot. The water was so high, it was almost up to the entrance of the beach accesses on the gulf side of the east end too. I haven’t made it to Blind Pass but I can make a pretty easy bet that this whole pile of shells in this video have been swept back out in the Gulf Of Mexico… but they will be back on their own time. Only Mother Nature knows when. She sure likes to dangle carrots and play games in our great beach combing treasure hunt, doesn’t she?