Archive for Augers
Sparkling Water for Your Table?
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Sparkling Water On Captiva Island
I enjoyed the water from last week’s post One Picture, A Million Words so much that I couldn’t resist taking this photo yesterday of this fisherman at Blind Pass on Captiva too. It’s like stepping into postcard perfect aqua water. There weren’t as many shells in the water but there is still a big pile with AUGERS, SCALLOPS, MUREXES and CONCHS on the beach. The real show stopper was the color and clarity of the water that made my heart melt.
All of the shells I’ve found lately have been alive. Yay for the mollusks… but no shell collecting for me in the past few visits to the beach. Maybe tonight I’ll have a shell report. For now you can sit back, look at this sparkling water on your desk or table, enjoy this refreshing photo and feel that water lap up on your ankles.
Treasure Hauled to Alabama
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Lisa's (Alabama) Treasures
“Shelling has always brought me such simple pleasure”……a quote from Lisa’s email to me.
I met Lisa and her family last week and she told me they had found lots of treasure. Yes, they did! This is what they “hauled” back to their home in Alabama after being washed and sorted. I love how she turned the COCKLES upside down to display her KITTEN’S PAWS, JINGLES and AUGERS. Look at those 2 big HORSE CONCHS! Good finds! Along with 4 APPLE MUREXES, she has 2 LACE MUREXES in there too. Nice.
Lisa's total haul. Wow!
The Shells are Bubbling Up
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Driftwood and shellers on West Gulf #7
Bubbling shells on West Gulf #5
A little candy for me (baby Horse Conch)
2 baby Horse Conchs, Pear Whelk, Auger, and a Jingle
Commingling Memories
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Cindy (Minnesota)
It was Cindy’s last day at Casa Ybel Resort so she was shelling as much of the daylight possible before she has to go back to Minnesota tomorrow. She had found a tiny OLIVE and a few bright orange iridescent JINGLES. She mentioned that she had found many different colors of JINGLES throughout the week including black, grey, white and yellow and lots of other wonderful shells.
Cindy’s sister Mary wanted to show me all of the shells that they had collected over the week and invited me to their condo that they had rented together along with their husbands. On their screened in porch just steps from the beach, they had a whole table filled with all kinds of great shells. Mary pointed out that there was a clear line right down the middle of the table……on the left side of the table were only Mary’s shells. On the right side…..Cindy’s shells. “There will be no commingling of shells” they both said. Haha! Love it!
Mary's shells (left side), Cindy's shells (right side)
It looks like they both did pretty well finding FIGHTING CONCHS, OLIVES, lots of those gorgeous bright JINGLES, KITTEN’S PAWS, COCKLES, SCALLOPS, CLAMS, ANGEL WINGS (wow! They are hard to find intact), WHELKS, TURKEY WINGS, AUGERS, COQUINAS, TULIPS, MAUREXES and a little candy corn HORSE CONCH.
Sisters Cindy and Mary (Minnesota)
These sisters might not be commingling shells but they will be “commingling” memories of this incredible week that they said they’ve had on Sanibel. And thanks for inviting me to visit your showcase of shells!
Horse Conch, Leopard Crab shell with minis
Shelling Addiction
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John and Tammi (Wisconsin)
John shows Tammi's Alphabet Cone
This is a new shell pile that formed this morning about 200 yards into Captiva from Blind Pass and was chock full of LETTERED OLIVES, FIGHTING CONCHS and lots of AUGERS.
John was ready to go since it was dreary and was ready to rain but he couldn’t get Tammi off the beach just yet. She’s new at shelling but said she was already addicted to it. I watched her snag this ALPHABET CONE out of the water and I let her know that she had found a pretty special shell. She wanted John to hold it for the picture because she didn’t want another good shell to get by her without snagging it. Yep, she’s hooked.
Lots of shell lines
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Florida Cone in front of Tween Waters Inn
There were a couple of shell lines in front of The Mucky Duck on Captiva Island……just smaller shells. Mostly CLAMS, SCALLOPS, KITTEN’S PAWS and AUGERS. No big piles.
In front of ’Tween Waters Inn on Captiva (on the Captiva Island Yacht Club side) there were 2 wider shell lines with small to medium shells that looked a little picked over…..but then I saw this great FLORIDA CONE! It was just laying there so I snapped the photo as it was so you can see how far up on the beach it was….and nobody else found it yet. Amazing.
There are still shell piles at Blind Pass on the Captiva side and nice shell lines on the Sanibel side as well.
Bowman's Beach
Bowman’s Beach has lots of seaweed that has washed up along with a few ok shell lines. I found some URCHINS, a few pretty SCALLOPS, a few broken WORM SHELLS and a small piece of branch CORAL.
Doc Ford (Sanibel)
My best “find” of the day was by the West Wind Inn on Sanibel and his name is Doc Ford. This guy is a real character…..but he made sure I knew that he wasn’t the name sake of the character in local author Randy Wayne White’s novels and 2 local restaurants. But he was a biologist….just like Doc Ford in the books. And he flew float planes…just like Doc Ford in the books. And this Doc Ford is the same “salt of the earth” type….just like Doc Ford in the books.
He was collecting the inside parts of URCHINS to make his second Sailor’s Valentine. These a very intricate shell mosaics (I’ll have to post some pictures of some examples later) traditionally in an octagonal shadowbox. While he was telling me about the Sailor’s Valentine, I noticed his unusual necklace. It was an antique shark’s tooth (fossil) that he found in north east Maryland at Turkey Point after a good storm. I’m telling you, I only talked to him for 10 minutes or so and the stories were fascinating. He’s always been a treasure seeker one way or another and he’s got the stories and souvenirs to prove it. Will the real Doc Ford please stand up?
Fossil Shark's Tooth
