In nature, it's impossible to predict when you might see a MILLIPEDE SEASTAR or find a large pile of shells in the same place you may have seen it a week ago... or yesterday for that matter. Because of winds and tides, the Gulf of Mexico is always moving. Winds from the east then west then north then south... the gulf is constantly swirling. Because of this continuous moving life force of waves in Southwest Florida, we get a fascinating view to watch our beaches constantly shift... leaving sand, sea life and/or their empty shells in different places every day. Just like this beautiful beach bling village I saw at Gulfside City Park beach on Sanibel Island this week, it won't be there for long- wind and rain could wash this away at any moment. But I enjoyed every minute looking at this shellmazing piece of beach art. We discover new treasures every day on the beach. But it's not every day when we will see a live HORSE CONCH and its egg casing... Or …
Lightning Whelk Egg Chain
Lucky Family Found Time For An Island
Remember last summer's Time For An Island vacation giveaway for four people to stay at Island Inn? Well meet the lucky winners Shawna, Jennifer, Ashleigh and Dotti enjoying their time on Sanibel's Island Inn beach! They each placed a shell on a Sanibel Shell Tree to hopefully make even more wishes come true... They also found some of those beautiful and colorful CALICO SCALLOPS similar to the ones I collected from my last post. The whole island has been a little sleepy when it comes to finding huge new shell piles in the past week but of course these lucky gals had a great attitude. Along with CALICO SCALLOPS, they were collecting lots of the KITTEN PAWS, COCKLES, AUGERS and JINGLES... "Y" not enjoy the common shells? There are thousands of them to sift through! In the highest wrack line, there were still lots of dried HORSE CONCH EGG CASINGS as well as this LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CASING that still has some of the itty bitty dried WHELK shells in some of …
Sanibel Seashell Babies
On my beach walk at the Lighthouse Beach today, I saw many different lines of shells and oodles of Beach Bling in lots of different wrack lines to sift through. About half a mile away from the lighthouse on the gulf side, I found lots of fun minis in the high dried tidal pool areas (on the right of the next photo)... Yes, I love to show photos of minis... But... if you know me.... I love me some BEACH BLING! I was enamored with all of the different egg casings for the different shells lined up along the shore. LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CHAINS were everywhere. Female WHELKS produce these long EGG CHAINS which can get up to 33 inches long. There can be up to 145 capsules in each strand and each capsule contains around 45 eggs. That's alot of babies, right? But that's life in the wild- only the strong survive. Mother Nature knows what she's doing PEAR WHELK EGG CHAINS were a little bit harder to find but I saw about 6 of them. What's the difference between the LIGHTNING WHELK and …
