Archive for Birds
Shelling Goes To Guppies And Gulls
Posted by: | Comments
The full moon low tide yesterday made for a beautiful morning walk at Blind Pass Captiva. But there was so much sand filling in around the jetty on both sides that I wasn’t finding the seashell treasures that usually build up there.
As you can see the beach on the left hand side has filled in again like it did last year in December so I walked along the sand bar towards the bridge….. and finally found treasures.
I was tickled to find this beautiful LIGHTNING WHELK up on the beach…
The minute I finished taking this picture below, the big WHELK caught me eye because it seemed to change position. There was a crab in there! He was tucked in there so deeply I didn’t see anything in there when I picked the shell up. Woops! Back in the water he went to grow big enough to claim his home a little better. So I had to hunt for another WHELK to make my Sanibel Six complete.
Earlier in the week, I walked down the beach in Captiva with my friend Ellen at low tide to find hundreds and hundreds of GULLS and other birds hanging out.
They were having a feast on thousands of tiny fish caught in the tidal pool. It was fascinating being there to see half these birds enjoying an early Thanksgiving and watching the other half probably feeling a little overstuffed wanting just to take a nap. Ellen and I couldn’t figure out what kind of fish they were munching o so I’ll just call them Guppies… I know they aren’t guppies… but enjoy Guppies And Gulls with Ellen and me.
The Calm After The Storm
Posted by: | Comments
All is quiet now on Sanibel.
The storm is gone and seas are calm.
The sun will rise…
Life will continue…
Shellers will shell…
Lizbeth and Maureen will laugh with joy…
Share their gifts of the sea…
This is what I call paradise.
Roseate Spoonbills at Sanibel Causeway
Posted by: | Comments
It’s always a thrill to spot a ROSEATE SPOONBILL with its bright pink feathers and its aptly named bill that looks like a wooden kitchen spoon.
As soon as we drive over the Sanibel causeway at low tide to get to the Fort Myers side, we look to the water on the right to see if the ROSEATE SPOONBILLS are feeding. They were there this past weekend! I took a few minutes to capture them with my camera lens.
I even caught them phooning…
They feed by swinging their head back and forth sweeping their bill in the water feeling for fish, insects, crustaceans and a few water plants. When they feel the right food, they snap it up.
You can see it for yourself! I made a video for you to see these beautiful ROSEATE SPOONBILLS and the IBIS birds they hang out with.
As The Sanibel Sky Terns
Posted by: | Comments
The Sanibel sky turned black with rain clouds and turned white SANDWICH TERNS soaring by. The sky was such a beautiful back drop for them.
There were ROYAL TERNS and LAUGHING GULLS joining in on the fun too.
We didn’t stay on the beach long since that sky looked a little frightful and we weren’t seeing loads of shells other than this cute little LACE MUREX (or lacie), a few WENTLETRAPS and minis.
Up high on the beach was a wide wrack line of what I call “beach bling”. Yes, I made up the phrase! Here’s my definition…. Beach Bling: noun- (beech-bling) 1. anything that washes up on the beach other than seashells. 2. Collectable and/or noncollectable debris washed up on any shore.
Doesn’t “Beach Bling” even make PARCHMENT WORMS sound better?
More Beach Bling in the wrack line like BLACK MANGROVE SEEDS which are the little split green lima bean looking things in this next photo…
…and the RED MANGROVE SEED PODS mixed in…
This baby BLUE CRAB shell would fall into this category too…
But still the best thing to watch was the beautiful birds soaring and swirling in the stormy sky. They definitely stole the show
…
Helping A Sanibel Nudibranch
Posted by: | Comments
The weekend started off a little slow for finding shells since the wind was coming in from the east. On Friday evening, we checked out the lighthouse beach and the first thing I saw was a SEA HARE (or also called a NUDIBRANCH) washed up on the beach caught in a line of sea grass. So I picked he/she (literally because they are hermaphrodites) up since I thought it was still alive to put it back in the water and held it for a few minutes submerged. It started to move its wings so I released and it swam away. Yippee!
I met a family on the beach…. they asked me “Where should we go to find some shells?”. They didn’t know what they were in for, did they? LOL They had no idea that Clark and I could talk for hours about shells. heehee
We had a nice time talking to Venkataratnam and Hansaveni from New Jersey along with her parents Pavani and Anupam who were visiting Sanibel for the first time …. from India! The shelling wasn’t fantastic since it was high tide and those darn east winds but we were happy to help them find a few WENTLTRAPS, a nice NUTMEG, SHARK’S EYE, 2 TURBANS, a LIMPET and a few more goodies.
I saw a bird on the beach that I normally don’t see so I sent my friend Bonnie this photo and she said, “That is a Black-crowned Night-Heron. He is a large-headed heron that rarely extends it’s neck. You usually see them at the water’s edge crouched down waiting quietly for a fish to go by. You got his picture with his neck extended so he was probably very aware of you or about to fly off.”
The winds changed a little from the west so shelling was much better at Blind Pass this weekend but I still haven’t gotten those photos into my computer so I will post again ASAP. In the mean time, the shelling should be really good on the sand bars at Blind Pass this afternoon at a negative low tide of -0.4 around 5:30 pm.
Only another day to enter into the drawing for some iLoveShelling gear! I am loooving all of your comments!
iLoveShelling GiveAway
Warm Welcomed Weekend
Posted by: | Comments
This is how our weekend started off on Friday. A calm, coral sky at sunset with a few shells scattered along the beach.
Gulf Oyster Drill
This is the cute little shell in foreground of the first photo. Cute, huh? It’s called a GULF OYSTER DRILL and this is what the aperture looks like…..
Gulf Oyster Drill Aperture
We are starting to see lots of live COQUINAS right at the surf’s edge getting washed up then quickly digging themselves back into the sand.
There were a few Sanibel Stoopers enjoying the warm evening and the semi low tide pools off Middle Gulf Drive.
I was so touched that Matt (OH) was collecting shells to make jewelry for his girlfriend. What a guy!
Matt (Ohio)
We got a chance to stop by Sanibel side of Blind Pass this weekend too but instead of shelling the sand bar, we walked the beach down to the bayou where I spotted this GREAT BLUE HERON in flight.
We were surprised to see so many shell piles!
There were lots of FIGHTING CONCHS and WHELKS but I didn’t see any SAND DOLLARS until I met Stephanie from Ft Myers. She found about 6 SAND DOLLARS in her shell bag.
Stephanie seashells
I havent had the chance to clean up the 14 inch HORSE CONCH Clark found this weekend (he’s still beaming) but tomorrow I’ll get that cleaned up and take a few photos then show the rest of the photos of our fabulous boating day.
surf shells sanibel
We looked towards the pass and saw the rain coming. Head for the hills!
Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as we honored the memories of our fallen U.S. service men and women.
