Archive for Blind Pass
The Jewels Of The Jetty
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All along the jetty rocks at Captiva’s Blind Pass, there are still bucketfuls of shell jewels to be found at low tide. It was so much fun seeing Michelle of Buckingham, Florida wading and working the water to pluck out so many beautiful gems. She found a shellacious ALPHABET CONE and too many other perfect shells to count! I also saw Steve and Karen (MI) with their grandsons Noah and Josh from Lakeland, FL with a tons of shells ready to pack up in the car after a great afternoon shelling. It was really good to see you guys again and seeing you had another successful day at Blind Pass.
Mark had lots of great luck finding shells with his snorkel gear! He and his mom Brenda were so cute enjoying everything there was to enjoy about looking for shells. They get it! It’s a treasure hunt! If the shells aren’t on the beach, you’ve got to get in the water to look for them.
Then I met the rest of the family and fell in love with every one of them. Here’s (clockwise) Brenda, Mark (Mark Senior … but lets just call him BigMark), Mark, Conner, Renee, and Aiden. See? Happiness.
And they had major success! This is just a few of their jetty jewels…
Over the weekend, Clark and I hit just about every beach and had success at each one but only brought few home (there’s only so many shells one can find room for!). This FLAT SCALLOP Clark found is our favorite shell that made the cut. I actually think this one is the prettiest one we have in all of our collection. I didn’t get a chance to take a close up but it is rich purple with a detailed line then light purple on the bottom.
Everybody always asks me where they can find SAND DOLLARS but like all shelling, it’s timing, tides, currents and just being darn lucky. Our friend Mary was lucky at the Sanibel Causeway Beach where she found this SAND DOLLAR. Wow! I had no idea SAND DOLLARS were there. Something surprising every day.
Okay, one more surprise. At dusk last night at the Lighthouse Beach…. we saw a SCREECH OWL! He was in the parking lot right next to the beach path. Can you see him?
Hmmmm. Where’s your sticker or hang tag, dude?
Happy Shelling Families and Friendships
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When girlfriends get together for a beach vacation, you can feel the sisterhood happiness and excitement all the way down the shore. The “Sistahs” are actually newbie shellers but are definitely not newbies at finding the best treasures life has to offer. Deb, Lizzi, Baba, Becky, Karen, Sharon, Betty, Roxie and Sandy each live in different parts of the world so they have a reunion each year at a new destination … so this year they picked Captiva to “shellebrate” their friendship. They even wanted matching iLoveShelling tee shirts to commemorate the occasion. I feel so honored! Here’s Karen with her cute tee and showing off the best find of the morning. A reeaaally big LACE MUREX…
That’s an exshellent find!
Talk about “exshellent” finds… these guys have been shelling for over 20 years together and know how to find the good stuff in life too. Ian, Brett, Brett’s brother Jeff (who also happens to be Ian’s dad) were also shelling near the Blind Pass bridge on the Sanibel side and as you can tell… a very happy shelling family. Look at those smiles!
They told me they had great luck fishing all day yesterday and today they will be shelling all day and already had great luck this morning. My faves are the amazingly dark LIGHTNING WHELK, huge orange CHESTNUT TURBAN, and of course… the WORMIE! (heehee- they even called it a “wormie” too) And I didn’t even take pictures of the rest of their favorite finds… like the NUTMEG, LACE MUREX, bright orange CALICO SCALLOPS and TURKEY WINGS.
Brett even shared his finds with the “Sistahs”. They were thrilled!
We had a pretty good shell pile to practice the Sanibel Stoop… and the Sit ‘N Sift…
I feel so fortunate to be part of such an amazing community of people brought together by shells. Oh, and sometimes a GREAT BLUE HERON joins in on the family fun too.
Sanibel Shellingmen
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Yippee! These shells were found at Blind Pass Sanibel yesterday. Our mornings are still in the 50s with winds from the north but there’s not a steady roll of shells on the beach every day. Why? Okay, I figured it out today. It’s because the shells arent getting a chance to wash up to the beach yet. They are getting snagged out of the water by the “Shellingmen Tribe”.
Oh, you’ve never heard of the Shellingmen before? I was thrilled to witness this wonderful site of these brave Shellingmen methodically scooping seashells and BEACH BLING out of the sea to bring back to their Shellingmen families for praises of finding hidden treasures. I watched this phenomenon for a few minutes before I started filming these four men braving the cold to scoop their treasures. I know you can’t hear everything I said in the next video because of the wind (and because I was giggling a bit too), but I still think it’s so cute.
Isn’t that fabulous??? heehee Love those Shellingmen! Okay, I’m being silly but I think my Cherokee genes got stirred up and I got such a kick out this because it’s exactly what Clark and I do! Clark (the hunter) goes out there with his shelling backhoe and I Sit ‘N Sift through the piles he brings back (the gatherer). LOL But before I get too tickled and get off track, let me introduce you to loyal Shell Warrior Duane and his Shell Queen Jan from Montana…
Then I met “Chief Shell Getter” Bryan and his Shell Princess Jan from Indiana…
Bryan was endlessly scooping ALPHABET CONES, a COLORFUL MOON SHELL, HORSE CONCHS, FIGHTING CONCHS , NUTMEGS and an awesome huge SHARKS EYE to bring back to Jan.
While I was taking the photo of the shell buckets, Bryan went out to hunt down more treasures. He brought back this ALPHABET CONE! Ungawa!
This spot has been very fickle this week for shells so if you go down to Blind Pass Sanibel, the best time is in the morning at LOW TIDE… but be careful! We’ve had some rip tides this week so the current could be tricky. Way in the background of the next photo, you can see how far we were from the Blind Pass bridge.
i Heart Shelling in February
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I love shelling because it fills my soul with happiness when I find the smallest of shells like this sweet little juvie PEAR WHELK on the beach that I’ve circled in the photo with my big heart. It looked like there was only sand washing up on the inside of the jetty at Blind Pass yesterday…
But I didn’t give up since the day was warm and beautiful and I had a few minutes just to take it all in. I found a nice little shell pile to sift through…
In that small pile, there was a beautiful FIGHTING CONCH. And laying right beside that CONCH was a nice size LETTERED OLIVE. Do you see it?
I sifted a bit more and I found my sweet PEAR WHELK. That’s when I saw Dave and Peg from Cincinnati and he told me he a found his first JUNONIA this week! Wahoo! But he didn’t have it with him. Rasher-frasher! (What cartoon that was from??), I wanted to see it. He was thrilled to show it off so they ran back to their place to get it! Ha! Fantastic! Here they are!
This is Dave’s awesome JUNONIA that he found at this spot in the water right at the trough line. In the last week, I haven’t seen obvious big shell piles anywhere but everybody that has found nice shells has been hunting in the water just like Dave. He said there were only a few shells showing but he kept scooping at that spot and came up with this JUNONIA. Perseverance. Congratshellations!
I love it because it has so much character! If only this shell could tell its story…
Did you notice Peg has a shell in her hand too? She found a FULGURATOR OLIVE!!!! She actually found it a few weeks ago on the other side of the pass when we had the cold snap but since they went back to get Dave’s JUNONIA, she wanted to show me this too. AWESOME!!!!
And within the last month, she found TWO GOLDEN OLIVES as well. Wowza! They have found some spectacsheller treasure in the last month. We had to shellebrate! Since this was yesterday (Tuesday, February 12), I shared my Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras beads with seashells, mermaids, lobsters and flip flops that Linda From Pensacola gave me. Thank you Linda! That’s so sweet! They went to great use since I had a great time sharing them all day long.
So I hope you had a fabulous Fat Tuesday yesterday and will have a marvelous Valentines tomorrow!
Don’t forget to check out the new dates to join us in one of our Shelling Adventures by CLICKING HERE or the next image!
Early Bird Catches the Seashell Candy
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There are lots of shells at Blind Pass Captiva! Actually I’ve heard there are shells all along Sanibel too at morning low tide but I’m so happy I went to Blind Pass because I met Katie from Kansas who found all of the gorgeous shells in the photo above. Look at that huge, shiny BANDED TULIP and huge TURKEY WING she is holding! Here she is with her dad Mark…
I saw Dave and Peg from Cincinnati…
who showed me their incredible shells. Okay, normally I would be whooping it up about that perfect ALPHABET CONE (which deserves a big whoop!) but I could not take my eyes off that orange… yes, orange… FLAT SCALLOP! I rarely see them wash up that color so it’s exceptional that it’s so perfect and that dang big too! Congratshellations you guys!
I went to some other beaches late in the afternoon to see if the shells were like this as well…
But the tide was so high that it had covered most of the shell piles. So it looks like if you want to find shells like this right now…
you have to be shelling at low tide in the mornings.
The early bird catches the candy!
PS- No, I never found that ALPHABET CONE I thought I saw in my last video. Darn! But it was fun trying.
Florida Cold Front Brings Seashells!
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We woke up to 45 degrees on Sanibel Island this morning after strong northwest winds all day yesterday. So I threw on my hoodie sweatshirt and hit the beach to see what Mother Nature had in store for us today. Yippee! Seashells!
I took a video to show you Blind Pass Captiva late yesterday afternoon at high tide when the wind was whipping and the Gulf Of Mexico was churning. I didn’t even want to get near the pass side of jetty rocks since the waves were breaking so hard and wind was so strong but there was one brave wind surfer having a blast. Flash forward to this morning… I took another video at Blind Pass Captiva (on the pass side of the jetty rocks) this morning at low tide as the wind calmed and the waves were not as choppy…. and the seashells arrived! What a difference! Check out the video then I’ll post more photos of some of the treasures hopefully tomorrow…
