Archive for Conch
2012 New Year Brings BIG Shells!
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He’s faster than the normal beachcomber. He’s got powerful Xray vision to see through water ripples. He can leap wide sand bars at a single bound. He is Super Sheller Clark!
Clark has started the new year off pretty dang well. He found this 13 inch LIGHTNING WHELK and that middle 12 inch HORSE CONCH which is a KNOBLESS WONDER! Look how much smoother the shoulder and spire is compared to the one on the right (the one I found!)… no knobs! So cool, right? I’ll get them cleaned up and show you the other cool things we found boating to the out islands of Sanibel/Captiva this weekend.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Tam Tam Finds A Queen Conch On Sanibel
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A juvenile QUEEN CONCH is a very rare find on Sanibel…. and “our ” Tammy found one!!! If you’ve ever read the comments on any of my posts, her name is “Tam Tam From Michigan” and I finally got to meet her (in real life person!) this weekend on Sanibel and this was the first thing she showed me.
A juvenile QUEEN CONCH! You can find them in the Bahamas and The Florida Keys but it’s not often I hear of anybody finding one here. I’m so happy for her!
Like Donnie, she might be a little shell crazy too. She looooves shells so much, she even named her daughter Shell. This is Shell sittin ‘n siftin on a big pile off West Gulf Drive near Shalimar. Or maybe I should say… this is Shell shelling….
She told me that “Tammy” means “Palm Tree” in another language then showed me her new tattoo…
So of course since her daughter’s name is Shell and her name means Palm Tree…so she looves Sanibel and so do her girlfriends! They all love shelling Sanibel. This is Claudette (FL), Shell, Barb (VA),Tam Tam, Karen, Tracy (FL). You’ve met Claudette and Karen here before CLICK HERE and Karen happens to be Tam Tam’s cousin. The world is getting smaller, isn’t it? How cute are they with their i Love Shelling tee!!!
And the shelling sistahs can phoon too…. LOL…
Here are some of the other fabulous treasures Tam Tam found…
And even more…
Check this out… it’s an imprint (fossil, it apprears) of seashells formed in some sort of rock (Clark thinks it is limestone).
The cousins were having great luck! Karen found this GOLDEN OLIVE…
She and Claudette were finding lots of BITTERSWEETS on the beach too. I have found a few lately and I always feel like I’ve found quite a treasure when I see them. They are just so colorful!
Congrats again Tam Tam! Your QUEEN CONCH is quite the catch and I feel so lucky too to finally get to meet you and Shell. Oh and I want to share a poem again that Tammy (Tam Tam) wrote. I posted My Sweet Sanibel on May 12, 2010. CLICK HERE to enjoy!
Cockles, Conchs and Quahogs
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After several weeks of east winds, the west winds have finally arrived to drive some shells on to our beaches. Today was only the first day of the westies but since it was a really low tide this morning, I figured I’d find some goodies. It’s always a good day when you find an ALPHABET CONE and you’ve got to see just how darn cute this little juvie HORSE CONCH is…
I couldn’t believe I found this ANGEL WING sitting in the high wrack line…
I love when I find shells like this BANDED TULIP lying on the beach like this.
Tonya, Beth and Max from Ohio had their bags filled with all sorts of treasures.
Wanna look in their shell bags? I sure wanted to too! COCKLES and CONCHS and CLAMS…
Max found this live LIGHTNING WHELK in the high tide wrack line so he walked it down to the water and gently put it in the water. Good for you Max! You helped save this beauty.
I found local Sanibel sheller Lynn walking her very happy standard poodle Alexander with a pocket full of seashell treasure too.
Look at those pretty those COLORFUL MOON shells along with those candies and a mini TURE TULIP.
There was all sorts of bivalves scattered along the beach. I found this ATLANTIC COCKLE, PONDEROUS ARK and SOUTHERN QUAHOG together on the beach just like this…
This is the biggest DARK CERITH I’ve ever found. It’s one and a half inches long!
I was pretty pleased with what we all were finding on the beach near Donax Street today after the first day of west winds. Tomorrow might be even better!
Two True Tulips In One Whopping Week
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I got a call from friend and shelling guide Captain Brian about this guy Nick Hahn who comes to Sanibel every year and is a shell magnet. This year in only one week, he found these two huge colorful TRUE TULIPS! He found one at Cayo Costa (on one of the out islands on a shelling trip) and the second one he found in between Blind Pass Sanibel and Bowmans Beach. He said he even found a few more but they were alive so he had to put those back.
He also found a white spined SEA URCHIN that someone told him was special. Hmmm. I’ve seen a few of these on the beach but I just assumed they were just bleached by the sun. So when I saw this one with all of his other beach combing treasures, I looked it up. Sure enough, there is a WEST INDIAN SEA EGG found in Florida (but mostly more south in the Caribbean) with white spines.
After looking closer, the test is of this URCHIN is almost black instead of the purplish color of the PURPLE SEA URCHIN that we often see after a storm. I’ll have to add this to my Beach Bling Identification page!
Isn’t it so appropriate that he also found this very unusual pattern on a FIGHTING CONCH with the letter “H” on it ….. for Hahn? Congrats on all your special finds, Nick!
Seashells On Cloud Nine
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The shelling was excellent all weekend after the storm early last week. Not only was I tickled to find this large TRUE TULIP, the FLAT SCALLOPS, HORSIES, the WORMIE and a piece of aqua SEA GLASS, I think finding 2 pieces of JUNONIA and 2 pieces of LION’S PAW is what turbo charged me to run from beach to beach to search the clues for the unbroken loot. The after-burners went into high gear. I know you already heard I hit gold with my JUNONIA and LION’S PAW but now they are all cleaned up so I have to show them just one more time (I know, I know… just humor me 
)….
Ahhhhh. Two out of The Elite Three. So for a while, I’m not coming down from being on cloud nine.
I saw lots of other shellers and friends enjoying the gifts of the sea too. Sunrise shellers Robert and Eileen…
Robertfound a LION’S PAW too! It has some barnacles but who cares! It is a huge whole one and will clean up nicely I’m sure.
The locals were out playing on the beach too. I ran into my friend Mary (Captiva) …
She found an ALPHABET CONE and a bright orange HORSE CONCH. Candy!
More of my buddies! I found Betsy and Sherrill sittin’ n siftin’ through another big shell pile…
King and Queen of this shell mountain, Kathy and Tony had it all to themselves…
Other than shells, the storm brought in lots of other Beach Bling too. One of my favorites being pieces of CORAL.
I still have more photos of cool stuff I found on the beaches..but not the time to show them all again. We have Hurricane Rina out in the Caribbean which may turn towards Florida from Mexico so we have to keep an eye out to see what she does. I just hope everybody is safe from this Category 2 Hurricane headed for Cancun, Cozumel then turning towards Cuba. When everybody is safe, then we can think about the shells she might produce. I promise, I’ll catch up tomorrow and keep you updated.
A Few Special Finds
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I used to think that all white FIGHTING CONCHS were just regular shells that were bleached by the sun until I saw the albino conch Lee Garret found and Mary Ann’s photo of multi color FIGHTING CONCHS on my post in February… Prettiest Speckled Tellin . I’ve been looking for one ever since I saw theirs so last week we found one that was albino-ish but now we found an unmistakable shiny white ALBINO FIGHTING CONCH. I love to find a special shell that I’ve probably overlooked in the past but now have learned to appreciate it so much.
We’ve had rain in the mornings at low tide the last few days but even in the rain, I found other shellers. As you can see the shoreline at Blind Pass Captiva, there may not be any new shells coming in but there are still shells on a high wrack line to pick through.
On the Sanibel side of Blind Pass, I walked out to the beach (in the rain) and met shelling sistah Cecile (AL) soaked to the bone but having such a good time scooping shells in the surf. She said until she hears thunder or sees lightning… she’s gonna be shelling. All she needed was little mini windshield wipers for her glasses. She had just found a WORMIE!
As soon as she said that, we heard a little clap of thunder in the distance so we both walked back to our cars where it was a pleasure to meet the rest of her family. Since it was raining, Irene thought she’d stay in the car and wait for Cecile to get her shelling fix and wait for the goodies to be brought to her. Talk about special… it is her birthday next month. You’ll never guess, so I’ll tell you how old she is gonna be….. 92! Happy birthday Irene!
Birthday girl Irene with a nutmeg
I was excited to meet a couple more shelling sistahs for the first time yesterday at lunch. If you’ve ever read any of the comments here on these posts, you probably “know” Roxanne Reinhart and Sheri Zipp! I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for almost 2 years now and they have been dear to my heart for giving me such good feedback and conversation for almost the whole entire time. I have no idea how they found iLoveShelling to begin with but I’m grateful and that I saw both of them together. Here’s a picture of my special “finds” Roxanne, Sheri and Sheri’s daughter Samantha.
