Archive for Cayo Costa
Captiva Cruises Boat To Cayo Costa
Posted by: | Comments
Another Spring Break adventure! On Wednesday, Lori, Hayley, Culter and I went to the secluded island of Cayo Costa to relax and enjoy another gorgeous day on the islands.
I had problems getting out our own boat (Clark was busy at work so he couldn’t help) so we decided to take the easy route and hop on the Captiva Cruises shelling boat Play Time for the afternoon trip.
Low and behold, guess who our captain was… my buddy Captain Brian Holaway! It was a nice surprise!
After securing the boat on the south tip of Cayo Costa, Capt Brian walked over to our shelling spot to join us for a few minutes and immediately picked up an ALBINO YELLOW PRICKLY COCKLE. Wow, can he spot those albinos! Remember he won a red ribbon for his ALBINO WHELK at the Sanibel Shell Show this year? Amazing!
I didn’t find an albino but I quickly found a handful of my own fave honeys.
BABY’S EARS and FALSE ANGEL WINGS (they look like cute little juvie ANGEL WINGS)…
Lots of beauteous JINGLES…
A couple of CLOUDY PERIWINKLES…
I also found a PURPLISH SEMELE (left) and a CANCELLATE SEMELE (right). I’m not sure why I don’t find more of these on Sanibel but I have better luck finding them on Cayo Costa, North Captiva and in Marco. hmmmm
I had thought at one time that this BRYOZOAN COLONY was a type of CORAL but as you can see side by side… it’s not a piece of CORAL like the branch on the right. I found both of these past the tree roots on the Gulf side of the beach. (click HERE for more info on Bryozoan Colony)
Okay, this one might not be your taste but I thought this SOUTHERN RIBBED MUSSEL was just so pretty for some reason. One day, when I get a fancy camera to show you the nice details up close and personal, I promise…I’ll be able to capture more of the beauty in some of these obscure seashells.
After combing, sunning and shelling this gorgeous beach, Hayley, Cutler and Lori (VA) headed back to the boat with me after one more climb on the BLACK MANGROVE tree roots.
On the boat ride back, I couldn’t help but see how excited Margie, Kristi and Mike (California) were about their seashell loot!
They found oodles of ATLANTIC GIANT COCKLES…
Quite a few humongus SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS…
And a really big LEOPARD CRAB shell.
It was a perfect day on the water with calm aqua seas, warm temps in the 80s and DOLPHINS surrounding the boat.
And to top if off, it was great being with good friends and having lots of seashell souvenirs to bring home to remember the day.
Super Sheller Clark Found A Huge Seashell
Posted by: | Comments
They don’t call Clark “Super Sheller” for nothin’. We took our boat to Cayo Costa for the Memorial Day weekend and since we haven’t been out there for a while, we headed in different directions to cover more ground…er… sand to find some shells. About 45 minutes later, Clark called me on my cell phone and said “Get ready for this one!”. Hmmmm. What did he find?
A 14″ (fourteen inches!) HORSE CONCH!!!!!
I got the shelling Rock Star on video…… (it might take a few seconds for the video to load, so hang on….it’s pretty cute)
Oh What a Beautiful Boating Day
Posted by: | Comments
Live Limpets on a fallen tree on Cayo Costa
No rain and no work! …. Time to get out on the water. We took the boat out to our fave spots North Captiva and Cayo Costa. We found three BABY’S EARS, a few WHELKS and WORM SHELLS (only a few) and the views were spectacular. Well worth the trip.
Periwinkle on Cayo Costa
Ibis and roots
South tip of Cayo Costa
Limpets in wood grain
Barnacles on tree root ( I know, nothing fancy but I thought it looked very picturesque)
Ibis in a Cayo Costa tree
Ibis enjoying the view
Clark with a Rocksnail
We weren’t really sure what this shell was Clark found but he insisted it was something good. It kinda looks like a worn KINGS CROWN but the opening edge is sort of serrated. It was really slimed with algae and gunk so Clark got it cleaned up and then check again in the books to see if it’s a ROCKSNAIL . That’s what it looks like so far. It’s got some wear and tear but it’s 2 and a half inches long and it’s not something we find every day. I think it’s a good find too, Clark! (Update- 10-7-10: Yes, it’s a rocksnail. We got verification from MurexKen and Dr. Jose Leal from the Shell Museum. Thank you both!)
Rocksnail
Rocksnail
Birds on North Captiva
Christine (Venice FL) finding shells on North Cap
Pelican landing strip
Boating to Out Islands
Posted by: | Comments
Periwinkles on Cayo Costa
Periwinkles close up
Tree snails or periwinkles? I’ve never seen these beautiful snails on the fallen trees on the south tip of Cayo Costa before. We weren’t finding any keeper shells tucked around the tree roots or washed up on the beach so maybe that’s why we finally noticed them. I didn’t recognize them to know exactly what they were…….until MurexKen came to the rescue! They are CLOUDY PERIWINKLES. Their colors are so brilliant!
Jane and John (Sanibel) on Cayo Costa
It was a gorgeous day boating with Jane and John to Cayo Costa and then on to North Captiva. We didn’t find tons of shells at our normal spot by the tree roots but we were very happy with the great shells that we did find from the whole day.
Seashells from Captiva out islands
This is a sampling of the shells we all found plus some OLIVES. I didn’t get a chance to clean that awesome (!) orange HORSE CONCH that Clark found but I’m hoping some of those barnacles will pick off the tip without pitting it. The FARGO WORM SHELLS will clean right up with a little bleach in a bucket of water and I can leave them there for a couple of days. I only dip the KING’S CROWNS in the watered bleach bath for a few minutes then scrub them clean. They will lose their color so quickly in a bleach bath.
Only 4 more days to enter The Lighthouse Giveaway so if you haven’t entered………. Enter Now
UPDATE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW OVER. http://iloveshelling.com/blog/2010/07/01/sanibel-lighthouse-giveaway/
Nick Adams Lighthouse Photograph
Mixed Shell Bag
Posted by: | Comments
Dusky cone North Captiva
Clark and I boated to North Captiva on Sunday and we found a few fun things. I love the color and size of this DUSKY CONE and we also found 2 KING’S CROWN, a bunch of FARGO WORM SHELLS (Yay!) and a couple of SAND DOLLARS.
Worm shell, king's crown, sand dollar
After we hung out for hours on North Cap, we couldn’t help stopping by Cayo Costa to see if we could pick up some BABY’S EARS. We have an eye for ears, baby! I found an even bigger on than I found on my “camping” trip 2 weeks ago. This one is about 1 1/2 inches big! That’s a biggie.
Big baby's ear
Speaking of baby’s ears, Clark and I went to the lighthouse beach this evening on the pier side to see what we could find. We found a few WENTLETRAPS and right when we saw a few baby’s ears (in that weed line in the picture below), we met the nicest couple who live in Sanibel as well. Leslie is an artist and shell crafter! She exhibited a few pieces in the Sanibel Shell Fair and Show this year and has been doing so for years. Maybe she’ll use some of those wentletraps and baby’s ears that we found on the beach together in one of her next projects.
Leslie and Joe (Sanibel)
Cayo Costa Camping
Posted by: | CommentsWhew, I survived a camping/shelling trip with the girls on the island of Cayo Costa this past weekend. We were lucky enough to have a nice cool breeze so we didn’t roast in our cabin and to keep away the bugs. Yep, I said “cabin”….. we didn’t have to pitch a tent. We had 6 girls, 5 lanterns, 4 coolers, 3 fires (intentional), 2 boats (the only way to get there) and 1 heck of a good time. We didn’t bring back full buckets of shells but we did find some treasures. Our best finds…Diane and I found BABY’S EARS , Lisa and Rhonda found SAND DOLLARS, Beth found URCHINS, and Chris found OLIVES. There were lots of FIGHTING CONCHS, SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS, and COCKLES to go around too.
We met Bob and Terry from Cape Coral who were finding tons of SHARK’S TEETH. They gave us tips on finding them….look for small black triangles. I found one! Thanks, Bob and Terry!
-
- Welcome to Cayo Costa
-
- Di and Lisa shelling
-
- My buddies Lisa, Beth and Diane
-
- My 1 3/8″ baby’s ear
-
- Diane’s huge baby’s ear
-
- Chris and Rhonda with their treasure
-
- Terry and Bob (Cape Coral) with their shark’s teeth
-
- Shark’s teeth found on Cayo Costa
-
- Cayo Costa cabin inside view
-
- Cayo Costa cabin bunk beds
-
- Cayo Costa cabin (home sweet home)
-
- Shell display at Cayo Costa ranger station/gift shop
-
- More shells (we found bigger baby’s ears- heehee)
-
- Cayo Costa shells (Chris’s olive was bigger too :) )
-
- We found lots of broken angel wings but no whole ones- darn.
-
- More of ranger station/gift shop shell display
-
- Flowering cactus on Cayo Costa
-
- Enjoying a Cayo Costa sunset
