Archive for Land Snail
Seashells Painted With Stripes
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My earliest childhood memory of shelling is when I would get so excited to find COQUINAS. They look just like butterflies! Maybe that’s why I still love them so much now… but then, another thought would be… maybe because they are just so darn cute! The Sanibel Lighthouse Beach was loaded with COQUINAS yesterday evening. Just like being a kid again, I got really excited to find so many variations that look like they have had stripes painted on them. For me, it’s unusual to find this many striped ones all together. While I was picking up these cuties, I also found a few other minis like this KEYHOLE LIMPET…
These Wisconsin visitors were having a great time finding the minis and COQUINAS too…
Sweet collection…
While we were busy admiring the COQUINAS, these brand-new Fort Myers residents (Ron and Kelli!) found this huge awesome LIGHTNING WHELK…
Look at the color of the spire on this beautiful shell and this one looks like it has painted stripes too. Nature’s miracle and a spectacsheller find!
This mom and daughter shelling team from Orlando were loving the minis and the baby LIGHTNING WHELKS they found in the EGG CHAINS…
Right before the sun went down, I met Kim, Olivia and Zach….
Kim said she saw my post about the brown MACULATED BABY’S EARS last week from Cayo Costa, then found two of them! She said she would have had no idea what it was unless she hadn’t just read about it and saw the pics here. I love that! Here is the one she found last night near the fishing pier. This would have been so easy to mistake it for a SLIPPER SHELL while laying in the sand or mixed in with other shells, right? Wow! Great find!
But hold on, she also found this pretty little shell. I didn’t know what it was until my friend H.L. Schroeder (Lori -heehee- who knows a lot about land snails) identified is as a LINED TREE SNAIL.
It looks like an artist took a brush to a white snail shell and painted the lines on this one too. Just gorgeous. I know it’s rare to find one on the beach since this may be the first one I’ve seen in person but since it’s a land snail, I dont know if its rare on the whole island. Here’s the aperture side of it.
Okay… I’ve got to confess. Maybe you noticed, I didnt give names to some of the folks I met on the beach last night. I have so much happening in this little brain of mine so I have to take notes on my phone since I’m really bad on remembering names. Well, my phone was on overload and couldnt take any more data. I lost the names of these wonderful folks. Ack! I could tell you all about where they live, what they do, and all about our conversations but … names? Lost. Please, Cute Couple- “Well, not St Paul, MN but it’s so close, that’s where we normally tell people we are from”, and Exuberant Couple “We just moved to Ft Myers! Pam, is this a pretty normal find here? No? Waahhhoooooo!” and Mom “I’m mad at you when you don’t post every day- hahaha” and Daughter “We jump in the Avis car any chance we get to drive to Sanibel”…. y’all forgive me! Here is a CYBERSHELLING picture to make up for it. Click on the next image to blow it up to find all of you own shells!
Shell Raisers On The Beaches Of Sanibel
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Hundreds of live FIGHTING CONCHS raised out of the sand at Lighthouse Beach yesterday to take a look around as the tide was going out.
I found one of the FIGHTING CONCHS hanging out in a tidal pool… but wait… I noticed something in the water beside it…
This FLORIDA FIGHTING CONCH was laying EGGS! The eggs are released in a gelatinous egg string then sand adheres to its thick jelly-like sheath.
I tried to get close enough to see how the eggs are released without disturbing this busy gal. If you look closely, you can see them shooting out! It’s that spout perpendicular to the eye. Go Momma! Raise some more shells!
I think this is a FIGHTING CONCH EGG STRING as well…. but why would she lay her eggs without being in the water? I followed the trail from the string to a healthy FIGHTING CONCH about a yard away. Hmmm. Maybe that jelly like sheath protects them when the tide recedes. I dunno, but I hope she raises healthy shells and I sure love to find new things like this!
Speaking of “raising shell”…. We met the Shell Raisers (The Shell Raisers on Facebook) at Blind Pass Sanibel! These 2 brothers, Eric and Chris, have been shelling all their lives and they even witnessed a BANDED TULIP laying eggs in their live shell tank.
Chris found that huge WHELK but put it back in the water since was occupied by a monster HERMIT CRAB. They were vacationing on Sanibel with their family from the east coast of Florida . Here are Chris and Eric with (from left to right) their mom Cheryl, Sarah, Amelia and Ava.
Back at the Sanibel lighthouse, Linda (Pensacola, FL) was busy finding the mini shells…
She found a mega WENTLETRAP along with some other sweet minis…
Her best find was this gorgeous MANGROVE PERIWINKLE…
If you look closely you can see a beautiful purple lip…
Bobby (Houston TX) finally found what he was looking for…WENTLETRAPS!!
I was asked a question on I Love Shelling Facebook page by Diane F about a shell I.D. It was that ROSE WOLF SNAIL again! I told y’all I keep forgetting the name of that shell but now that I can remember the name, I completely forgot to put it on my SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION page. This shell keeps stumping me some how! Thanks Diane for asking about this shell and sending such a beautiful picture of it. I’m going to use photo for my I.D page- Thank you!
Okay, one more thing… I saw the dolphins playing near the pier last night and I just happened to video them racing along the shoreline in front of an unsuspecting family. This is no fancy video…just a little clip of our own little Sanibel Sea World… 
Rosy Days at Blind Pass Captiva
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The shells at Blind Pass have shifted from the Sanibel side to a huge beautiful pile on the Captiva side because of a few days of northwest winds earlier in the week.
It was like old times watching the shells roll up in the surf only to quickly fall back in the Gulf playing catch me if you can. I thought I caught “the big guy” when I saw the tip of this JUNONIA right on top of the pile. Dang! The whole back end was gone. Oh well, he’s still pretty.
I did find a prize when I met Candy and her sister-in-law Angela. I am soooo tickled they are in their iLoveShelling tank tops! Awww- so cute. Thanks you guys!
Talking about cuties… Jordyn and her mom Lisa were enjoying sifting through the big shell pile too.
They had started filling up their shell bag with the SANIBEL SIX. They got the hardest one to find… the CONE but still needed the TULIP (I think the WORMIE makes up for the TULIP!).
Then Jordyn held out a shell that they said they couldn’t identify. I looked at the shell and had to laugh. No! I didn’t laugh at them… I laughed because Tricia Gorman had just posted (2 days ago) on iLoveShelling Facebook page a “mystery shell” she found at the Sanibel lighthouse. It was the same shell. It’s a land snail but for some reason the name of it always escapes me.
So since I can never remember the name of it, Holly Giehler identified it as a ROSY WOLF SNAIL. Yes, that’s it! Holly, you have got an eye! Remember her? She was the first one to guess where our Thailand CONES were found too. So thanks to Tricia, Holly, and Jordyn I don’t think I’ll ever forget the name of this land snail that sometimes washes up from the Gulf Of Mexico on our beaches. It’s a ROSY WOLF SNAIL (Note to self: remember this!).
Although we had more lines of SEAWEED than usual washing in with the waves and shells, the Gulf was a brilliant blue with shades of aqua and green highlighted with creamy white caps coming in from the north. I captured just a few seconds of this on video. Enjoy the wind, water, waves… and shells! (oh, and please ignore that big splash on my lens. geez. I got a little too close!)
FYI- Dredging will start at Blind Pass beginning next week and run through August to open up the pass. When they start pumping the sand on to Bowman’s Beach… there could be shells, people! Click HERE for details.
FYI #2- More Thailand pics coming soon. (but don’t worry! I’ll keep you posted on Southwest Florida beaches too)
Finally, A Recipe For Finding A Junonia
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Kathy with junonia recipe
I’m done with the good luck charms, four leafed clovers, the rabbits foot and all that to find my JUNONIA. Today at Blind Pass Sanibel, Kathy gave me the best advice for mixing up a special adult brew to give us all good luck in finding our own JUNONIA. A recipe for a Junonia Cocktail. Woohoo! (Click on it to enlarge)
Kathy's junonia recipe
Oooooh. Sounds so yummy and I guess the trick is…. even if you don’t find one, you can’t help but be happy after having one of these. teehee. I like her style. Here she is with her family..
Kathy, Brianna and Joe (CO)
I was so tickled she had on her iLoveshelling cap! Cute!
Young sheller Brianna
Brianna is on her way to finding a JUNONIA since she found this piece today. Kathy will have to celebrate for her with the cocktail since Brianna has quite a few years to go before she can have one.
Okay before I show this next photo, I want to make sure you know that Kathy did NOT find this shell on the beach. She said she found it at Harns Marsh in Lehigh Acres.
Apple Snail Land Shell (not found on the beach)
She brought this APPLE SNAIL shell to the beach to show it to me. Okay, again, just to make sure you know….. It was NOT found on the beach. It’s cool, though isn’t it? This is a land snail which is the diet of the endangered SNAIL KITE bird. It’s huge!
Kathy's cones and moon
She did find this ALPHABET CONE, FLORIDA CONE and COLORFUL MOON on the beach today.
The fog started rolling in but that didn’t stop the shellers. I ran into Patty who was thrilled she found a piece of SEA GLASS. I was thrilled for her since it isn’t easy to find that on Sanibel.
Patty (MI) with sea glass
Even with fog, it was a beautiful day on Sanibel.
The Sanibel Foggy Stoop
Thanks for the recipe, Kathy. Let me know if any of you try the Junonia Cocktail!
