Archive for Rice Olive
Tiny Trail In The Sand
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live dwarf olive
I took a lovely walk at the lighthouse beach with my friend Susan S. this morning and pointed out a few sand trails leading to live LETTERED OLIVES …
Olive shell siphon
Then she asked me what kind of shell was making this trail…
live dwarf olive sand trail
It looked just like an AUGER trail as I remembered those beautiful tracks I had photographed in 2010 then turned into “AUGER ART” . But I was wrong! It was a DWARF OLIVE. I wonder how many times I had seen them but had just assumed it was an AUGER. I know…never assume.
live rice olive shell
I like to call these tiny little OLIVES “RICE SHELLS” since they look like grains of rice. Here’s a short video of this live little cutie…
But wait! We saw more live shells. Robyn from Singapore (!) wanted to know what was coming out of this shell that was so bright orange. It’s a live HORSE CONCH! And all of that “orange stuff” is the live mollusk that made the shell….. and as I was explaining that, the animal squirted a stream of salty water at us. Ha!
Robyn Singapore horse conch
She knew she couldn’t keep a live shell so she happily walked it out to the sand bar where she found it.
live horse conch sanibel lighthouse
Turkey Wings and Rice, a Cone and Candy
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Don’t get your taste buds all worked up about TURKEY, RICE or CANDY because I’m talking seashells, of course! We found lots of mini “morsels” at the lighthouse over the weekend including these two TURKEY WINGS (the biggest one is only about an inch long) and two TAMPA TURRIDS in the photo above and RICE OLIVES and BABY’S EARS in this next photo.
Along with the usual ANGULATE WENTLETRAPS, I found a BROWN BANDED WENTLETRAP too….
…. And some AUGERS and little FIGHTING CONCHS.
And to top it all off with some sweet candy, we found two HORSE CONCHS and baby ALPHABET CONE.
I met William and Melissa (Jacksonville, FL) filling their shells bags with SCALLOP shells, CONCHS and some MUREXES.
I found out this was their first trip to Sanibel so I showed them how to find WENTLETRAPS too..
I met another Shelling Sister Sanibel Stooper on the beach too…. this little cutie Lucy! She was having a ball with this COCKLE shell on the beach with her parents Jeff and Tammy.
And look what I found again…. a SMOOTH DUCK CLAM. Maybe it isn’t that unusual (?)
Unfortunately, it’s so thin and fragile, it broke when I got it back to the house……oops!
There were so many SAILOR’S EARS, I bunched a few together and that’s when I saw the SMOOTH DUCK CLAM too.
Sailors ears
Just a reminder- If you haven’t entered the Susick Sea Shell Sifter Giveaway yet, CLICK HERE to win!
Seashells Open Your Eyes
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The other day, shelling sistah Tricia G asked me if I’ve ever found a MARGINELLA on Sanibel since I don’t have one listed on the SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION page. I’ve found them before but, come to think about it, I sure haven’t found one in a long time. So last night, we headed for the lighthouse because I was on the hunt for that sneaky MARGINELLA. To double my chances, I reminded Super Sheller Clark that I wanted to find one to add to the I.D. page so I told him to be on the lookout too.
Marginella
Yippee! I found one!….. er…..well…. Clark found it. He was scooping at the surf line when all the sudden I hear him laugh. “Look what I found”.
Marginellas and a broken dove
Then he found another one! And then yes, I found that little one on the right. Whew- I wasn’t completely out-shelled. Keep in mind, the biggest one is just shy of 1/2 inch and they sort of look like a BUBBLE if the aperture side is down so they aren’t easy to find. I found the broken one on the left too so I added it to the photo since I thought it was the same shell.
Marginella and Dove? aperture
Dang it! That shell on the left really doesn’t even look like a MARGINELLA at all since it has those teeth on the lip. I couldn’t even see those teeth until I took the picture and looked at it on the computer. In the last few years I can’t even look at my phone or a menu without holding them as far as my arms will extend. You know what I mean? Ha! Geez. Oh well, I’ve been fortunate so far with my eyes so I shouldn’t complain….. it’s just weird…. I’m just sayin. 
Alright, back to the shell…. I think the broken shell on the far left is a DOVE shell just by what’s left of it but I could be wrong (I gotta get back to trusting my own eyes again- yikes!). It’s not like I can where “readers” on the beach…. maybe? ….. nahhhh.
Brown banded wentletrap
I didn’t need glasses to spot this BROWN-BAND WENTLETRAP though. Love that color running through it!
Brown banded wentletrap aperture
Nancy from Seashell Wreaths by Nancy reminded me that the name WENTLETRAP is derived from a Dutch word meaning spiral staircase.
Wentletrap staircases
We were on the mini shell hunt so we ran across lots of the BUBBLE shells…. appropriately named as well….
Bubble shells
We found lots of AUGERS which again, look like their name…
Augers
So how about SHARP-RIB DRILL? That flat rib or blade off the sides is pretty sharp, huh?
Sharp-rib Drills
Now this is getting funny! I didn’t plan on dissecting common names of shells tonight but it’s kind of fun, right? So let’s look at the KEYHOLE LIMPET…..
Keyhole Limpet
….and the BUTTON shell….
Button shell
This CONE shell certainly looks like an ice cream cone….
Dusky Cone
But I’m not sure that this RICE OLIVE shell looks like an olive but it sure looks like rice…
Rice Olive
Picture this next shell on top of Barbie’s doll head… yep, it’s a TURBAN. Again, I just thought this shell was pretty and knobby. I didn’t realize it had a hole in it and the barnacles attached…the eyes are going! Oh well, it’s still pretty.
Chestnut Turban
We had our eyes (failing or not) focused on finding a special miniature shell by looking for the particular pattern of a MARGINELLA and we found it. We shell this beach on the east end of Sanibel regularly but we’ve probably walked right by hundreds of them just because we have been focused on other patterns of shells that we see on a regular basis. i Love Shelling. I really do because it opens my eyes to see beautiful things that I normally would never appreciate.
Our Sanibel lighthouse shells last night
Snowy Egret
Sanibel pier sunset
