Archive for Periwinkles
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.
Full Moon Beach Bling
Posted by: | Comments
The weather conditions and last night’s full moon caused an extreme high tide that washed up lots of live creatures on the beach. Unfortunately for them, an extreme low tide left them with no where to hide. Fortunately for Cory from Cape Coral (and me), he got to see a tiny live SAND DOLLAR with a few mature beauties as well as several live STARFISH at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach.
I saw several live TRUE TULIPS hiding inside a STIFF PEN SHELL.
I did spot one empty bright orange TRUE TULIP hiding under one of those PEN SHELLS. A keeper! Yippee!
Along with a WORMIE and CHESTNUT TURBAN…
Caroline and Jennifer (Atlanta) are long time “wentlers” so they knew just where to look to find dozens of WENTLETRAPS.
Jennifer found all of these WENTLETRAPS within an hour and a half…
Her daughter Caroline has the WENTLE-eye too …and the KING’S CROWN-eye and the BABY’S EAR-eye!
Guess who I met! …. Sanibelle! If you read a lot of my post comments, you might have read one of Sanibelle’s comments. She rocks! …well she “shells” …but you know what I mean. 
It was a pleasure to me you, Sanibelle! This is miss cutie Sanibelle…
Since there were so many live creatures to ooooh and ahhhh at, it was hard to find many big empty shells besides PEN SHELLS. I talk about PEN SHELLS so often but I rarely ever show them so I found good example of both types that we find here. The one on the left is a STIFF PEN SHELL and the one on the right is a SAW-TOOTH PEN SHELL.
The most unusual shell I saw yesterday was a MANGROVE PERIWINKLE that Clark found yesterday on the gulf side of Lighthouse Beach. We just don’t find many of them at that beach.
He also found this little army man. I think he’ll make good company for my LEGO guy I found in February.
Since there are so many live shells on the beaches right now, I just want to make sure you know that you can’t take any live shells, SAND DOLLARS, STARFISH and such. You should gently put it back where you found it or in deeper waters. Lots of people don’t know how to tell if a sand dollar is alive or not. Here’s the deal… if a SAND DOLLAR is brown and looks a little “furry”, that means it is happy and healthy so we need to let it live a long time …..so it can breed! This is what live SAND DOLLARS look like. See that “fur”? Those are his feet AND how he breathes. Cool, huh?
This was the moon rise last night over Fort Myers Beach. I did not change or colorize this photo! It was really that big and colorful! I guess that’s why all the living creatures were stirring yesterday.
There should be more goodies washing in so for now…. Gone Shelling.
Bobcat On North Captiva Beach
Posted by: | Comments
I was stunned as I watched a young, wild bobcat casually stroll along a stretch of beach on North Captiva Island. The scene was so surreal, I couldn’t take my eyes off this beautiful beast. My heart skipped a few beats so I fumbled with my camera. Click, click. Yes! I felt so fortunate to have captured her in two photos.
My good friend Diane and I took her boat out for an island hopping adventure with her trusty dog Callie this weekend. Within 10 minutes of anchoring off North Captiva, Diane saw this gorgeous cat and held well behaved Callie tightly on her leash. We have never had any bobcats attacks so we weren’t afraid she would turn on us but then again, a bobcat is a wild animal. We didn’t want to disturb her in any way to make her feel threatened or nervous so we stayed out of her way so she could go on her merry way to find a nice rat appetizer before her raccoon tartar lunch.
Still in awe over our sighting, we hopped on over to Cayo Costa to see what the south tip had in store for us. Live CLOUDY PERIWINKLES!
I mean llllllots of PERIWINKLES.
Here’s cutie Diane (check out our Cayo Costa Camping adventure last year) and her sweet dog Callie….
Look who we ran in to… or should I say “phooned” in to. Captain Brian as in CaptainBrianOnTheWater ! So we (including Callie) had to phoon with Di’s boat.
We may not have found a boat load of shells but we sure had a “wild”, adventurous girls day on the calm gulf waters. Thanks Di!!
PS- You can only get to North Captiva and Cayo Costa by boat. I thought I’d add a map to show you where these islands are in relation to Sanibel. North Cap is marked by the purple circle in the top left corner and Cayo Costa is one island north of North Cap.
Periwinkle, Lewis And Beau Seashells
Posted by: | Comments
Beau's Vitrinella
While looking for minis at the Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel this past week, I ran across a shell I never noticed before. This little guy is a BEAU’S VITRINELLA and it’s only 3/8 of an inch big. It was near the area I was finding WENTLETRAPS, TUSKS, and BABY’S EARS so I was very focused on the small shells. 
It’s a pretty little shell so I will definitely be on the lookout for more of them now that I know the shape, pattern and can call it something other than “cutie little guy that looks like a flattened tiny white button shell”.
This is what it looked like on the beach when I found the VITRINELLA.
I also found this shell that measures about an inch at the lighthouse beach. I thought it could be faded PERIWINKLE but just to be sure it wasn’t a tree snail or something, I asked my land snail friend H.L. Lori if she knew what it was. Without seeing the shell in person, she thought it looked about right to be a PERIWINKLE. Thanks, HL!
This is another view after I brought it home.
It looks like a MANGROVE PERIWINKLE, doesn’t it?
Since I’m on the seashell identification kick, I thought I’d show you this shell too. Let me make this clear… this is not a Sanibel area shell. This was a gift from Terri and Dennis who found it where they live… around the Seattle, WA area. I didn’t know what to call this one either so I asked my California shell friend Scott R. to identify it for me (thanks, Scott!). He says it’s a LEWIS MOON SNAIL and it’s the largest MOON SNAIL in the world. It’s about 4 inches wide. It’s huge!
I found a great home for it right beside the shell sculpture Carla from Love Letters From The Sea blog.
Terri and Dennis also brought quite a few SAND DOLLARS from the Pacific. They are just as beautiful as our Sanibel SAND DOLLARS but they don’t have the slits like ours. Thank you Terri and Dennis! I found a nice home for them as well….right beside our CARIBBEAN CONCHS and other shells we found in Belize 2009 .
Zippy Mini Seashells Video
Posted by: | Comments
Miniature seashells
These are just a few little minis that we found along the beach in the tidal pools at low tide on Sanibel. Obviously they are empty without their original inhabitants. Sometimes after the mollusk dies and leaves the shell empty, another creature takes up residency…. HERMIT CRABS! Check out this short video of these little mini shells inhabited by tiny crazy hermit crabs zipping here and there.
They are so cute, aren’t they? I just love seeing that little WENTLETRAP running around! heehee Here are a few more we found that didn’t have any live creatures inside them that we were able to bring home. Please remember, do not take any shell with a live animal inside it. It’s not fair to kill them and it’s against the law here in Lee County.
Orange Ribbed Cantharus
Tusk shells
Single tusk shell
Baby horse conch shells....Candies!
Periwinkle seashell
While Clark and I were walking along the surf line looking for minis, we had a fella that swam along us for quite some time…
Cownose ray in surf
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
