Archive for Sand Dollar
Full Moon Beach Bling
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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.
Road Trip To Honeymoon Island Florida- Part 3 Finale
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In the first 2 posts about our weekend trip to Honeymoon Island State Park, I showed you some cool treasures we found like TURBANS, MERMAID MONEY, AGATIZED CORAL GEODES, rock art and a variety of shells… but wait! I still have a few more things I want to show you. Like the biggest KING’S CROWN we’ve ever seen! Clark found this live mollusk on the bay side of the northern tip of the island.
Of course we put him back where Clark found him after peaking at this awesome creature…
We saw a MANATEE! It’s always a bonus to see them so close to the shore and this guy wasn’t shy at all so came up to say “hi”…
On our walk back we found 2 SAND DOLLARS along with some of the other shells…and remember, it’s a 5 mile round trip- whew! I even wish we had taken more than the 100 fluid oz. we packed for the “hike”.
On Sunday, we decided to take the scenic drive back through Clearwater Beach down to Pass-A-Grille since we heard the shelling was good against the jetty rocks. Nuttin, Honey. All I found was my butt busting on a rock after I slipped on an unsteady chunk of the jetty. Ouch!
Pass-A-Grille jetty rocks
I met a nice couple a few years ago in my shop Kirby Rambo Collections (Clark sold it for me in 2004… 4 weeks before Hurricane Charley. Talk about timing!) who showed me a bag of WORM SHELLS they collected on Fort De Soto beach. I’ve been wanting to check it out ever since so we stopped there too while passing through St Pete. We didn’t find much there either but that’s okay. It was fun to just walk the beach and see the lay of the land. Just like I tell people that visit our beaches….. the shelling changes every day on each beach. There could have been hundreds of WORM SHELLS there the day after or before we walked it. It’s the hunt that makes it fun!
Fort De Soto beach
When I was sorting through our shells when we got home, I found a few bivalves that we had collected on Honeymoon Island that were a little unusual. It might not be so pretty but this ATLANTIC FAT TELLIN which should be called the bent tellin because it has an obvious bend in the middle of it.
I think you can see the bend a little better at this angle…
Shelling Sistah Moira showed me a facebook photo last week of this same LUCINE shell in the next photo. The closest thing I found at Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum is the THICK LUCINE….. but it looks more like a worn PENNSYLVANIA LUCINE to me. I found the same shell on Honeymoon too….
Here’s the inside… some people wouldn’t think this is too pretty but for identification purposes, I have found that the interior of the shell is just as important to identify it correctly as the exterior.
I also found a very worn WHITE CRESTED TELLIN. It’s the first one I’ve ever found.
So now that I’ve shown you all of our treasures from our weekend getaway, I thought I’d throw in a few places we enjoyed other than the beaches. Unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures but we both loved the little town of Dunedin (pronounced dun-E-din). It’s one of those quant little village-y areas with funky art studios, sweet gift shops and really good restaurants and bars- most with live entertainment so you can just wander around before and after dinner to enjoy the town. Our fave restaurant was a place called Kelly’s Chicaboom- awesome! We also loved this tiny restaurant/fish market called Olde Bay Cafe at the marina.
We had a wonderful time exploring another gulf coast town of Florida that offers some beautiful and different gifts of the sea but it was time to head back over the Sunshine Skyway…
…to get home to our little island paradise of Sanibel. Home Sweet Home!
Negative Low Tides, Positive Winners!
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Caroline (St Augustine) was positively a winner with a bucket full of seashells at Sanibel’s Blind Pass. With a negative low tide, you can walk out so far on the sand bar right now to find lots of FIGHTING CONCH, WHELKS, OLIVES….. basically, all of the SANIBEL SIX. Her mom, Jill, knew she found unusual shell so asked me to identify it. It’s a tiny little STRIATE NASSA!
Mike from L.A. (Lehigh Acres, FL ) was so happy to fill a whole bag on his first day ever shelling.
He even found three SAND DOLLARS!
I take that back, I didn’t see the complete Sanibel Six because I didn’t see anybody with a CONE (that’s okay- the little orange”candy” takes up for it) but here a few of my finds.
Here’s a short video of what the sand bar looked like at low tide on Sunday afternoon. This evening is another negative low tide of -0.5 at 6:24 pm. Should be good!
We have some WINNERS of the NIght Shelling Lighted Cap GiveAway !!!
First, I want to thank you all for so many wonderful comments and stories that gave me a look into your lives. I love getting to know yall a little bit better by hearing about you and your thoughts. Thank you so much for your support!!
I put all 283 (!!!) names from the comments together and Clark drew 3 random winners..
Winner #1 is Barbara Teitelzweig! You won the iLoveShelling.com 2-Beam Lighted Cap.
Winner #2 is Deb Merkel! You won an i Love Shelling Tank Top.
Winner #3 is Angela Moore! You won the i Love Shelling Cabana Tote.
Congratulations! Time to SHELLEBRATE!
If you didn’t get a chance to check out the new 2-Beam Lighted Cap (it’s a hands-free flashlight and a cap all in one!) or other fun i Love Shelling gear, just click on this…..
Warm Welcomed Weekend
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This is how our weekend started off on Friday. A calm, coral sky at sunset with a few shells scattered along the beach.
Gulf Oyster Drill
This is the cute little shell in foreground of the first photo. Cute, huh? It’s called a GULF OYSTER DRILL and this is what the aperture looks like…..
Gulf Oyster Drill Aperture
We are starting to see lots of live COQUINAS right at the surf’s edge getting washed up then quickly digging themselves back into the sand.
There were a few Sanibel Stoopers enjoying the warm evening and the semi low tide pools off Middle Gulf Drive.
I was so touched that Matt (OH) was collecting shells to make jewelry for his girlfriend. What a guy!
Matt (Ohio)
We got a chance to stop by Sanibel side of Blind Pass this weekend too but instead of shelling the sand bar, we walked the beach down to the bayou where I spotted this GREAT BLUE HERON in flight.
We were surprised to see so many shell piles!
There were lots of FIGHTING CONCHS and WHELKS but I didn’t see any SAND DOLLARS until I met Stephanie from Ft Myers. She found about 6 SAND DOLLARS in her shell bag.
Stephanie seashells
I havent had the chance to clean up the 14 inch HORSE CONCH Clark found this weekend (he’s still beaming) but tomorrow I’ll get that cleaned up and take a few photos then show the rest of the photos of our fabulous boating day.
surf shells sanibel
We looked towards the pass and saw the rain coming. Head for the hills!
Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as we honored the memories of our fallen U.S. service men and women.
Low Tide Blind Pass
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This was what it looked like a few evenings ago at Blind Pass on the Sanibel side when the tide was nice and low. There were quite a few people out on the sand bars finding nice shells and enjoying the beautiful sunset.
The biggest find we saw from the afternoon (early evening) was by Derek (MI).
It was a beautiful LIGHTNING WHELK! Nice find Derek! He said he saw something bright white just sitting there in the shallow water and just reached down to pull this up.
Mario, Lori, Paul, Heather and Derek
Derek’s family was there to oooh and ahhhh over his loot.
Kristen found a perfect keeper SAND DOLLAR and her husband Josh was finding lots of FIGHTING CONCHS, COCKLES and OLIVES.
She also found a live STARFISH that she returned safely to the shallows.
Josh's olive
They found so much they had to stash all of their goodies in an empty cooler.
Kristen and Josh's shells
Native Sanibelian Scott (now living in Costa Rica) found a piece of JUNONIA….
Scott (Costa Rica)
At low tide, you can now walk out pretty far again on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass to find FIGHTING CONCHS, WHELKS, OLIVES and COCKLES. But of course that is this week…who knows what next week will bring.
live olive in sand
Periwinkle, Lewis And Beau Seashells
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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 .
