Archive for Scallop
The Jewels Of The Jetty
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All along the jetty rocks at Captiva’s Blind Pass, there are still bucketfuls of shell jewels to be found at low tide. It was so much fun seeing Michelle of Buckingham, Florida wading and working the water to pluck out so many beautiful gems. She found a shellacious ALPHABET CONE and too many other perfect shells to count! I also saw Steve and Karen (MI) with their grandsons Noah and Josh from Lakeland, FL with a tons of shells ready to pack up in the car after a great afternoon shelling. It was really good to see you guys again and seeing you had another successful day at Blind Pass.
Mark had lots of great luck finding shells with his snorkel gear! He and his mom Brenda were so cute enjoying everything there was to enjoy about looking for shells. They get it! It’s a treasure hunt! If the shells aren’t on the beach, you’ve got to get in the water to look for them.
Then I met the rest of the family and fell in love with every one of them. Here’s (clockwise) Brenda, Mark (Mark Senior … but lets just call him BigMark), Mark, Conner, Renee, and Aiden. See? Happiness.
And they had major success! This is just a few of their jetty jewels…
Over the weekend, Clark and I hit just about every beach and had success at each one but only brought few home (there’s only so many shells one can find room for!). This FLAT SCALLOP Clark found is our favorite shell that made the cut. I actually think this one is the prettiest one we have in all of our collection. I didn’t get a chance to take a close up but it is rich purple with a detailed line then light purple on the bottom.
Everybody always asks me where they can find SAND DOLLARS but like all shelling, it’s timing, tides, currents and just being darn lucky. Our friend Mary was lucky at the Sanibel Causeway Beach where she found this SAND DOLLAR. Wow! I had no idea SAND DOLLARS were there. Something surprising every day.
Okay, one more surprise. At dusk last night at the Lighthouse Beach…. we saw a SCREECH OWL! He was in the parking lot right next to the beach path. Can you see him?
Hmmmm. Where’s your sticker or hang tag, dude?
Tarpon Beach Top Shelf Shells
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These shells are the cream of the crop! This is any shellers dream to find a handful of shells like this. I’m talking… not just a TULIP… but a gorgeous nice size red TRUE TULIP. And not just a FLORIDA CONE, but a deep orange FLORIDA CONE with a purple tip. That PEAR WHELK is so yellow! And that size HORSE CONCH? Not so easy to find. And as you can see, I could go on. I just can’t believe I haven’t spent more time at Tarpon Beach (at the end of Tarpon Bay Rd on the Gulf side). It’s been a gold mine the last few weeks! Laura and Ken from CT were shelling with their family Jaime and Matthew who live in Fort Myers hit the right spot…
Matthew told me the whole family has been shelling for over 20 years on Sanibel so they know what to look for and knew they had some top shelf shells.
And they love to search the water!
The water wasn’t the only place there were shells. The WENTLETRAPS are there as well. You can see this one trying to hide in the sand…. sorry buddy! I see you!
I was so surprised to find a BABY’S EAR too…
Clark and I also hit Sanibel’s Blind Pass this weekend too. There are lots of shells still on the canal side of the pass under the bridge.
That’s where we met Jude from NY decked out in her skin suit to cover up from the harmful rays of the sun. Hey Judy, that’s pretty smart! (I couldnt resist)
She was thrilled with her finds! She found everything from WORM ROCK to a DOUBLE ALTERNATE TELLIN to a COCKLE full of minis…
Right under the bridge, Janet from Sanibel (too shy for me to take her picture!) found this awesome FLAT SCALLOP.
Clark and I found a few goodies this weekend that we’ve never found before! I get so excited to find something new! I hate to be a little bit of a tease but I have to get some good pictures of them then I’ll show you our finds tomorrow. Okay, okay…. I’ll give you a hint on our finds. The one I found is a shell that’s a little rounded on the TOP. The one Clark found isn’t a shell but it protects a MOLLUSK but not SHARKS.
Stopping For Seashells- A Marco Island Day Trip
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Since we knew we’d be gone for the entire day, Clark and I packed up a cooler, snacks and a change of clothes to head for Marco Island, Florida for a day trip from Sanibel. Clark’s Rotary Club had an event in south Marco that we wanted to attend (he is still President – so proud of him!) so we figured if we had time on the way home, we’d stop at a beach. We did! We stopped at Tigertail Beach!
This is the very first time we’ve been on this beach so we had to get the lay of the land by looking at the map (above). We decided to wade through the little lagoon to get to the gulf side beach on the other side…
On my way over, I saw Jonathan and Rachel carrying handfuls of SAND DOLLARS…
Wow! They said they found them all along the beach in the surf line…Cool!
So wading through the lagoon and down a sweet beach path we went… to find our first treasures from the Gulf Of Mexico.
All I started seeing was ROSE PETAL TELLINS! I love them!
And double SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS…
We could not find any SAND DOLLARS but that’s okay because we found so many other goodies like these two FLAT SCALLOPS. Clark’s beautiful orange one is on the left, and I found the larger perfect (heehee) purple one on the right. I call them “FLATS” but they are really called ZIGZAG SCALLOPS .
Clark found the prettiest PURPLISH SEMELES!
We both found CANCELLATE SEMELES as well…
I was thrilled with all of the multi colored JINGLE SHELLS and those ROSE PETAL TELLINS!
From Tigertail Beach in Marco, Florida traveling back by car to Sanibel Island it took us about 1 and 1/2 hours by way of interstate 75…
We didn’t even get there until after 4 pm and we stayed about 3 1/2 hours to have a wonderful evening exploring a new beach.
I am so glad we had the time to stop and take our time to walk down to the north end of the spit. It took us an hour and 1/2 each way so I’m so glad we had plenty of water and thank goodness we always have shelling supplies and sunscreen in the car at all times. This was our loot we brought home… and yes, Super Sheller Clark found that gorgeous ALPHABET CONE I put right smack in the middle of our fabulous collection. Thanks Tigertail!
Join us on our next trip tomorrow, Saturday April 12, as we are taking a shelling cruise to explore the island of Cayo Costa! Clark and I will show you where to find the hidden treasures of that beautiful island… CLICK HERE.
Aha! I Finally Found You, Fulgurator Olive!
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Note to Self: Check off “Find a Fulgurator Olive” on my seashell bucket list!
Oh Yaya! After a weekend of chilly north winds, I found my first FULGURATOR OLIVE at Blind Pass.
I found it washing up in a somewhat small shell pile about 100 yards from the jetty rocks on the Captiva side. I saw only a few shells near the jetty but when I looked down the beach further into Captiva I saw several people perfecting the Sanibel Stoop (or I should say the Captiva Crouch) then saw the small pile being formed…
Wow! When I got there, this is what most of the “Stooper’s” shell bags looked like…
Pretty awesome, huh? Karen (the first white shell bag), Lorrie (the red shell bag with all the beautiful SCALLOPS) and Dave were all from Wisconsin so the 50 degree weather didnt bother them a bit. Especially since they were finding such good shells. Oh and Dave, thanks for taking my picture with my treasure too. 
Then I met another Dave (he’s from NJ) scooping up his own treasures…
Take a look at his gorgeous LACE MUREX, FLORIDA CONE and BANDED TULIP. I love the color of the LACE MUREX!
I was watching the shells roll in and snapped this photo of Dave using his “shelling backhoe”. The second I stood up (of course keeping my eyes on the shells), I spotted my FULGURATOR in the corner of my eye but lost it with the next wave. I stood there for less than a minute keeping my eyes on every shell washing up… and there it was again! Snag! Yeeha! I’ve looked for it in this photo several times to see if I could find it but it’s not the right angle. Its in there somewhere…
Karen’s husband Scott returned (to our lucky shell pile) from a walk down the beach…
It must not have been just our shell pile that was “lucky” because Scott found his own luck. Look at those huge SHARKS EYES, his own brown colored LACE MUREX, ALPHABET CONE, BANDED TULIP and WHELKS, CONCHS and LETTERED OLIVES galore…
We moved to Florida because we aren’t big fans of cold weather. But when the north winds bring in shells like this… bring on the cold weather! And bring me more shells like this!
PS- Join Super Sheller Clark and me on an iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa Island on an awesome shelling adventure. The next one is Saturday March 16, 2013! Click on the next image for more info…
Happy Hunting For Seashells
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Happy. That’s what this photo of a mom (Margaret) and daughter (Katy) from Chicago says “Happy”. I peaked into Kay’s shell bag and knew why she had such a happy face. Who wouldnt be happy filling a mesh bag full of seashell treasures like these…
She found this awesome ALPHABET CONE…
Her mom Margaret found great treasures too and pulled out these two ALPHIES and a TULIP…
Katy and Margaret collected their seashells this morning at Captiva’s Blind Pass but yesterday I saw Bridget and Brendan from New Hampshire on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass with the same happy faces.
They were exhilarated by finding gobs of shells like these FIGHTING CONCHS…
While I was in the parking lot at Blind Pass Sanibel, I ran into Jean from Iowa who found an extremely large PEAR WHELK (no, not in the parking lot, silly)…
I mean, this is a gargantuan PEAR WHELK!!!
Earlier in the week on the east end of Sanibel, I showed you all of the weird BEACH BLING that was washing up on the beach. Now the BLING (and Red Tide) is moving out with some north/northwest winds and those winds are bringing in some nice big shells.
My faves (and Clark’s) this weekend have been the multicolored SCALLOP shells. They are amazing! I relate it to the same experience as seeing a DOLPHIN… I will never get tired of spotting a DOLPHIN no matter how many times in the week I see them. Its the same with SCALLOPS. I will never get tired of spotting a beautifully colored SCALLOP and being amazed by so many different patterns. They are both magical.
Early Bird Catches the Seashell Candy
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There are lots of shells at Blind Pass Captiva! Actually I’ve heard there are shells all along Sanibel too at morning low tide but I’m so happy I went to Blind Pass because I met Katie from Kansas who found all of the gorgeous shells in the photo above. Look at that huge, shiny BANDED TULIP and huge TURKEY WING she is holding! Here she is with her dad Mark…
I saw Dave and Peg from Cincinnati…
who showed me their incredible shells. Okay, normally I would be whooping it up about that perfect ALPHABET CONE (which deserves a big whoop!) but I could not take my eyes off that orange… yes, orange… FLAT SCALLOP! I rarely see them wash up that color so it’s exceptional that it’s so perfect and that dang big too! Congratshellations you guys!
I went to some other beaches late in the afternoon to see if the shells were like this as well…
But the tide was so high that it had covered most of the shell piles. So it looks like if you want to find shells like this right now…
you have to be shelling at low tide in the mornings.
The early bird catches the candy!
PS- No, I never found that ALPHABET CONE I thought I saw in my last video. Darn! But it was fun trying.
