Archive for Rough scallop
Ever Changing Blind Pass Sanibel
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It sure feels good to find an ALPHABET CONE again! I’ve been stumped finding the SANIBEL SIX lately so I was excited to find this baby within a half hour of arriving at Blind Pass Sanibel yesterday evening for a somewhat low tide at a .4. I still didn’t find the SANIBEL SIX though since I couldn’t find a TULIP that was in good enough shape but I’m subbing that bright orange CHESTNUT TURBAN on the right as a good find to be very happy.
See how that sand bar has moved right to the beach now? You never know what to expect the beach to look like until you walk out and see if for yourself. Always a surprise.
The tidal pool was loaded with live FIGHTING CONCHS …
On the other side of the tidal pool, shellers were lined up along the shoreline to catch the seashell loot washing up to the beach.
I met so many cool shellers like Joe and Kerry from Sebastian, FL…
..and Karen and Steve from Michigan…
Karen found two gorgeous bright orange CHESTNUT TURBANS.
Here are Tim and Mary Ann (NY) showing off Mary Ann’s cool shell sifter.
I think the prize of the evening was Tim’s incredibly large FLORIDA SPINY JEWELBOX with attached valves. It’s terrific!
Anna (West Virginia) was tickled pink as she filled up her strainer with shells.
She found FIGHTING CONCHS, MUREXES, COCKLES, SCALLOPS and a pretty little TRUE TULIP.
Bob and Johnnie (TN) were on one of the shell piles searching for minis.
And they found them! I loooove this tiny little lemon yellow ROUGH SCALLOP…
They found some other colorful cuties too including a sweet FLAT SCALLOP…
It was a fabulous night meeting so many nice people and seeing the shell piles on the Sanibel side again.
Thank you Donnie (the cone man) for letting me know I needed to get down to Blind Pass to see this! Yes! I needed a break from that stupid camera any way. No, I didn’t take any of theses photos with the J1 and by the word “stupid”, I think you can tell I’m still frustrated with it ;( . Anyway, I took a quick little video with my trusted little Panasonic DMC-ZS6 to pan the beach to show you exactly what it looked like and how the beach has changed…. yet again. Oh, and sorry about the sound. The wind noise is horrible but oh well, I just wanted y’all to see it any way.
UPDATE! Set your DVRs and Tivos for Sunday morning!!!
I forgot to mention the Sanibel/seashell story I spoke in my about March 1 post should be airing this Sunday, April 22nd on CBS Sunday Morning.We don’t know exactly when the segment will air, but the show is on 9 – 10:30am (EST) and Bill’s pieces usually run towards the last half hour of the show (10-10:30 Eastern). The disclaimer is that this is TV, and anything can happen – so it is confirmed best to all of our abilities.
Meet The Neighbor Shellers
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I found this 1 5/8 inch ROCK SNAIL SHELL this week. This is only the third one we’ve ever found so it’s not such common shell on Sanibel. I’m not sure there’s going to be too many people disappointed they can’t find one because… well, it’s not the prettiest shell. All three of ours look a little beat up just like this one but for me, it’s a cool treasure.
This little teenie tiny ROUGH SCALLOP was a true treasure to Stephanie (Ft Myers).
I met Stephanie and her mom Judy at Blind Pass Captiva and they were thrilled about the absolutely gorgeous day and that they found a few goodies.
Here’s just a handful of Stephanie’s finds.
I saw some RED DRIFT ALGAE this week too. I didn’t have any coughing spells, throat tickles or any reaction to it so I looked up the difference between RED TIDE and RED DRIFT ALGAE. Mote Marine has an easy to read chart for us to learn about them both. CLICK HERE for the link. Maybe we’ve had both in the last few weeks? And yes, it’s really that red/magenta/fuchsia.
Oh, and BTW (funny story)… Stephanie from Ft Myers told me a guy that lives down the street from her looked a little familiar so she asked him if he was a sheller. He looked at her a little funny and said “yeees”. Then she pointed at him, laughed and said “You are Donnie Benton, aren’t you!?”. It was! She met her neighbor Donnie from reading iLoveShelling! LOL Don’t you just love that?
Golden Girl Gets Seashell Gold
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When Joanne showed me her CABRIT’S MUREX last weekend, she told me she also had found a GOLDEN OLIVE almost the color of a pumpkin. It is! It’s brilliant! Look at the color on this gem.
Her GOLDEN OLIVE is quite a prize but when she told me she had found a golden LEAFY JEWEL BOX with both sides together as well….. that’s when I got excited. I just had to see it.
Now you might not think this is really pretty right away, but look at the colors and texture on this shell.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen both sides still together of a LEAFY on the beach before.
I have collected single valves for my own stash but never have shown one to you because it never looked interesting enough or it didn’t photograph well….okay, actually…. I thought you might think I was crazy for picking up what look like a beat up shell. But now you can see for yourself how cool they are. Don’t you think? …. Errrr…..Maybe?
These yellow and orange ROUGH SCALLOPS are fabulous too. That top yellow SCALLOP looks a little different so even if it has a few holes in the middle, that is a fabulous find. Joanne really is the golden girl!
This OLIVE pales against all of these other shells but that’s what makes it special in my book. It looks to be an albino LETTERED OLIVE.
It’s definitely not beach worn with that glossy shine to it so to me, this is a great find too.
Thanks so much, Golden Girl Joanne, for sharing your golden treasures with us.
Gotten, The Cabrits Of Our Lives
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It’s not easy to find a CABRIT’S MUREX on the beaches of Sanibel.. much less with some of the spines still in tact. So I was over the moon when Clark found this one near Bowman’s Beach. (Okay, hopefully not the Cabrits of our lives but I couldn’t resist the silly title play on words)
Joanne (NJ) was shelling in the same spot with me when Clark showed us this great find. So guess what she found the very next day? You guessed it! Her own CABRITS MUREX!!
They look to be just about the same size and color (Clark’s looks whiter but when it’s wet it looks just like her’s with a pinkish color) but hers has a few more spines still in tact. Crazy, huh?
Look at the other cool shells she found… a piece of LIONS PAW, 2 FLATS and a pink tinted ALTERNATE TELLIN with both sides still attached.
Then I ran into Joan (Indiana) who found a beautiful SCOTCH BONNET on her birthday!!!!
Look at that bright yellow SCALLOP too. Happy birthday, Joan!
The low tide mornings over the weekend brought in these unusual shells along with lots of the goodies.
Lizbeth found a handful of orangies. Look at that fabulous solid brilliant orange CHESTNUT TURBAN. It doesn’t look chestnut to me, you know?
I also found a wonderful treasure… Shelling Sistah Connie Knight in her i Love Shelling shirt!!!
And then Shelling Sistah Mary Ann Ross too! I was in hog heaven all weekend.
Here’s Benny from Miami finding those bright orange SCALLOPS too…
The weekend started off with gobs of rain and wind then finished with gorgeous skies. We shelled right through all of it and ended up with a treasure trove. You gotta roll with the tides, baby.
Seashells At Your Fingertips
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There are thousands of seashells at your fingertips most days on Sanibel but this weekend I was finding oodles of miniature shells that fit ON my fingertips. I found this RUSTY DOVE SHELL rolling along the surf line.
Isn’t this the pretties little shell detailed with those tiny teeth along the opening (aperture)? I was excited to find it since it isn’t my every day find. I knew it was a DOVE shell but MurexKen verified that it was a RUSTY DOVE SHELL.
Clark found this little SWEET CONE….
I always love to find the bright orange “juvie” SCALLOPS…
I normally only pick up the FLORIDA SPINY JEWEL BOX but this CORRUGATE JEWEL BOX just struck me as being so colorful and vibrant with such a fun shape… I had to pick this one up. Honestly, most of the time they just aren’t so cute… but maybe they are starting to grow on me.
On Friday,I met shelling sistah and sister blogger Cheri from Shelllady who I could have talked to for hours. She lives very close to my family in Virginia so it was so nice to talk to Cheri and her “Hubby” about my old stomping grounds and felt right at home with them…and I got to see their shells they found.
This next picture are the shells they found on Friday but if you go to her blog HERE, you can read about everything they found from the week. They found The Sanibel Six and more!
If I had seen this on Thursday, I would have added this to my “10 Reasons Why I Love The Beach” list so I’ll just say this is #11….Rainbows
Sanibel’s Blind Pass Shell Pile
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Sanibel side of Blind Pass
I was so surprised to see that the Sanibel side of Blind Pass had such a pile of shells. Look at them all! Most of the shells were clams, scallops and bits and pieces of shells but we all found treasures to be proud of.
Rough Scallop
I saw a few bright orange scallops but one really caught my eye….this gorgeous ROUGH SCALLOP.
Katie (Chicago)
Katie found a few really good ones…including a little candy (juvenile HORSE CONCH) and a FLORIDA CONE. Check out her shell bag (taking this photo of her shells through her bag got me a little tickled- not sure why, just not my ordinary shot)
Katie's shell bag
Leon, Lara, Anika and Kika
Lara and her family from Maine were collecting just about anything to take back to a kids camp for shell crafting.
Our favorite shells.....worm shells
I saved the best for last…..WORM SHELLS (hmm…ok, candies are right up there too, right LooLoo?) These are the little tiny ones that still have the white tips on them (like the candy corn!) and have such cool twists and turns to them. They look like a mermaid’s lock of hair, don’t they?
