Archive for Cerith
A Shelling Family Is A Happy Family
Posted by: | Comments
Blind Pass Captiva still had plenty of seashells piled up along the shore line yesterday. I peeked in one of the shell buckets perched on top of the shell mound and gasped…
I asked Judy from Indiana if she realized the shell she had in her bucket and she said “I’m not sure what it is but it’s a piece from a big shell so that’s why I kept it”. Well it looks to me like she found a very large lip piece of a QUEEN HELMET shell that is not commonly found here. Good eye, Judy!
Judy was shelling with her family… and I mean to tell you, she has lots of family members that love to shell! A shelling family is a happy family. Here is Judy, Larry, Cary, Joe, Shaun, Jenny, Evy, Fiona and Sam. Beautiful, right?
I didn’t see many of the SANIBEL SIX, but I was amazed to see so many CERITHS washed in like this. Everybody was collecting them.
And AUGERS!
I also met Shelling Sister Wanda’s grandson Cody (PA) who kept racing up to her on the beach after his snorkeling expeditions to deposit his seashell loot into his shell bag. Treasure!
On a side line, I have to make a note that last year June 27, 2011 there was a juvenile FLORIDA BLACK BEAR sighted on Sanibel that was thought to have come over from Pine Island on a negative low tide. BLACK BEARS are native to Florida but not compatible with highly populated areas (with humans!). Now as an adult at 3 years old weighing 250 pounds he has “become a nuisance” by showing up in neighborhoods and getting into a trash can or two. I was so hoping we could catch a glimpse of him but as of 1 p.m. today, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission trapped him and relocated him off island. Relocated where? I have no clue. “They” won’t say. It’s bitter sweet. He was a very exciting visitor but I know he needs to find a mate and have a bigger place to roam before he gets in trouble on the island. I hope his new home offers him a long, happy and healthy life. Good bye, Mr. Black Bear.
Sanibel Black Bear photo by William Epranian on Facebook
Cockles, Conchs and Quahogs
Posted by: | Comments
After several weeks of east winds, the west winds have finally arrived to drive some shells on to our beaches. Today was only the first day of the westies but since it was a really low tide this morning, I figured I’d find some goodies. It’s always a good day when you find an ALPHABET CONE and you’ve got to see just how darn cute this little juvie HORSE CONCH is…
I couldn’t believe I found this ANGEL WING sitting in the high wrack line…
I love when I find shells like this BANDED TULIP lying on the beach like this.
Tonya, Beth and Max from Ohio had their bags filled with all sorts of treasures.
Wanna look in their shell bags? I sure wanted to too! COCKLES and CONCHS and CLAMS…
Max found this live LIGHTNING WHELK in the high tide wrack line so he walked it down to the water and gently put it in the water. Good for you Max! You helped save this beauty.
I found local Sanibel sheller Lynn walking her very happy standard poodle Alexander with a pocket full of seashell treasure too.
Look at those pretty those COLORFUL MOON shells along with those candies and a mini TURE TULIP.
There was all sorts of bivalves scattered along the beach. I found this ATLANTIC COCKLE, PONDEROUS ARK and SOUTHERN QUAHOG together on the beach just like this…
This is the biggest DARK CERITH I’ve ever found. It’s one and a half inches long!
I was pretty pleased with what we all were finding on the beach near Donax Street today after the first day of west winds. Tomorrow might be even better!
Beautiful Buried Treasures
Posted by: | Comments
Gabriel found this live STARFISH (BROWN SPINY SEA STAR) on a PEN SHELL at low tide late this morning at the Sanibel Lighthouse beach. His whole family came over to look at it and to ohhh and ahhh so I had to find out what the fuss was about. It’s just beautiful, isn’t it? Yes, I mean the STARFISH is beautiful but also to hear the excitement and amazement of finding life and treasures that come from the sea. That’s beautiful too.
Gabriel, Danielle, Peggy, Paul and Mark
It was such a pleasure to meet this family! They were trying to learn the names of all the shells they were finding so I was thrilled to help them. This was our best find…. an ALPHABET CONE that was semi buried in the sand.
I don’t have photos of all the shells we were finding but here are some of the shell they found that I help identify…
Oh how I’ve missed my walks at the lighthouse beach on Sanibel. Ever since the day light savings time change, I’ve been discombobulated. I like my walks with Clark in the evening but now it gets dark too early for me to wait until he gets home from his office. But now after meeting such an amazing family on the beach today, it got me right in my beach combing time zone again. Here are a couple of my finds….
Most of my finds today were half buried in the sand like this half buried perfect ANGEL WING.
This LIGHTNING WHELK was perfectly empty too but I almost missed it since only this much of it was showing. More buried treasure.
This morning started off my weekend with a smile so I hope I can pass it along to you too. Have a great weekend!
Weekend in Paradise
Posted by: | Comments
The weekend started with a spectacular sunset painting the sky with brilliant hues of reds, yellows, blues and even purple.
We figured this was a great sign to get out on the water in our boat to search for treasure. We found it!
And I found three MOONS! … a BABY’S EAR MOON, a SHARK’S EYE MOON, a COLORFUL MOON SHELL…
Clark found a huge empty TRUE TULIP on one of the mud flats around North Captiva…
There was a wrack line of shells on Cayo Costa…
There were hundreds… no, I think there were thousands of SOUTHERN SURF CLAMS littering the beach…
Here are a few all cleaned up…
Here’s a close up of the SOUTHERN SURF CLAM since I’ve never shown them before. This would be a great shell for shell crafting!
We found most of our keepers on the beach but other than Clark’s big TULIP, we only found these little FLY SPECK CERITHS on the mud flats…
We had heard there was red tide moving onto the Cayo Costa area but we didn’t feel that irritating tickle in the chest and had no “red tide cough”. We did see a few dead fish which was kind of creepy at first but then it seems we can always find something cool about any beach drift.
A few more treasures from our weekend in paradise…
Sparse Dove Shell, A Little Sparse In My Seashell Collection
Posted by: | Comments
I think the east winds blew those PEN SHELLS I talked about tuesday back into the water so the beach was a little sparse yesterday. Speaking of sparse, a few weeks ago I found this SPARSE DOVE shell which is only 3/8 of an inch big. I’m gonna give myself a break by thinking it was a TAMPA TURRID since they both are so tiny. I could not even tell the difference between them until I put my cheater glasses on. How annoying!
I don’t even think I have many in my shell collection… or maybe I need to go through all of my TURRIDS to see if I’ve been mixing them all along. Here’s a tiny TAMPA TURRID (say that 3 times fast). See? I have a hard time even see solids and stripes any more- geez!
I found another tiny shell the other day at Blind Pass which I thought was a DWARF CERITH but I just found out (MK) it’s a WEST INDIAN FALSE CERITH. I think I found the shell because I had just come back from Barefoot Beach looking for small black SHARK’S TEETH. I still had that shark’s teeth “eye” going on because I don’t see these jet black ones very often…
Here’s a better look…
In the next photo, you’ll see a common DARK CERITH that we find on our beaches every day. I think they are so common, I look right over them most of the time so this might be on my “Most common Sanibel shells” list when I make it, Susan H. I’m starting to narrow it down a bit.
PS- Okay, and I have to tell you that Clark (he’s gonna kill me for telling you this) has a nick name for TURRIDS… He calls them “turds”! LOL He’ll say “Hey, I found a turd!”. Boys will be boys hahaha…
Mud Piddocks To Dragonflies And Rainbows
Posted by: | Comments
Atlantic Mud Piddock
We used to find lots of ATLANTIC MUD PIDDOCKS on the flats of North Captiva and Cayo Costa when we boated there regularly but rarely on Sanibel. That’s why I was tickled to find one on the Sanibel Lighthouse beach this weekend. They can get up to 2.75 inches but this one is only 1 1/2 inches.
Atlantic Mud Piddock Aperture
This was is a little broken (on the right tip you can see it’s a little jagged) but I’ve always loved these since they are like a special ANGELWING and in the same family… but with “Spock” ears….. hmmmm. both have that …..”ock” too.
It was a beautiful evening on the beach with our friends Joe and Manuela.
Those cute little Zippy Minis (remember the video? ha!) with the HERMIT CRABS were in full force so they were mesmerized by them…..
Joe is not only a really good friend of Clark’s, he’s Clark’s business partner at Rambo & Ginsberg Realty so he has to hear about all those “schmanonia” stories (albeit well deserved stories… I guess) as much as we do. I still sound bitter very envious, don’t I. heehee
They found a few minis like WENTLETRAPS, a MELAMPUS, a wormie, SLIPPER SHELLS, CERITHS, AUGERS, WHELKS and a CONCH. I gave Manuela the APPLE MUREX and the OPERCULUM (which I had to explain that it was the “door” to a WHELK) and they ended up keeping the MUREX but they weren’t too thrilled about the OPERCULUM so gave it back to me. They looked at me like “Why the heck would we want to keep that?” I guess I like the weird stuff too:)
Right before we were leaving the beach, we saw a small part of a rainbow…..
This was followed by hundreds upon hundreds of dragonflies. If you can’t see them, click on the picture to enlarge it, then I hope you can see how many there were. Go, dragonflies! Eat those skeeters!
