Archive for Cockle
Captiva Cruises Boat To Cayo Costa
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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.
Shells And Smiles
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I’ve been trying to remind myself not to ignore the BIVALVES in search of “CONES and JUNONES” (as my friend Rob calls them) so when I saw this BROAD PAPER COCKLE on Sanibel I smiled as big as the gulf. We just don’t have many in our collection so it’s nice to find something different.
Alicia (St Louis) and Lamont didn’t ignore the BIVALVES. They were enjoying every moment of collecting the riches on the beach of Sanibel’s east end with smiles from ear to ear.
Alicia was thrilled to collect SAILOR’S EARS, ARKS, DOSINIAS, YELLOW PRICKLY COCKLES and SCALLOPS.
The wrack line was loaded with all of the shells…
There were a few BABYS EARS mixed in there too…
Throughout the last couple of weeks I’ve run into shellers as crazy as I am about shelling. Rob was proudly wearing iLoveShelling Junonia and Lions Paw Club buttons he made. How cute! And so was his smile too.
Smiling Carol and Terry are showing off their shelling love too!
I saved the best for last with Janet and her huge smile showing off her first JUNONIA she found on her birthday in February. Congrats to you Janet!
Sunny Side Up Egg Cockles
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This is no yoke….. errr… I mean joke! The inside of this MORTON’S YELLOW EGG COCKLE is really this yellow! And some of the exterior patterns are just as pretty.
We found quite a few of these on some of the sandy mud flats at Cayo Costa.
There is such a variety of patterns on the interiors and exteriors of these cutie little shells.
Yep, I said “little” shells. Wanna see how little they are?
I would have completely missed these little guys if it hadn’t been for MurexAlice pointing these beauties out to me. I felt so lucky to be able to beach comb with her since she showed me another cutie little shell I would have missed. This is the FLORIDA LYONSIA…
It is so delicate and paper thin I thought I would break the valves apart before I got home to photograph it. But… Yes! It made it home with both valves still attached. I rinsed the shells off but those little grains of sand seem to be attached so I let them be.
I’m not sure if you can see the iridescent shimmer to it, but it reminds me of a tiny little ANGEL WING with a pearlized finish.
Okay, let me back up a bit before I forget to show you this….I mentioned the MORTON’S YELLOW EGG COCKLE in previous post “I’m Telling On Some Tellins” and it reminded me of an orchid plant. I got a comment from Jackie saying that it was the Oncidium orchid that it looks like. Yes, that’s it! I found a photo from Wikipedia that will show you why it these shells remind me of an orchid. Do you see why now?
Sorting Seashells For The Holidays
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I first met Susan (NY) on this gigantic shell pile a couple of weeks ago about a mile east of Bowman’s Beach. If you have ever read some of the comments here, you might recognize the commenter “Susan H”. That’s her! She loves everything about seashells. She loves to collect, study, research, admire and talk about shells. IMHO (in my humble opinion) she’s a Seashell Brainiac. She even donates her time to share her knowledge of gastropods and bivalves to make Wikipedia what it is now. She’s a Wikipedian with over 60,000 edits! The amazing thing was, is that she offered to sort and organize my bivalves. I thought to myself “Oh, Honey, you have no idea what you just got yourself into!”
You might know that I’ve only recently acquired the taste for collecting bivalves other than ANGEL WINGS and a select few. So just this past year when I saw a bivalve that I never noticed before, I’d pick it up and throw it in the “bivalve jar” and lump them all together. Before I knew it, I had lots of those jars but no time to sort them or to find out what I had. Susan persuaded me to bring those jars over to her cottage at Blue Dolphin to sort and identify anything I had questions about.
She told me to bring paper, scissors, ziplock bags and a pencil to organize and ID. She cut the paper in little squares then got to work quickly sorting. She also had told me to bring my new bivalve book (her fave too) Seashells of Southern Florida by Paula Mikkelsen & Rudiger Bieler that I showed you in yesterday’s post - the gift from MurexKen and MurexAlice!.
Now this is where the story gets really COOL…. Susan told me that she has been a volunteer at the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 2000. During the time when Paula Mikkelsen (one of the authors of my new bivalve book) was still at the Museum, she worked directly for her for about 9 months, and sorted shells for her. She met Rudiger (the other author) on his visits to the Museum working with Paula. Susan is actually listed (with her last name misspelled as “Hewett” instead of “Hewitt”) in the acknowledgements section of that book on page 410. To me, that’s so cool- I was having a ball!!!
Most of the bivalves I had in the jars were ROUGH SCALLOPS, CALICO SCALLOPS, BUTTERCUP LUCINES, COMMON JINGLES and the other shells you saw in the second photo. I was so happy when I heard her voice get a little excited when she found something other than the common shells. “Oh look, here’s a BEAUTIFUL CRASSATELLA!”
Beautiful Crassatella Eucrassatella speciosa
beautiful crassatella interior
She didn’t mind at all this BROAD PAPER COCKLE had a chip in it. She was still excited to see it.
Broad Paper Cockle
Broad Paper Cockle interior
I don’t pick up many broken shells any more but when I find shells that I don’t normally see on the beaches of Sanibel, I’m so glad that now I pick them up. This is a CANCELLATE SEMELE…
Cancellate Semele
cancellate semele interior
This one isn’t very attractive but now I know it’s an ATLANTIC SEMELE…
Atlantic semele exterior interior
Clark always laughs at me when I pick up a shell like this CHALKY BUTTERCUP LUCINE. It’s just big and white and not very pretty but I thought it looked like a gigantic BUTTERCUP that lost its yellow inside. I was sort of right…it’s the same family! Susan said the same thing “Oh look! A CHALKY BUTTERCUP! I found one of these the other day too!”. LOL Really? Someone else who gets excited about a CHALKY BUTTERCUP?
Chalky Buttercup Lucine
I have more identifications to show you but I have to wait until after Christmas. I couldn’t wait to share some it and to introduce you to Susan. It was like another fabulous Christmas present to have a “pro” like her help sort and identify my jumbled shells while we laughed and giggled. Thank you so much Susan!!
Happy, Happy Holidays to all of you!!
Chalky Buttercup Lucine interior
PS- I can’t tell you how many times I have linked a post to WIKIPEDIA to provide more information about a certain subject. I looked back on several of them, and sure enough, Susan had done some editing on the information (her user name is Invertzoo). After learning how many volunteers it takes to make that sight possible, I made a donation. If you ever find Wikipedia useful and want to make a donation or add content that you know about, you can click on this logo…
Cockles, Conchs and Quahogs
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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!
Phooners Found at Sanibel Lighthouse
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You probably do the Stoop while you are on Sanibel…. but do you Phoon? This was my first experience with phooning so I got a real kick out of it (no pun intended 
). Definition: To Phoon is to do a pose in a “running man” position. Phooning is accepted anywhere and wherever there is a camera.
Meet the phooners…. Laurie (IL), Kim (IL), Chablis (IL), Wendy (CO) and Katy (CO)
Kim is a phooning expert, has a blog called Snug Harbor Bay where she talks about her neck of the woods, does geocaching (she had to explain that to me too) and of course…she’s a sheller. She is an interesting busy, busy bee!
Chablis was the lucky phooner who found the nice BABY’S EAR and after looking at this TULIP SHELL EGG CASING, we decided to put it back in the water since it was still very hydrated and the sacs looked like they were about ready to pop out. We’re keeping our fingers crossed they survive.
Tulip Egg Casing
Clark and I took a walk together later on in the day further west of the lighthouse near Seaside Inn and I found a BABY’S EAR too!
I spotted another MARGINELLA! Now that now that I have them on my radar, I’ve found a few more.
Marginella on the left
Clark picked up an EGG COCKLE since we haven’t seen those in a while either.
Egg Cockle shell
This is the first SEA BEAN I’ve seen in a while too….
sea bean in the sea weed
That’s what we do when we can’t find the SANIBEL SIX, we sift through the sea debris and look for “oddities” that we don’t normally see. Wait! Hold on! I didn’t mean Phooning was an oddity! It’s not an oddity…… it’s a photo-optity.
