Archive for Fighting Conch
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.
Sanibel Shelling Tarpon Bay Beach
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The shelling at Tarpon Bay Road beach access is awesome at low tide now!
Most of the FIGHTING CONCHS are alive but there are lots of other empty shells to be found as well.
These shells were found by Anna, Grave and Sarah visiting Sanibel from Ohio…
I saw Matt, Landon, Loulie and Berkeley (I met them last month on the iLoveShelling cruise!) collecting all kinds of goodies…
Here are their awesome best finds…
Wanna see what else they had in their shell bags? Here ya go…
My fave find was this orange BROAD PAPER COCKLE. This photo really doesn’t do it justice but it’s not often I find them without a chip on the edge. I love it!
That’s what has been happening on Tarpon Bay Beach (Parking is plentiful at Trost Parking lot) this week, and this is what I saw at Blind Pass Captiva today. The wind has calmed so the water is back to beautiful aqua…AND… the Sit ‘N Sift shell pile back. I didn’t stay long but I did see TURBANS, OLIVES and small WHELKS just to name a few.
It looks like the shells are showing up on most of the beaches (Lighthouse Beach is still great for minis!)…. so I CAN NOT wait until this Saturday April 13 for our iLoveShelling morning cruise to Cayo Costa from 9 to noon! Join Clark and me on this shelling adventure so we can share the anticipation together for our treasure hunt! CLICK HERE for more info.
Let’s do the Sanibel Stoop!
Sweatshirt ‘N Shorts Shelling Mornings
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The cool “sweatshirt ‘n shorts” mornings have been the most productive for shelling in the last week with the early low tides. Jason and Carol from Ohio found so many shell treasures this weekend (including 2 ALPHABET CONES) on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass about 3/4 of a mile from the bridge…
The shelling luck continued in the same spot for Parker from Punta Gorda. Yesterday he was walking in about 2 feet of water on the sand bar off the beach when he saw a huge HORSE CONCH. It was completely empty! Great find Parker! You’ve got a great sheller’s eye… and with a great sheller’s eye, you’ll always find the good things in life.
Parker said he wanted to get the black part (the PERIOSTRACUM) off of the shell so I gave him some advice on how to do it which you can find on my post by CLICKING HERE. Here is Parker and his sister Summerlin to show you how big this beauty is. Cuties!
Ashley and Caroline (from Boston, of course) were having a great time filling up their shell bags this morning at the same lucky spot …
I love how they arranged their fave shells in the next photo! Ashley was very thrilled about finding her first KINGS CROWN and look at that gorgeous red TRUE TULIP Caroline found. Well, I could actually name each one of these shells and oooh and ahhh over them… like those SCALLOPS! Love, love those colors.
I met Larry and Christy filling a gallon ziplock bag with shells and CORAL. I mean she had a huge chunk of coral and I cant believe I didnt get a photo of it- so sorry!.
The low tide mornings have been crisp and cool with the afternoons warming to the 70s. Really, it’s been such nice weather lately but you’ve had to search for the shell piles like this in the mornings before they get covered up by the high tide waters coming in.
You see where Ashley is on the top right corner? A few minutes after I took this shot, she found a sweet FLORIDA CONE in the water right there. The shell is a little blurry in the photo but its still kinda fun to see all the other shells around it…
Happy Monday!
Let’s have a happy Saturday March 16th together too on a cruise to Cayo Costa! For more info CLICK HERE
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.
Sanibel Christmas Bling
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Be careful of what you wish for! I’ve been secretly hoping for some “bling” for Christmas. Meaning like… shiny, pretty, glitzy wearable “bling”. But instead I got raggedy, stringy, gooey “bling”… BEACH BLING!
If you know me, you know that I get more excited about discovering something new washing in on the beach than getting any new fancy, shiny jewelry. Errrrr.. well most of the time. LOL But really, I found this dried clump of some sort of stringy mass at Lighthouse Beach today.
Cool! So I looked a little closer to inspect its identity…. and realized that it’s a FIGHTING CONCH EGG STRING!
The little eggs inside these strings will turn into this one day…
Doesn’t that just blow your mind? And remember? Back in July, I saw a live FIGHTING CONCH laying her eggs (to see the post CLICK HERE)…
Unfortunately the string I found today was too dried up for any of the eggs to make it but that’s why the females lay so many eggs. Some will make it! Any maybe that’s why at different time of the year we see thousands at time on the beach… maybe they are mating!
See? This is why I love my BEACH BLING so much! There are endless possibilities of treasures Mother Nature will give us to ponder over. Like the other Bling I found today. A RAGGED SEA HARE! Poor guy was washed up on the beach but I could see “he” was still alive and moving so I took hime to the water. I took a very quick video today but if you missed my last video on the RAGGED SEA HARE, it is waaaaayyyy better with a few added funnies CLICK HERE.
Here is today’s version of me trying to save this SEA HARE and all of his “raggedness”. 
I didn’t find many keeper shells today at the Lighthouse Beach since I was too obsessed with the Bling. When I got home I still felt like I needed my shell fix so I finally rinsed (plain water, don’t use bleach!) off my COCQUINAS from earlier this week. Oh, and yes, I left in that cute little TURKEY WING too.
Hope to see you at the parade tomorrow!
Caboodle of Conchs
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While showing the collection of CONES we found at Little Hickory, you saw a a caboodle of CONCHS scattered along the beach at low tide too but that was only skimming the surface. Do a little CYBER SHELLING in the photo above (just click on it twice to enlarge) to see just how many FIGHTING CONCHS were piled together then check out the video below. Unbelievable. A little overwhelming…. but so much fun to see. 
