Archive for Horse Conch
Beach Bling Is A Wonderful Thing
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If you want to learn the types of seashells, sea life, vegetation and what the different kinds of mollusk egg cases look like and live in the Gulf Of Mexico, you’ve got your chance this week. It all washed up on the beach on the East end of Sanibel.
You can see it for miles. So many mollusk egg casings and PEN SHELLS galore!
MERMAID PURSES! Well, they are really SKATE EGG CASES…
HORSE CONCH EGG CASINGS (I shot this with the Nikon J1)…
WHELK EGG CHAINS…
Lots of CRABS too. This one is a STONE CRAB…
My friend Jane called me and said she found a dead crab shell on the beach that had a NAUTILUS shell pattern. She has found a NAUTILUS before so she would know! Wanna see? CLICK HERE . So I went to see this crab…and it does have that pattern! It’s a FLAME BOX CRAB…
I also saw lots of SEA WHIPS. This was the first time I’ve ever found a WHITE SEA WHIP…
We normally just find the purple SEA WHIPS but when I went to see Jane’s FLAME BOX CRAB she showed me this bright yellow WHIP she picked up as well.
There were oodles of PURPLE SEA URCHINS also ( J1)…
I always get questions about the bones on the beach. They are from the bait in the crab traps… not random dead carcasses. LOL
I also get a lot of questions about this guy on the left. It’s a SEA CUCUMBER…
Don’t worry, I saw lots of shells too. Mainly, the double DOSINIAS.
Cyber Sheller Alert! This next photo is really big so you can do a little shelling and blinging…
Looking through all this BEACH BLING, there are little treasures that look like this so you have to look closely…
Some goodies were still washing in at the shoreline as well…
The big find was by Seth (FL)! He found this huge HORSE CONCH on the sand bar near Donax Rd. Here he is with Erin and Reese…
See? BEACH BLING is a wonderful thing… (J1)
PS- Some of you know I’ve been testing a new Nikon J1 camera. It isn’t very spontaneous but when I do catch a nicer shot than with my spontaneous, trusty, easy, clear Panasonic DMC…. I’ve noted it.
Blind Pass Captiva Still Stirring Seashells
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That seashell pile on Captiva’s Blind Pass jetty rocks is the gift that keeps on giving. Suzanne (Ft Myers) found a tiny bright orange HORSE CONCH with that cute little white tip about the same time I found my “candy” too.
Get ready, cyber shellers! This is the shell pile I saw my little treasured “candy”. I was doing the Sit ‘N Sift in that big pile when I saw a little sliver of orange peeking through. Can you find it too? (Click the pic to enlarge. It’s a big file so it might take longer to download)
You got it!
Dave and Colleen (PA) were practically digging to China to strike buried treasure.
Eureka! They struck gold! He pulled out a golden HORSE CONCH and said “There are 2 famous lines for shellers. The first one is… ‘Oh my gosh that shell is absolutely gorgeous!’ and the second one is…’Awwww. If this shell were whole, it’d be perfect!’” hahaha How many times have we all said those line??!!!!
While I was on the shell pile digging around, Clark was in the water with his infamous shelling backhoe…
I knew he had something unusual when he came up to give me a shell. A BEAUTIFUL CRASSATELLA! We don’t often find these on Captiva.
Another beautiful day in paradise!
Scouting The Beaches
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After almost 2 days of high north/west winds, I bundled up in my warmest clothes then hit the 45 degree beach this morning. I know some of you are experiencing much lower temps than that ….. but geeez….the wind chill was killer. My finger tips almost froze off! This poor guy was not too happy either rolling in the surf but he was still healthy and kicking.
I was a little surprised but there was only a few left over shells at the jetty rocks on Captiva…
One side of the sand bar in the pass had a few COCKLES and CALICO SCALLOPS…
The other side had no shells but still had a beautiful view…
Then I went home. Late this afternoon, I couldn’t stand it. I went back to Blind Pass to scout out the beach again thinking the shells were finally coming in.
Not yet still! But I did find Susan from Fort Walton Beach, FL. She found a few treasures including this double ALTERNATE TELLIN…
There were a few LETTERED OLIVES, FIGHTING CONCHS and COCKLES to brighten the day. I also saw lots of HORSE CONCH EGG CASES…
Tomorrow, the mercury will start to rise. Oh thank goodness. And maybe we’ll see some shell piles too!
Tiny Trail In The Sand
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live dwarf olive
I took a lovely walk at the lighthouse beach with my friend Susan S. this morning and pointed out a few sand trails leading to live LETTERED OLIVES …
Olive shell siphon
Then she asked me what kind of shell was making this trail…
live dwarf olive sand trail
It looked just like an AUGER trail as I remembered those beautiful tracks I had photographed in 2010 then turned into “AUGER ART” . But I was wrong! It was a DWARF OLIVE. I wonder how many times I had seen them but had just assumed it was an AUGER. I know…never assume.
live rice olive shell
I like to call these tiny little OLIVES “RICE SHELLS” since they look like grains of rice. Here’s a short video of this live little cutie…
But wait! We saw more live shells. Robyn from Singapore (!) wanted to know what was coming out of this shell that was so bright orange. It’s a live HORSE CONCH! And all of that “orange stuff” is the live mollusk that made the shell….. and as I was explaining that, the animal squirted a stream of salty water at us. Ha!
Robyn Singapore horse conch
She knew she couldn’t keep a live shell so she happily walked it out to the sand bar where she found it.
live horse conch sanibel lighthouse
2012 New Year Brings BIG Shells!
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He’s faster than the normal beachcomber. He’s got powerful Xray vision to see through water ripples. He can leap wide sand bars at a single bound. He is Super Sheller Clark!
Clark has started the new year off pretty dang well. He found this 13 inch LIGHTNING WHELK and that middle 12 inch HORSE CONCH which is a KNOBLESS WONDER! Look how much smoother the shoulder and spire is compared to the one on the right (the one I found!)… no knobs! So cool, right? I’ll get them cleaned up and show you the other cool things we found boating to the out islands of Sanibel/Captiva this weekend.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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!
