Archive for Colorful Moon shell
Sanibel Shellingmen
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Yippee! These shells were found at Blind Pass Sanibel yesterday. Our mornings are still in the 50s with winds from the north but there’s not a steady roll of shells on the beach every day. Why? Okay, I figured it out today. It’s because the shells arent getting a chance to wash up to the beach yet. They are getting snagged out of the water by the “Shellingmen Tribe”.
Oh, you’ve never heard of the Shellingmen before? I was thrilled to witness this wonderful site of these brave Shellingmen methodically scooping seashells and BEACH BLING out of the sea to bring back to their Shellingmen families for praises of finding hidden treasures. I watched this phenomenon for a few minutes before I started filming these four men braving the cold to scoop their treasures. I know you can’t hear everything I said in the next video because of the wind (and because I was giggling a bit too), but I still think it’s so cute.
Isn’t that fabulous??? heehee Love those Shellingmen! Okay, I’m being silly but I think my Cherokee genes got stirred up and I got such a kick out this because it’s exactly what Clark and I do! Clark (the hunter) goes out there with his shelling backhoe and I Sit ‘N Sift through the piles he brings back (the gatherer). LOL But before I get too tickled and get off track, let me introduce you to loyal Shell Warrior Duane and his Shell Queen Jan from Montana…
Then I met “Chief Shell Getter” Bryan and his Shell Princess Jan from Indiana…
Bryan was endlessly scooping ALPHABET CONES, a COLORFUL MOON SHELL, HORSE CONCHS, FIGHTING CONCHS , NUTMEGS and an awesome huge SHARKS EYE to bring back to Jan.
While I was taking the photo of the shell buckets, Bryan went out to hunt down more treasures. He brought back this ALPHABET CONE! Ungawa!
This spot has been very fickle this week for shells so if you go down to Blind Pass Sanibel, the best time is in the morning at LOW TIDE… but be careful! We’ve had some rip tides this week so the current could be tricky. Way in the background of the next photo, you can see how far we were from the Blind Pass bridge.
Best Seashells From Our Vacation to Turks and Caicos
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I am still in awe of how many different seashells we found on our vacation to North Caicos and Middle Caicos of the Turks and Caicos Islands. I’m also in awe (okay, let me tell the truth…. ”overwhelmed” would be the right word) because I took over 1100 photographs. Yikes! So this is what I’m going to do since I can’t smoosh all of these amazing shells, photos and info in just this one post. I’m going to show you our best finds now and then in my next post I’ll show you where we found them and a few maps just in case you ever want to go there on one of your shelling vacations too. After that, I’ll show you where we stayed on North Caicos and a few restaurants and other things we loved about the islands. But for now, lets get on with the seashell show! I showed you Clark’s KING HELMET, my ANGULAR TRITON and some QUEEN CONCHS on my last post but these PARTRIDGE TUNS for sure made it on our “besties” list. They look like really fragile scotch bonnets without the thick lip.
Here’s a close up the bottom of our LONG-SPINED STAR SHELL I showed on my vacation “teaser” (heehee) post. I say “our” shell because Clark and I were snorkeling side by side when we both spotted this beauty as the same time. Gorgeous, right?
Here are the different colors of the GAUDY ASAPHIS I talked about…
We could have gathered hundreds of doubles! Clark collected so many different colors then picked through them to get the best to bring back…
The double SPECKLED TELLINS were such a treat too! We are always tickled to find beautiful bivalves when both valves are still attached…
Believe it or not, this is my first BLEEDING TOOTH NERITE. I saw oodles of NERITES, but since I was trying to be very selective in what we brought home, I chose this one I’ve never found before to bring home and it’s one of my faves!
And of course the SUNRISE TELLINS. Oh my. They really look like they have been colorfully painted then sprayed with a high gloss coating. It was astonishing to find a perfect double SUNRISE TELLIN laying in the shallow water half covered by sand. A true gift of the sea.
Oops! I forgot to put my MILK CONCH in my bestie photo but this has to be part of my favorites list too!
I found this MILK CONCH and a juvie QUEEN CONCH the first night we arrived… which was my birthday night. YAY! We didn’t want to waste a minute so we walked the beach as soon as we arrived and these washed up at my feet. YAY Again!
I love the minis!!!! Just like here in Sanibel, if we are visiting a beach and we aren’t finding the larger shells in the wrack line, at the shoreline or in the water, we start looking for miniature shells. We found them! They are just so stinkin sweet, arent they?
But wait! There’s more! I want to share Jane and John’s besties too!
You saw John Johnny Rescue’s QUEEN CONCH and Jane’s ANGULAR TRITON yesterday and they found the SUNRISE TELLINS and PARTRIDGE TUNS as well…. But… John found this very cool CONE!
It really doesn’t match exactly with that thin lip, high spire and a few other details and I havent had time to research further, but our best guess is that it’s a CROWN CONE.
UPDATE! Deenie just commented to tell us that this is not a CONE at all! It’s a juvenile HAWKWING CONCH! How cool is that. Now that I know what it is, I can completely recognize the shape and now I know why the lip is so thin unlike a CONE and the spire is so tall. Thank you so much Deenie!
Well how about that… John found an adult HAWKWING CONCH as well so you can see what that juvie will look like when it grows up.
And look at the color and lines of this RETICULATED COWRIE-HELMET!
It is a spectacular shell! Good find John!
I’m still stunned and amazed at this next shell…. well I should really say “BEACH BLING”. It’s the OPERULUM to the COLORFUL MOON SHELL! It’s a SHIVA SHELL.
What? Why haven’t we ever found these on Sanibel??? We have gobs of COLORFUL MOONS (GAUDY NATICAS) so why don’t we find their OPERCULUMS more often? Weird. Plain Weird. Thanks Susan for the heads up on this beaut. So now we have something new to look for in SouthWest Florida too so look at the exterior of this SHIVA SHELL to put this in your shelling brain. Anyway, John found this one in the high tide wrack line mixed in with some other Beach Bling and a few days later I found one too but it wasn’t perfect like this…
So how cool are these shells from The Caicos, huh? Let me show you the whole kit and caboodle of shells Clark and I brought back. Keep in mind, after rinsing and inspecting the shells we collected each day, we didn’t bring home the majority of our shells to Sanibel. We inspected for cracks, critters, crud or replaced them for better specimens. We want to respect the islands, sand and beaches so we have to be conservative with the shells we take. We only kept the ones we knew we would either display in our home or research for the blog. Look how beautiful they are! I could just sit and stare at all of these treasures for hours at a time!
I’ll try to give you as much information as possible about our stay in a short time so I’m already working on a map to show you where most of our shells were found on our exshellent adventure!
Beach Treats
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We have been so fortunate to have had absolutely gorgeous, unseasonably warm weather for weeks on end now. Yes, it’s usually “shorts” weather in SouthWest Florida in January most years but we’ve had “shorts-n-bathing suit” weather here lately. So a walk on the beach ends up turning into a dip in the water to cool off. It’s soooo nice! What could make that sound even better? Shells! There are still shells rolling up at Blind Pass… but it seems like they are on the Sanibel side now. Both Clark and I found the shells in the top photo but I have to admit Clark found the “ALPHIE” and the awesome brown LACE MUREX…
It looked perfectly clean when I got home so I quickly snapped these photos without giving it another thought. Hmmmm. Now I wish I had spent some time to clean it up since the sand shows up so much…. but just look beyond that. It’s beauuuteeeful! We don’t find the brown “LACIES” very often.
We met Lido from Orlando (he’s an actor!) having a great time filling his pockets with some excellent shells…
He found an ALPHABET CONE aaaand a FLORIDA CONE! Not so bad, right? He found that unusual color of CALICO SCALLOP as well…. so I have to admit… I spied it with all of his other shells (FIGHTING CONCHS, WHELKS etc) and liked it so much I’m the one who chose it to put in his picture with his 2 favorites. I get so tickled when I see someone else get so intrigued by the different color variations of those SCALLOPS!
Soul Sister Susan found a COLORFUL MOON shell!
Her favorites of the day were of course the spectacular MOON but she also found a double ROSE PETAL TELLIN too (top right on her hand).
Take a look at this PURPLISH SEMELE that Rosalie from Michigan found.
Not so “purplish”, right?
We find more of these shells up at Cayo Costa but she found this orangish PURPLISH right in front of the Island Inn.
The inside of that shell reminds me of something but I can’t think of what it is…. hmmmmm…… maybe it will come to me soon.
Don’t forget to reserve your spot on a shelling cruise with me! If you missed it on my last post, here’s the info…
These are the dates for the iLoveShelling ShellingAdventure!
- February 17- morning cruise from 9am-12 (Sunday)
- March 16- morning cruise from 9am-12 (Saturday)
- April 13 – Morning cruise from 9am-12 (Saturday)
- May 19- afternoon cruise from 1pm-4 (Sunday)
Call Captiva Cruises for reservations at 239-472-5300 and tell them you want to join the iLoveShelling group on one of these dates!
For more information about reservations CLICK HERE
Yippee! Can you believe it? Tickets are only $50 for this shellacious get together so book soon to save your spot on one of the iLoveShelling ShellingAdventures to Cayo Costa! Come join me!
Seashell Show And Tell
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Now that you’ve met the members of the “Maiden Voyage” (cute name, Patty!) for the Shellebaloo on my last post, it’s time for a little seashell show and tell. I have 2 personal favorite shells found during our 3 days together (other than the LONG-SPINED STAR SHELL of course). The first shell is Carolyn’s absolutely perfect ALPHABET CONE…
And the other one is Sara’s COLORFUL MOON shell. There was questions about it being called a GAUDY NATICA so I explained that I used to call it that too but since the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum calls it the COLORFUL MOON, I figured I should start trying to call it that. Any way, here’s Sara and her beautiful shell…
Isn’t it beautiful? She told me this was her favorite find of the week. Good one!
I asked everybody else to get out their favorite shells to see which shells made them happiest so we gathered at the gazebo at our home base of the beautiful Island Inn to have a show and tell. Carolyn and Mike added a few to their faves along with her ALPHIE…
Amy showed me her teeny tiny juvie TURKEY WING…
Karen, Helen and Jackie chose an ALPHABET CONE, TOP SHELL, LACE MUREX (notice that sweet little pink nose) and a KING’S CROWN…
Sally and Jim collected a beautiful assortment of different shells to name a few like the green cap filled with TUSK SHELLS, a BRUISED NASA, TINTED CANTHARUS, WHITE MELAMPUS, COFFEE MELAMPUS, a SEA PEARL, a CLOUDY PERIWINKLE (inside the BUTTERCUP LUCINE), and a WENTLETRAP. Nice, huh?
Traci and Rob found the SANIBEL SIX…
But when I asked Traci what her one favorite shell was, she told me it was definitely the double OYSTER…
JoAnn and Sid’s favorites were the RIBBED CANTHARUS, COFFEE COFFEE BEAN TRIVIA and ANGEL WING…
Isn’t this fun seeing which shells make people happy? Well, this next one made me very happy and made me laugh out loud! Maureen laughed then told us that her favorite shells were speaking to her… maybe by aliens or through hieroglyphics on CROSS BARRED VENUS shells. LOL Now that’s a gal that has a great sense of humor!
This is quite a seashell collection by Kathy and Bill for their favorites. Love, Love that WORMIE (WORM SHELL) and ALPHIE for sure! And I saw that piece of CORAL in her shell bag and “may” have influenced her to put that in her faves too. (oops! but I was so drawn to it! So pretty!). Of course I love the others too… NUTMEG, LACE MUREX, BANDED TULIP, BUBBLE, FIG, SEA PEARL and angel wing.
Arabelle chose a BABY’S EAR, WHITE MELAMPUS and a SEA PEARL as her favorites. I am so tickled she found that BABY’S EAR!
Last but not least was the awesome LONG-SPINED STAR SHELL Joe and Patty found along with some of their other faves… a PURPLISH TAGELUS, TUSK and a KING’S CROWN to name a few.
I love how easy it was for everybody to pick through all of their shells to narrow it down to the ones that meant the most to them. Each person sees something different in each shell whether it is color, pattern, markings, size, shape or just the location of where they found it. They were all so happy with what they found!
PS- Stay tuned because I have a surprise for you on my next post! We might have another get together soon!
i Love Shelling After A Storm!
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It was a shellebration today at Blind Pass! Around 9 am this morning, the seashells started crashing onto the beach at Blind Pass Captiva quickly building up into a shellacious treasure trove. OMG
I’m kinda jumping ahead since I haven’t even shown you everything that happened yesterday… but… I can’t wait to show you this shelling frenzy that happened today. And because… two (that’s 2) JUNONIAS were found!!! Alisha from Tennessee found an absolutely perfect JUNONIA and not but an hour later her boyfriend Ron found the other one! Really! Can you believe it? Waaahoooo!
With the shell filled waves breaking right on our ankles, you had to react very quickly to snatch the goods ones out of the water while balancing on the pointy shells under our feet. I overheard Ron tell Alisha “No pain, no gain!”. Then she snagged this sweet little JUNONIA out of the water without a net. LOL Way to go Alisha!
Not one chip on the lip!
Everybody that was there was finding treasures of their own. Jill from Virginia Beach found this awesome bright orange HORSE CONCH!
Her friend Kimmy (long story short… we found out she and Jill live in the same neighborhood Clark and I used to live in. Small world!) found this ALPHABET CONE…
Lisa from West Palm Beach, Florida found an ALPHABET CONE too!
Lisa’s nephew Tyler kinda showed his aunt up (heehee) because he came up with this outrageously huge ALPHABET CONE! The Mac Daddy Alphie!
Sue from St Pete, Florida plucked this gorgeous LIGHTNING WHELK out of the waves! And don’t miss all those goodies in her bucket too! wow!
Speaking of buckets… this next bucket belongs to Amy from New York. She was about to empty it into a larger bag to fill it back up again but I had to get a photo. Be still my heart. This is like a sheller’s dream bucket. Filled with sweet success of a well rounded shelling day… a FLAT, CONE, OLIVE, CONCH, MOON, NUTMEG, WHELK and TULIP. I know she had a MUREX in there so, yes, The SANIBEL SIX!
This is the lucky gal Amy. Thank you so much for letting me drool over your bucket!
Jim from Nebraska was getting close to finding a JUNONIA when he spied this big colorful piece washing up to the shore…
His mom Louise (Illinois) was just as happy finding this awesome ALPHABET CONE. Happy Dance!!
There were a lot of happy dances at Blind Pass today in the sun, sand, and shells since waiting several days after the tropical storm force winds of Hurricane Isaac in the Gulf Of Mexico passed us by. Congratshellations to you all for all of you fabulous finds!
If you are coming in for the holiday weekend… Don’t worry. There are still LOTS of shells rolling around here in Southwest Florida!
PS- Our thoughts are with the cities on the east coast of Florida and the northern cities of the Gulf Of Mexico who are dealing with flooding and havoc from Hurricane Isaac. Mother Nature can show as much bitter as she shows with the sweet at times.
Shelling For Sunshine
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Through cloudy skies and and patchy rain, I was thrilled to find this bright beam of sunshine called a CHESTNUT TURBAN colored brilliant orange. I know it doesn’t look at all “chestnutty” but believe it or not that’s what it is.
My second fave find in the last few days is another ray of sunshine…. a COLORFUL MOON SHELL (or also called a GAUDY NATICA). This one seemed exceptionally colorful AND gaudy…
Clark and I were convinced that the out islands would be loaded with shells still from Tropical Storm Debby and the weather the last then so we hopped on our boat with some friends and headed out to Cayo Costa. I found more sunshine with a little HORSE CONCH candy!
Daron, Jacob and Berringer donned the snorkeling gear…
…And found a FLORIDA CONE!
There were pockets of seashells hidden around the tree roots in the high tide wrack line where we found some BABY’S EARS.
Everybody loves these tree roots! Susan and her son Berringer were no exception. It’s the perfect backdrop for photos.
Clark was busy working his magic with the shelling backhoe and pulled up lots of LETTERED OLIVES and a few TRUE TULIPS…
All in all, it was a really fun trip on the boat but it wasn’t at all “loaded with shells” like we thought. So after our boat ride, we stopped at Blind Pass Sanibel….where it was “loaded”. I found my 2 fave shells of the weekend (the orange TURBAN and the MOON above) within 10 minutes.
I was also fortunate to have met EJ who is a research associate with Department Of Environmental Sciences at UVA (where my nephew just graduated…with distinction!) , Hannah (an educator at UVA as well) and her mom Crystal (AL). It was fascinating to hear about EJ’s project to map the mangrove ecosystems of Sanibel and research the soils and sea grass beds along SouthWest Florida. What a fun job! Well he must have mapped out where the ALPHABET CONES would wash up because they were plucking them out right when I walked by…
Crystal showed me her fave find which was an unusual cluster of shells. It is a double CORRUGATE JEWLBOX, double KITTEN’S PAW, BARNACLES and a few sprouts of CORAL that cemented together to make a beautiful little shell bouquet.
While dodging the storm clouds for 3 days, here’s an assortment of the shells we kept (Clarkis saving the LETTERED OLIVES for next year’s 4th of July parade already). Need help identifying all of these shells? Check out my SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION page!
