Captiva Crouch

They’re baaack. We’ve been waiting all week for those west winds to push the shells up on the beach…. and now we got our wish. Shells were washing up at Blind Pass this afternoon but not on the new sand bar. They were piling up all along the beach at our old fave spot on the right side of the jetty rocks on Captiva.

Sani-Belles Val, Suzie, Ella (Mom), Ellene

My favorite finds yesterday were…. The Sani-Belles!!  Girls know how to have fun in this family and they do it in their iLoveShelling tee shirts and named themselves Sani-Belles for their love of the islands! Shelling sister Sani-Belle Val from New Mexico (Every day I cherish that ornament she made me) brought her sisters Sani-Belle Suzie and Sani-Belle Ellene and their mom Sani-Belle Ella (California) out to Blind Pass at the perfect time of day laughing and giggling every moment with every scoop of shells they found.

Sani-belle Suzie's shell bag

Sani-belle Suzie has a pretty darn good shelling eye.

Sani-Belle suzie's Juvenile Southern Quahog

Look at the pattern on this JUVENILE SOUTHERN QUAHOG. I had a little difficulty identifying this shell because the pattern is so similar to the LADY-IN-WAITING VENUS clam. MurexKen came to the rescue again to help correctly identify it. I would have never thought something named a QUAHOG could be mixed up with a LADY-IN-WAITING (only perhaps in Shrek). Thanks MK!

Sani-Belle Suzie's tiny flat scallop

We also saw ALPHABET CONES, FLORIDA CONES, a LACE MUREX, HORSE CONCHS, WHELKS, colorful SCALLOPS and too many LETTERED OLIVED to count.

Lace Murex in shells

I couldn’t believe my eyes! I found a MERMAID resting on the jetty rocks!

Mermaid Ella

It was crazy how many OLIVES were rolling in. We also found those huge (relatively speaking…. they are only 2 inches long ) AUGERS Every time the waves hit the shore, it seemed to bring AUGERS and OLIVES. Here’s a look at what we experienced yesterday. Enjoy the video.