Archive for Starfish
Full Moon Beach Bling
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The weather conditions and last night’s full moon caused an extreme high tide that washed up lots of live creatures on the beach. Unfortunately for them, an extreme low tide left them with no where to hide. Fortunately for Cory from Cape Coral (and me), he got to see a tiny live SAND DOLLAR with a few mature beauties as well as several live STARFISH at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach.
I saw several live TRUE TULIPS hiding inside a STIFF PEN SHELL.
I did spot one empty bright orange TRUE TULIP hiding under one of those PEN SHELLS. A keeper! Yippee!
Along with a WORMIE and CHESTNUT TURBAN…
Caroline and Jennifer (Atlanta) are long time “wentlers” so they knew just where to look to find dozens of WENTLETRAPS.
Jennifer found all of these WENTLETRAPS within an hour and a half…
Her daughter Caroline has the WENTLE-eye too …and the KING’S CROWN-eye and the BABY’S EAR-eye!
Guess who I met! …. Sanibelle! If you read a lot of my post comments, you might have read one of Sanibelle’s comments. She rocks! …well she “shells” …but you know what I mean. 
It was a pleasure to me you, Sanibelle! This is miss cutie Sanibelle…
Since there were so many live creatures to ooooh and ahhhh at, it was hard to find many big empty shells besides PEN SHELLS. I talk about PEN SHELLS so often but I rarely ever show them so I found good example of both types that we find here. The one on the left is a STIFF PEN SHELL and the one on the right is a SAW-TOOTH PEN SHELL.
The most unusual shell I saw yesterday was a MANGROVE PERIWINKLE that Clark found yesterday on the gulf side of Lighthouse Beach. We just don’t find many of them at that beach.
He also found this little army man. I think he’ll make good company for my LEGO guy I found in February.
Since there are so many live shells on the beaches right now, I just want to make sure you know that you can’t take any live shells, SAND DOLLARS, STARFISH and such. You should gently put it back where you found it or in deeper waters. Lots of people don’t know how to tell if a sand dollar is alive or not. Here’s the deal… if a SAND DOLLAR is brown and looks a little “furry”, that means it is happy and healthy so we need to let it live a long time …..so it can breed! This is what live SAND DOLLARS look like. See that “fur”? Those are his feet AND how he breathes. Cool, huh?
This was the moon rise last night over Fort Myers Beach. I did not change or colorize this photo! It was really that big and colorful! I guess that’s why all the living creatures were stirring yesterday.
There should be more goodies washing in so for now…. Gone Shelling.
Sanibel Low Tide Golden Sky
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Walking out on the beach before sunrise is a special feeling. It has an extra special feeling when it is a very low tide of -1.0 AND it’s Christmas weekend.
I thought my eyes hadn’t focused when I took this next photo of Clark. Whatever happened to it (too early in the morning?)… I’m so glad! It came out like a beautiful impressionist painting…
As the sun was rising near the Sanibel lighthouse, the sky turned golden…
We saw lots of live shells and washed up sea life like this poor LINED STARFISH that took a beating but wouldn’t give up despite losing all of its arms. It survived al of the elements and started growing each of its arms back. What a survivor!
And you thought all SEA PORK was ugly, right? Well look again! This one looks just like an orange with its bright orange peel.
My best find was this rich in color nice sized TRUE TULIP…
Clark had the find of the day with this WAY cool tiny shell I have never identified before. It’s a COFFEE BEAN TRIVIA…
We both tried to rub off those brown smudges…HA! Silly us, those brown spots are part of the shell! That would be like trying to rub off the spots off a JUNONIA or SCOTCH BONNET. Silly!
Hmmmm…. whaddaya think? Look like coffee beans to you?
Shelling For The Holidays
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The holiday season is in full swing on Sanibel and Captiva islands so I have been a busy little elf! First of all, I’d like to introduce the brand new i Love Shelling 2012 Calendar chock full of beautiful Sanibel photos and of course our beloved seashells. Now you can enjoy shelling 12 months of the year!
Here’s a sneak peak of January’s sunset photo and CLICK HERE to see all 12 months and get one for yourself or as a gift for your shelling buddy.
We also hit the beaches this week to find a few shells and lots of Beach Bling. We found big old WHELK and CONCH pieces I love for yard shells along with a few SEA WHIPS, LONG SPINED SEA URCHINS, PURPLE SEA URCHINS, PEN SHELLS, CRAB SHELLS and this little BRITTLE STAR too.
There were lots of DOSINIAS mixed in with hundreds of SAILORS EARS and TRANSVERSE ARKS…
I even saw a few bones scattered along the beach. These are from bait in the crab traps in the gulf that get tossed around in rough surf.
STONE CRABS are what lots of those traps are made to catch. When fishermen bring in the traps, they only take one claw from a STONE CRAB since the claws have the best meat. They throw the crab back without killing it because they know the crab can eat and defend itself with only one claw until another claw grows back. Here is a STONE CRAB claw lying on the beach that could have been a good appetizer if it had been freshly caught. Darn!
There were HORSESHOE CRABS too …
And a BLUE CRAB…
I also saw this MOON SHELL (SHARK’S EYE) EGG COLLAR…
I met a wonderful local man Frank, who moved here in 1964 and still loves to walk the beaches and pick up shells especially with his daughter Connie. He told me he was 87 but he looks like he is no older than 72! Thank you Frank for your service for our country in WW2.
Here are some of the mini shells Frank and Connie collected when I saw them along Middle Gulf Drive.
I also have photos of the yesterday’s oh-so-fun Captiva Holiday Village golf cart parade. Here’s one picture of our Junonia Jalopy but I’ll have to show you the rest tomorrow. It was a blast! All of the other cart were so darn cute!
Check out my new tee shirt! I wore my new “Oh CONE All Ye Faithful” Christmas design v-neck tee. I got so many compliments- so much fun ! And don’t forget to check out the 2012 i Love Shelling Calendar too….. and the new online i Love Shelling Shop….. Or the fun faves at Shelling Shop. You see? I’ve been a little Santa’s helper for the good seashell loving girls and boys. Ho Ho Ho!
Another Sanibel Cyber Shelling Adventure
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I found that CARRIER SHELL I showed you on my last post Carried Away By A Carrier Shell but since I was so excited, I didn’t get to show you the rest of the shells I found. Aren’t the beautiful? It was an amazing day.
But wait, I’ve got a shell pile for you cyber shellers out there! I promise, I did not touch one thing in this pile before I took the next picture. But be careful! If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you might have a little sensory overload. Use caution, please.
OMG I just looked at that photo again! I missed another CONE!!! Did you spot it? TWO cones…. and I just looked again- maybe THREE. I worked this pile a while so I could have gotten it on another swipe but I definitely didn’t get it on the first run. I guess I was gathering every ounce of patience not to pluck this WORMIE, CANDIE and ALPHIE (notice the ultra cuteness clue of the “ie”endings) off the beach so I could take the picture.
So just a few minutes after finding this little seashell honey hole, I found the CARRIER SHELL and had to do a video. I hope you can see some of the other shells in that “troth” (I don’t think I’ve ever called it that before, but it sure did seem like one- LOL).
Oh yeah, something else cool…there was a live four legged BRITTLE STAR in one of the tidal pools.
Sanibel Summer North West Winds
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Blind Pass - Photo by Clark on his iPhone
Clark is having a ball without me because there are high NW winds making big waves on the beach at Blind Pass Sanibel….. which are bringing in the shells. I’m still in Virginia Beach visiting my mom but he called me several times yesterday to tell me the east end of Sanibel still doesnt have many shells (yet) but Blind Pass is rockin’.
He even took pictures with his iPhone to show us who was finding what so I guess he’s sort of a guest blogger today. heehee. He took this next picture and said “Cute family of four from Durham, NC they were here all week saw us in the parade and have been coming for years” –
Frank, Tami, Sam and Mia (NC)
OMG- Clark just called again. You won’t believe this! He went to Blind Pass today (Saturday) to tell me it just wasn’t the same as yesterday so he went to the beach around Sundial Resort. Super Sheller Clark sniffed it out again….
Photo by Clark on his iPhone
Can you believe that? He’s a JUNONIA crazy man! It’s a little cracked but it’s even better than the one he found a couple of weeks ago. It’s gorgeous! Weehoo! Way to go honey!
Beep. Beep. Okay let’s back up, let me show you the rest of the pictures he took from yesterday’s adventure at Blind Pass. Look how huge this live MILLIPEDE STARFISH is! After letting several people take pictures of it, she put it back to the water to help it survive.
Brenda (FL)
Xenia (Miami)
Clark took this cute little arrangement of all of his finds from yesterday. He found a SCOTCH BONNET and an ALPHABET CONE yesterday and a JUNONIA today. Wowee, dude!
I Kinda Know An Echinoderm (Video)
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Club Spined Sea Urchin
A CLUB SPINED SEA URCHIN is an ECHINODERM….and so is the GREEN SEA URCHIN (or also called the VARIEGATED SEA URCHIN)…
Green Variegated Sea Urchin
This post is a continuation of our snorkeling Road Trip To Seashells In The Florida Keys because I had to do a little more research on these SEA URCHINS I saw this past weekend. We have all kinds of ECHINODERMS (pronounced ek-EYE- no-derms) on Sanibel which include SEA STARS, SAND DOLLARS, SEA CUCUMBERS and SEA URCHINS but these are slightly different AND I wanted to share this word with you…. I love to say it ….”Echinoderm”. Ha!
Brittle Star off Big Pine Key
It was fun to see this ”hairy” BRITTLE STAR (also an Echinoderm) while so many beautiful tropical fish casually swam by painting the sea with bright blues with stripes of yellows and greens.
So come on in the water with me and enjoy snorkeling the underwater world in only 5 to 12 feet of water around the Florida Keys.The water’s fine!
