Archive for Starfish
No Regrets Watching The Reddish Egret
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You want another reason why i Love Shelling? Seeing a site like this! This Reddish Egret was wading in a tidal pool at Sanibel Lighthouse Beach pacing back and forth stalking his prey. I could have stood there for an hour watching this entertaining canopy dance. Errrr….. wait, I DID stand there for an hour fascinated by his show of chasing minnows.
Even though it distracted me from finding more shells, I didn’t regret one minute of it. To me, that’s what shelling is about…. finding treasures AND drinking in nature and the view along the way. Even the man made views. How cute!
And yes, there were even shells and SAND DOLLARS too!
I found more of those cute little juvie SAND DOLLAR “sand dimes”! I found live ones down on the surf line which I left alone but I also found them high in the high tide wrack line to bring home. Way in the background you can see the Lighthouse so you can see how far I was from the point. It was a hike but worth it.
I found all sort of BEACH BLING semi hidden in the seaweed. I placed the LEOPARD CRAB SHELL on the purple SEA WHIP but I saw the SAND DOLLAR laying exactly like this…
I zig zagged the beach to look on the edge of the tidal pools to find a clump of BUBBLE SHELLS…
When I see lots of BUBBLES hanging out like that, I immediately start looking for WENTLETRAPS!
This is what I found…. Are you ready CYBER SHELLERS? Now after you take a little CYBER SHELLING stoop by clicking on the next photo to enlarge, make sure you scroll down even more on this post because I have another somethin to show you… a video too. Shell on!
Did you find anything? Okay, before we get to the movie, I want to tell you that I’ve gotten quite a few requests to sell my Seashell Identification Cards online. I want to thank everybody for buying them in the local retail stores that are carrying them and would love for you to continue to support them. But for those of you who can’t be here, I’ve added a BUY NOW button so I can send them directly to you. Check it out by CLICKING HERE…
Okay, back to the movie! Now you will be able to see the low tide tidal pools I was walking through and around to see so many amazing sites during the Easter Holiday weekend. There were so many live STARFISH! They are amazing to watch so enjoy the show!
Beach Bling By The Bazillions
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Wow! There are bazillions of PEN SHELLS and EGG CASES on the beach at GULFSIDE CITY PARK…
There are HORSE CONCH EGG CASES, LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CHAINS, PEAR WHELK CHAINS, PAPER FIG EGG CASINGS and SKATE EGG CASES.
There was lots of other types of BLING on the beach as well. It was a crazy site! Here is a MILLIPEDE STARFISH…
I met a group of 6 gals on a Girls Getaway Trip that were fascinated by all of the BEACH BLING that had washed up. Some of them had never been shelling on Sanibel before so I told them that this is not an every day site to see so many PEN SHELLS and EGG CASES. From left to right, meet Laurel, Lea, Carol, Jenifer, Lori and Suzanne… all from Philadelphia…
- sanibel girls getaway
And yes, they were finding shells! Along with lots of other shells, Lea found a BANDED TULIP, a TRUE TULIP and the shell from a PURSE CRAB.
When we see this many PEN SHELLS washed up on the beach, that usually means there will be good shelling in days to come as well. Yeah!
That should mean some good shelling on Saturday for all of us on the iLoveShelling trip to Cayo Costa on Captiva Cruises. Yippee! And guess what, we now have some more dates for the summer. CLICK HERE for 2013 schedule with the new dates …
The Gulf That Keeps On Giving
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Michelle from New Hampshire got a gorgeous gift from the gulf….. a JUNONIA! She said “I still can’t believe I found one! I was just walking along in ankle deep water that had already be searched by lots of shellers. My children were having fun exploring the tidal pools and there it was!“. Wowee! It’s huge!
There were shells scattered everywhere on Gulf Side City Park beach where Michelle found her JUNONIA…
Most of the shells were live FIGHTING CONCHS but Cheryl (Ohio) was having a great time filling up her pink shell bag with empty shells…
She found all sorts of great shells!
Her favorites were these two KINGS CROWNS…
These two cutie shellers Matilda and her brother Anton came to Sanibel all the way from Sweden to fill their buckets with goodies. Matilda is holding a beautiful ALPHABET CONE and Anton is showing off a nice bright orange HORSE CONCH.
Bob (who found a LIONS PAW last year) and Dee (Ft Myers) were finding SEA WHIPS and BEACH BLING…
And a fabulous FLORIDA CONE along with a fantastic assortment of all types of seashells…
And they found dried out MILLIPEDE STARFISH.
The Gulf Of Mexico just keeps on giving us gifts of the sea.
Hurricane Sandy Sprinkles Seashells On Sanibel
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Our Sanibel and Captiva beaches were pounded by 4 to 6 foot waves for three days because of high northwest winds from Hurricane Sandy so I assumed we would have lots of shells at Blind Pass Sunday morning at low tide. I was wrong… so I kept moving.
Gulf Side City Park showed promise!
It’s always a good sign to see PEN SHELLS! They get washed up first in a good storm so you know that there are better collectable shells on the way. I was lucky to see a SEA WHIP caught in this group of PEN SHELLS. I love these purple ones.
After walking east only 1/4 mile, we found a nice shell pile!
My first find… a beautiful dark WORMIE!
And a candy corn for Halloween. See it trying to hide?
Then I found a TULIP, WHELK and CONCH…
I saw Kim from Michigan find a gorgeous TRUE TULIP rolling in the surf.
Are you ready to go shelling? Okay, then… Let’s go CYBER SHELLING! Click on the next photo to enlarge this random photo I took of the shell pile. Notice how many beautiful SCALLOPS there are…
I think today will be even better but I’ll never know until I get there. As we all know, the beach changes every single day but I think Blind Pass will take another day to load up with shells so I’m headed back to one of Sanibel’s mid island beaches…. like Gulf Side City Park again.
Hurricane Sandy may be bringing us a few new shells to get excited about but we are very worried about all of you and our families that are up north bracing for Sandy and the “Super Storm” (as they are calling it). Please be safe!
Seashells And Beach Bling Colored By Isaac
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Not only did Hurricane Isaac bring in loads of various species of shells and BEACH BLING, the storm brought in the most glorious colors of treasures I’ve ever seen. As you can see in the picture above, the shell colors are spectacsheller but it was also so exciting to find a few pieces of SEA GLASS, MILLIPEDE STARFISH, CORAL, WORM ROCK, OPERCULUMS, and BRYOZOAN COLONIES.
I was also thrilled to find quite a few CONES but look at the variation in color of these ALPHABET CONES. I love this deep dark brown one in the middle!
I found this brownish CONE which I assume is just a really fabulous FLORIDA CONE like the others but I haven’t seen that deep rich color here in SouthWest Florida before. Look how big it is…. I loooove it!
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this CHESTNUT TURBAN either! Look at the fantastic pattern and colors of the one on the left!
The FLORIDA FIGHTING CONCHS were everywhere so it was almost overwhelming. I normally don’t collect them any more but I couldn’t help but pick up a variety of the colors after Clark found the ALBINO FIGHTING CONCH. There were so many different colors than this (and in better shape) but these are the ones that made it home with me… White, tan, orange, brown and black.
The JUVENILE FIGHTING CONCHS were out of control! I could have gone crazy! But then again, I had to ask myself… “Self?” “How many shells do you really need to take home?” … Then I answered “Okay, Self, I’ll only take enough to show my fave peeps on my blog”. (That gave me a great excuse to take just a couple more than I needed. 
) So now you have to look at all of these patterns and colors so I can make my Self feel better… heehee…
On my August 30 post, I showed you a darling blue bucket with all kinds of great shells pile to the top and the lucky gal Amy who found them. Well Amy also found this incredible brown OLIVE shell that I am assuming is an unbelievable LETTERED OLIVE (9-13-12 UPDATE: I assumed incorrectly! It’s a FULGURATOR OLIVE! ). I know, I know, it doesn’t look like a LETTERED OLIVE (because it’s not… please see my post Brown Olive Shell Mystery Solved!) but just like the other shells I’ve shown, the coloring can vary tremendously.
Isn’t that sooooo beautiful?? Look at the aperture side. It’s just as fabulous…
The last few weeks on the beach have been so amazing. Mother Nature has yet again colored my world.
Seashells and The Shellinator
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How does Donnie keep finding such incredible shells? On August 20 post, I showed yall all of the incredible shells he found right after Hurricane Isaac passed us by…but now this huge HORSE CONCH too? Wow! Debbie Yuhr said it best… “he should be named The Shellinator!” Bahahaha Perfect!
As you can see, The Shellinator had some competition.
Okay, Beeep Beep (the sound of a truck backing up) before I go any further I have to tell y’all what else happened this past week. My iPhone died. Long story short… I lost all of my voice memo notes. You see, when I meet someone on the beach for the first time, I have to take notes on my iPhone because I am terrible at remembering names. I also have a hard time spelling names so it’s become a crutch to just talk into my phone recorder. So all of my notes were lost when I iPhone died and the guys at the Apple store couldn’t recover them all. Aawk-Waaard! So I’m going to show you some photos of people with only nick names. You have no idea how embarrassed I am so… please, please, please comment on this post if you are one of these people to tell me your real name so I can recover from this mess. Okay, now on with the story of the awesome shelling this week.
The Shellinator had some competition… I saw our friend Mary walking down the beach with a huge HORSE CONCH too! She told me that a German guy gave it to her after she commented on how pretty it was. Yes you read that correctly. The German guy just gave it to her because he said it was too stinky to take it on the plane tomorrow back to Germany. Wow! Here is “The German Guy” (heehee) and Mary with his gift to her…
UPDATE: “The German Guy” has a name now! Glad you had a great time in Florida, Andrew (from Bavaria)! And yes, Mary loves that shell!
“Fort Myers Shelling Mom” and her daughter ”I Live In Texas But I Want To Be Back In Florida” were finding shells on the beach, in the water and every where they looked.
Deana and her daughter Valerie (whew, I recovered a few!) found an ALPHABET CONE and their first ANGEL WING.
I saw cutie Shelling Sister Leanne pull this gorgeous dark orange FLORIDA CONE out of the water just a few feet from me.
Shelling Sister Kathy (Oh please tell me I got your name right!) used this strainer to scoop up her goodies.
I love the shell bags! They have a strap for cross shoulder handsfree shelling. These “Strappy Happy Shellers” had plenty of room for all of their treasures.
I saw Shellcrafter Jean collecting minis for her art.
She’s holding two nice DUSKY CONES in her hand but her bucket looks empty….oh no it isn’t. Lots of WENTLEPTRAPS are hiding in that round container inside her cute pink bucket.
Then I visited Blind Pass Captiva again to find our friend Sue (Illinois) with a really cool HORSE CONCH. It’s white with a yellow top!
Then I saw Shelling Sistah Lauren with bags of shells… with her iLoveShelling bag and tee! Adorable!
But Wait! What? One of those bags was filled to the brim with SAND DOLLARS! Yowza! See how grayish they are? They arent completely white but you could tell they all had been dead for a day or so since their “fur” (it’s really their feet which is how they breath) was gone. Score! And she found dried MILLIPEDE STARFISH and everything in between not even to mention a huge chunk of JUNONIA. She said she found them all walking from Bowman’s Beach to Blind Pass. That is quite a hike! She deserves all of these treasures!
As I was about to leave Blind Pass, my friend Diane and her visiting girlfriends (they call themselves “Chicks On The Go”!) Juli, Denise, Marsha, Vicki, Diane and Jackie from St Louis swarmed the beach to instantly find great shells. Let me tell you, these chicks know how to have a good time!
And like most shellers at Blind Pass this week, they found their SANIBEL SIX.
PS- Happy Labor Day… gone shelling.
