Archive for Tulip
Tarpon Beach Top Shelf Shells
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These shells are the cream of the crop! This is any shellers dream to find a handful of shells like this. I’m talking… not just a TULIP… but a gorgeous nice size red TRUE TULIP. And not just a FLORIDA CONE, but a deep orange FLORIDA CONE with a purple tip. That PEAR WHELK is so yellow! And that size HORSE CONCH? Not so easy to find. And as you can see, I could go on. I just can’t believe I haven’t spent more time at Tarpon Beach (at the end of Tarpon Bay Rd on the Gulf side). It’s been a gold mine the last few weeks! Laura and Ken from CT were shelling with their family Jaime and Matthew who live in Fort Myers hit the right spot…
Matthew told me the whole family has been shelling for over 20 years on Sanibel so they know what to look for and knew they had some top shelf shells.
And they love to search the water!
The water wasn’t the only place there were shells. The WENTLETRAPS are there as well. You can see this one trying to hide in the sand…. sorry buddy! I see you!
I was so surprised to find a BABY’S EAR too…
Clark and I also hit Sanibel’s Blind Pass this weekend too. There are lots of shells still on the canal side of the pass under the bridge.
That’s where we met Jude from NY decked out in her skin suit to cover up from the harmful rays of the sun. Hey Judy, that’s pretty smart! (I couldnt resist)
She was thrilled with her finds! She found everything from WORM ROCK to a DOUBLE ALTERNATE TELLIN to a COCKLE full of minis…
Right under the bridge, Janet from Sanibel (too shy for me to take her picture!) found this awesome FLAT SCALLOP.
Clark and I found a few goodies this weekend that we’ve never found before! I get so excited to find something new! I hate to be a little bit of a tease but I have to get some good pictures of them then I’ll show you our finds tomorrow. Okay, okay…. I’ll give you a hint on our finds. The one I found is a shell that’s a little rounded on the TOP. The one Clark found isn’t a shell but it protects a MOLLUSK but not SHARKS.
Happy Hunting For Seashells
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Happy. That’s what this photo of a mom (Margaret) and daughter (Katy) from Chicago says “Happy”. I peaked into Kay’s shell bag and knew why she had such a happy face. Who wouldnt be happy filling a mesh bag full of seashell treasures like these…
She found this awesome ALPHABET CONE…
Her mom Margaret found great treasures too and pulled out these two ALPHIES and a TULIP…
Katy and Margaret collected their seashells this morning at Captiva’s Blind Pass but yesterday I saw Bridget and Brendan from New Hampshire on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass with the same happy faces.
They were exhilarated by finding gobs of shells like these FIGHTING CONCHS…
While I was in the parking lot at Blind Pass Sanibel, I ran into Jean from Iowa who found an extremely large PEAR WHELK (no, not in the parking lot, silly)…
I mean, this is a gargantuan PEAR WHELK!!!
Earlier in the week on the east end of Sanibel, I showed you all of the weird BEACH BLING that was washing up on the beach. Now the BLING (and Red Tide) is moving out with some north/northwest winds and those winds are bringing in some nice big shells.
My faves (and Clark’s) this weekend have been the multicolored SCALLOP shells. They are amazing! I relate it to the same experience as seeing a DOLPHIN… I will never get tired of spotting a DOLPHIN no matter how many times in the week I see them. Its the same with SCALLOPS. I will never get tired of spotting a beautifully colored SCALLOP and being amazed by so many different patterns. They are both magical.
CyberShelling At Lighthouse Beach
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Someone asked me the other day “How can you tell if the eggs are dead or alive in a (MOLLUSK) EGG CASING?”. I had posted a photo of little tiny shells in the capsule of a LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CASE on my post Beach Bling Babes when the question came up. The whole EGG CHAIN I had shown was completely dried and pretty crumbly so it was safe to say that there were no living baby MOLLUSKS in there. So when I picked up a few TRUE TULIP EGG CASES this morning at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach and saw that they may still be alive, I wanted to show you the difference. Since I’m no scientist, I can’t tell you these little TRUE TULIP EGGS were definitely alive, but they sure looked like they could still be viable to me since they were still encased in their fluid capsules.
I also looked at the little hole in the top of the capsule and saw that it was still plugged. After about a month, when the babies are ready to come out, the pore opens up (that I’m showing in the photo above) and the young will creep out. So my theory is, if I don’t know something is dead, I have to assume it’s still alive. So I put the EGG CLUSTERS back in the water to maybe have a chance of surviving. You can see it much more clearly in this video…. 
YEEWWW HOOOO, CYBERSHELLERS! I have something different today. I bent down to pick up a BUTTON SHELL, then saw several fun mini goodies so I thought you might enjoy seeing them too. Click on the next photo to enlarge. Have fun!
PS- Come shelling with me! Here’s how…
Sanibel Sunrise Whelkcome Mat
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As our year of 2012 is winding down, Sanibel Island is bustling with tourists this week shellebrating the holidays with sunshine, clear skies and plenty of empty souvenir seashells on our beaches. At sunrise, low tide exposed a “whelkcome” mat of large live WHELKS, CONCHS and TULIPS at Gulfside City Park this morning to view these magnificent living creatures for just a few minutes before the incoming tide covered them up again.
A true gift to see the miracle of a living MOLLUSK.
Peace.
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!
Junonia-Palooza Hits Sanibel
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The last few weeks, most of the collectible shells have only been found by getting in the water with methodical toe combing skills. I like to get in the water too but my favorite way to shell is to comb the beach searching with my eyes to find something different. So I was very happy to see a nice line of shells on the beach near the Sanibel pier at Lighthouse Beach. Ahhh. Finding a few of my faves always makes me so happy. I know it doesn’t look like it but that shell to the left of the BABY EAR is a SLIPPER SHELL. It was just so long and skinny, I had to pick it up. When I get time, I’m gonna do whole post on SLIPPER SHELLS. It’s amazing how may different ones there are.
Clark found this gorgeous juvie TRUE TULIP. I couldnt resist snapping a photo!
It’s a good thing we were happy with our finds because we might have been green with envy thinking we missed a JUNONIA rolling around out there. It’s shocking to see so many JUNONIAS being found lately! It’s like Sanibel is having a JUNONIA-PALOOZA! Lori from Chicago has been looking for this shell since she was a little girl and she finally found it the place we were searching just a day before…. but she found it this morning at the Sanibel Pier. Congratshellations Lori! It’s a beauty!
But wait! Two days ago, Shelling Sistah Corly Brooke found one too! She found hers on Cayo Costa. You look so good in that shirt holding that JUNONIA, Corly!
Congratshellations to both of you!
