Archive for Banded tulip
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.
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!
Cockles, Conchs and Quahogs
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After several weeks of east winds, the west winds have finally arrived to drive some shells on to our beaches. Today was only the first day of the westies but since it was a really low tide this morning, I figured I’d find some goodies. It’s always a good day when you find an ALPHABET CONE and you’ve got to see just how darn cute this little juvie HORSE CONCH is…
I couldn’t believe I found this ANGEL WING sitting in the high wrack line…
I love when I find shells like this BANDED TULIP lying on the beach like this.
Tonya, Beth and Max from Ohio had their bags filled with all sorts of treasures.
Wanna look in their shell bags? I sure wanted to too! COCKLES and CONCHS and CLAMS…
Max found this live LIGHTNING WHELK in the high tide wrack line so he walked it down to the water and gently put it in the water. Good for you Max! You helped save this beauty.
I found local Sanibel sheller Lynn walking her very happy standard poodle Alexander with a pocket full of seashell treasure too.
Look at those pretty those COLORFUL MOON shells along with those candies and a mini TURE TULIP.
There was all sorts of bivalves scattered along the beach. I found this ATLANTIC COCKLE, PONDEROUS ARK and SOUTHERN QUAHOG together on the beach just like this…
This is the biggest DARK CERITH I’ve ever found. It’s one and a half inches long!
I was pretty pleased with what we all were finding on the beach near Donax Street today after the first day of west winds. Tomorrow might be even better!
Easter Colors Sanibel Style
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Everywhere I looked last night, I saw the colors of Easter… in seashells.
…..and in the sky
…..and around the palm trees.
As we “hopped” around to the lighthouse beach filling up our Easter shell basket, I ran into sisters Carol and Gail finding goodies for their basket (errr, shell bag 
).
It was their last night on Sanibel and Carol finally found her first WENTLETRAP at the lighthouse beach. Yippee! Congrats!
I found sweet little LACE MUREX.
And I found this cute little DUSKY CONE on a piece of SEA PORK. It looks like an Easter egg broke and the yoke spilled everywhere, doesn’t it?
Then we hopped on over to the beach off Middle Gulf Dr. and met Aimee (too shy to have her picture taken) where she found three of these FIGHTING CONCHS so I added the one furthest down in her palm. Look at how cool it is since it has a “freak” growth pattern.
Even the BANDED TULIPS had a hint of pink for Easter.
Happy Easter! Good wishes for you all to shellebrate the day.
After North West Winds
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Long spined sea urchin
I don’t see LONG SPINED URCHINS often but it seems they get washed up after a good wind blow. We had 20 mph north west winds yesterday so I saw lots of shells and live creatures washed up on the beach at Blind Pass this morning. This guy was still alive as well as lots of FIGHTING CONCHS and other shells so we put them back into the gulf for hopes of survival and more breeding.
Don's Alphabets and numeg
These ALPHABET CONES were not alive and they were just a few good shell finds Don from Vermont. He was out on the sand bar on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass before sunrise with a head lamp. Here’s a shot of his other shells he found this morning ….
Don's shells and head lamp
Yes, that’s a gorgeous TRUE TULIP on the right. You can see how deep the water was crossing over to the sand bar by looking at Don’s shirt below… if you can take your eyes off that beautiful red TULIP he’s holding.
Don's true tulip
So to recap, Don got to Blind Pass at the crack of dawn, worked really hard to find all these beach treasures, practically had to swim back to get to the main beach…. then ends up giving most of his shells away to a couple he just met on the beach. He even made sure they knew all the correct shell names. What a nice guy!
Don showing Sara and Bob different shells
Look at all of these treasure Don gave Sara and Bob. So sweet.
Sara's new seashell
Sara and Bob (OH)
I walked over the bridge to the Captiva side of the pass and met Shanti and Barry that were visiting from the east coast of Florida for the weekend to do some shelling.
Shanti and Barry (Pompano, FL)
They told me they didn’t know what a WENTLETRAP was before they found… us! They are blog buddies (!) so they wanted to see what Blind Pass had in store after the north west winds. They also told me they had to run down to the lighthouse to see if they could find some of those WENTLETRAPS we talk about. I’m sure you’ll have good luck since you’ve already had a good start with this bucket of goodies.
Shanti's seashells
I met another sheller who was mostly collecting KITTEN’S PAWS.
Tamara (VA)
Tamara is a preschool music teacher who was collecting KITTEN’S PAWS to give to her students with an added pearl inside and a note saying “You are precious”. Really, I don’t make this stuff up. These people I meet are genuinely this nice and it gives me so much pleasure to spread the word that shelling attracts these amazing people.
Fighting conchs
These are a few FIGHTING CONCHS and other shells we found this morning.
Banded Tulips
Kings crown
Lightning whelk
After listening to one of the 6th graders at the Sanibel Shell Fair and Show last week in my video, I saw this LIGHTNING WHELK and immediately assumed this was a female since the color is getting a little lighter. Hmmm. Ya think?
Pear whelk in scallop shell
I always love to see PEAR WHELKS! They just seem special to me.
For those of you who like to keep up with the changes at Blind Pass, I made a little video today. You can see the differences with the tide change and of course, the changes that occur everyday with the sand shifting by the wind and current. 
Shellicious Shelling
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Sunrise shelling on Sanibel
This is a rare photo. I can’t help it- I’m just not a morning gal so I rarely get to the beach to see sunrise. I know, I’m not your usual sheller but this isn’t your usual shelling day either. Colder temperatures (low fifties this morning), high winds, new moon and very low tide make for excellent shelling so I couldn’t resist being an early bird (ok, the time change helped). So check out all of the early bird specials!
Molly and Jill's shelling bucket of goodies
Molly and Jill's horse conch, moon snail and true tulip
Molly and Jill had to share a bucket since they were finding so many fantastic shells. I was so tickled that Molly told me that she follows my blog (!) and before they went to the lighthouse yesterday, she made Jill watch my WENTLETRAP VIDEO so she would know what to look for. She called it “Finding Wentletraps 101″. ;)
Molly and Jill (Michigan)
Heart Urchins found by Molly and Jill
Long-spined Urchin
Leisa's Alphabet cone
Leisa (Greenville, SC)
Another blog buddy, Leisa! She is another shelling sister that has contributed to iLoveShelling with her comments. She was filling up her bucket with TULIPS (BANDED and TRUE), LIGHTNING WHELKS, OLIVES, CONCHS and of course this shellicious ALPHABET CONE.
Live true tulip
This was the 4th huge live TRUE TULIP I saw this weekend. Leisa found one too.
Puffer Fish
I met a boy named Dale that showed me this PUFFER FISH. Thank you Mr. Puffer Fish for the pretty pose for my photo. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Dale!
Serpent Starfish
Look how long these arms are on this SERPENT STARFISH! Carol showed this starfish to me and also gave me one of her California SAND DOLLARS that she packages and gives away while she is in Sanibel. Thank you, Carol, I love it!
Beachcomber Carol
Low tide Sanibel beach at Sunrise near Holiday Inn
Sunrise on Sanibel
