Archive for Long-Spined Urchin
Shelling For The Holidays
Posted by: | Comments
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!
Sanibel Seashell Update: Blind Pass to Lighthouse Beach
Posted by: | Comments
In the last couple of days, the seashells have been rolling in with the surf at Blind Pass Sanibel and a few so far at the lighthouse too. The above photo of a sampling of what we found so you can enjoy virtual shelling ASAP if you can’t be here right now. So go ahead…. click on the photo above and I’ll wait for you so I can show you the rest of the photos. (whistle, hum, whistle….la, la, la….)
Okay, you ready for the rest?
Look at the first photo on the bottom left part of the pic. You see where the yellowish color meets the greenish water? That’s that drop off I was talking about yesterday and where we found most of the better shells (like my ALPHY). This was at Blind Pass Sanibel Sunday afternoon.
Then the water was receding with the low tide and they started washing up on the beach….
Dayna from Sanibel (I’m sorry if I misspelled your name! My notes disappeared) with her big catch of the day… a huge HORSE CONCH. And her daughter!. Congrats!
Mindy from New York was specifically looking for collecting KITTENS PAWS.
There were oodles of them along with COCKLES and JEWELBOXES….
Oooooh, I found a FLAT!
Then we walked the beach by the lighthouse last night and found the PEN SHELLS and double DOSINIAS were littered along the shore. That’s a great sign for great shelling to come! The PEN SHELLS are the first ones to get dislodged out in the gulf after a rough seas so this could mean great shells will wash up the next few days.
Nice LIGHTNING WHELK, huh?
This teeny tiny baby crab was alive and crawling around on this very cool old SHARK’S EYE. Can you believe the color?
This LONG SPINED SEA URCHIN was still alive so he went gently back into the water.
I met 2 great gals from Kentucky looking for WENTLETRAPS Sharon and Renee (friends of HL!). I think the had been picked over by someone else but we still found about 10 wentles and lots of other goodies.
Goodies like this fabulous WORM SHELL Clark found…
We are having a very dark, rainy day with rumblings of thunder predicted all day so I’ll just wait another day to go shelling and another night to see skies like last night on the beach. I couldn’t decide which photo I like better so I’m posting both.
After North West Winds
Posted by: | Comments
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. 
Sit ‘N Sift Shelling (Video)
Posted by: | Comments
Andrea's Shell Bag
If you didn’t get a chance to get to Blind Pass on the Captiva side today to see that big shell pile I’ve been talking about the last few days… no worries, I have pictures and another video. Last night the tides brought in some sand that covered half of that amazing shell pile. So we got digging!
Blind Pass Captiva shell mound
Andrea (PA)
Andrea was on the beach bright and early and realized the best way to find the treasures in this shell pile was to plop down, grab a PEN SHELL to use as a shovel and start digging. That was her shell bag in the first picture with the ALPHABET CONE right on top of orange SCALLOPS (her favorites) TULIPS, CONCHS, OLIVES and lots more.
Ellen (Sanibel)
My buddy Ellen found a piece of a JUNONIA. Where, oh, where are the whole ones?
Kathryn and Liz (Indiana)
Kathryn and Liz (mother and daughter shellers) say they’ve never seen it this good before at Blind Pass. They come very year to shell.
Okay, now that you’ve met the other shellers on the beach this morning, take a look at the video of us all hanging out sittin ‘n siftin. This is always such a fun way to shell because … like I’ve said before…. shellers are the nicest people on the planet.
Tomorrow is the Captiva Holiday Village golf cart parade! Stay tuned to see the iLoveShelling float!
Shellicious Shelling
Posted by: | Comments
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
