Archive for Video
Ever Changing Blind Pass Sanibel
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It sure feels good to find an ALPHABET CONE again! I’ve been stumped finding the SANIBEL SIX lately so I was excited to find this baby within a half hour of arriving at Blind Pass Sanibel yesterday evening for a somewhat low tide at a .4. I still didn’t find the SANIBEL SIX though since I couldn’t find a TULIP that was in good enough shape but I’m subbing that bright orange CHESTNUT TURBAN on the right as a good find to be very happy.
See how that sand bar has moved right to the beach now? You never know what to expect the beach to look like until you walk out and see if for yourself. Always a surprise.
The tidal pool was loaded with live FIGHTING CONCHS …
On the other side of the tidal pool, shellers were lined up along the shoreline to catch the seashell loot washing up to the beach.
I met so many cool shellers like Joe and Kerry from Sebastian, FL…
..and Karen and Steve from Michigan…
Karen found two gorgeous bright orange CHESTNUT TURBANS.
Here are Tim and Mary Ann (NY) showing off Mary Ann’s cool shell sifter.
I think the prize of the evening was Tim’s incredibly large FLORIDA SPINY JEWELBOX with attached valves. It’s terrific!
Anna (West Virginia) was tickled pink as she filled up her strainer with shells.
She found FIGHTING CONCHS, MUREXES, COCKLES, SCALLOPS and a pretty little TRUE TULIP.
Bob and Johnnie (TN) were on one of the shell piles searching for minis.
And they found them! I loooove this tiny little lemon yellow ROUGH SCALLOP…
They found some other colorful cuties too including a sweet FLAT SCALLOP…
It was a fabulous night meeting so many nice people and seeing the shell piles on the Sanibel side again.
Thank you Donnie (the cone man) for letting me know I needed to get down to Blind Pass to see this! Yes! I needed a break from that stupid camera any way. No, I didn’t take any of theses photos with the J1 and by the word “stupid”, I think you can tell I’m still frustrated with it ;( . Anyway, I took a quick little video with my trusted little Panasonic DMC-ZS6 to pan the beach to show you exactly what it looked like and how the beach has changed…. yet again. Oh, and sorry about the sound. The wind noise is horrible but oh well, I just wanted y’all to see it any way.
UPDATE! Set your DVRs and Tivos for Sunday morning!!!
I forgot to mention the Sanibel/seashell story I spoke in my about March 1 post should be airing this Sunday, April 22nd on CBS Sunday Morning.We don’t know exactly when the segment will air, but the show is on 9 – 10:30am (EST) and Bill’s pieces usually run towards the last half hour of the show (10-10:30 Eastern). The disclaimer is that this is TV, and anything can happen – so it is confirmed best to all of our abilities.
Seashell Cowboy Helps Save The Planet
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Garrett is a true seashell lover. He is learning so much about seashells because he loves how beautiful they are and is fascinated about how live shells are a vital part of our ecosystem. When he visits Sanibel from his home town in Georgia, he likes to volunteer at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum to help with anything they need. He just wants to be close to the shells and to learn more. I feel fortunate to have met him at Blind Pass to see his passion for learning how seashells (and Garrett too!) are helping save the planet.
While doing more online research on the subject of “ameobicytes” on seashells, I didn’t find very much information but this great article from the Discovery Channel popped up! Click on this… Discovery Channel seashell article to learn more.
Seashells Sighting While Fish Are Biting
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So Exciting! When I arrived at Blind Pass Captiva yesterday morning, I saw that guy catch a fish while everybody else was wallowing in the joy of the big shell pile. Happiness.
Chris (Calgary, Canada) found this very big WENTLETRAP right there! I was thinking the same thing as you are right now….. a WENTLETRAP at Blind Pass? I don’t see many people find them right there so that was a really good find in my book.
His daughter Kyla found a piece of JUNONIA. Any piece is a good piece!
My friends Courtney and Eileen (Sanibel) were having a blast soaking in this gorgeous day with the bonus of a huge shell pile…
Eileen found this very colorful FLAT SCALLOP … but hold on… I know you will notice that tattoo just like I did so I’ll tell you what it “says”. It’s her mother’s signature. Is she cool, or what? She is definitely a piece of art work!
Courtney found my favorite shell of the day.
I hope yall dont think I’m crazy but it’s an awesome ATLANTIC WING OYSTER with both sides still attached.
Look at the inside of this shell…it’s like opening up a beautiful pearl!
I found lots of The Sanibel Six shells but only one ALPHABET CONE. It has this crazy pointy hat on top! I know it’s old and worn but I still really like it.
Barbara was doing an excellent job of the Sit ‘n Sift filling up her kitchen strainer. So smart! One less step when she gets home to clean them. 
There were lots of CHESTNUT TURBANS mixed in with WHELKS and FIGHTING CONCHS…
A pretty BITTERSWEET CLAM!
And CORAL…
I think there was only about 5 shellers when I got the “mound” but within an hour, it was a ShellFest!
I’ve got several videos so I here’s the first one. Happy Weekend!
Tiny Trail In The Sand
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live dwarf olive
I took a lovely walk at the lighthouse beach with my friend Susan S. this morning and pointed out a few sand trails leading to live LETTERED OLIVES …
Olive shell siphon
Then she asked me what kind of shell was making this trail…
live dwarf olive sand trail
It looked just like an AUGER trail as I remembered those beautiful tracks I had photographed in 2010 then turned into “AUGER ART” . But I was wrong! It was a DWARF OLIVE. I wonder how many times I had seen them but had just assumed it was an AUGER. I know…never assume.
live rice olive shell
I like to call these tiny little OLIVES “RICE SHELLS” since they look like grains of rice. Here’s a short video of this live little cutie…
But wait! We saw more live shells. Robyn from Singapore (!) wanted to know what was coming out of this shell that was so bright orange. It’s a live HORSE CONCH! And all of that “orange stuff” is the live mollusk that made the shell….. and as I was explaining that, the animal squirted a stream of salty water at us. Ha!
Robyn Singapore horse conch
She knew she couldn’t keep a live shell so she happily walked it out to the sand bar where she found it.
live horse conch sanibel lighthouse
Fishing For True Tulips At Sanibel Pier
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BEACH BLING, PEN SHELLS and live TRUE TULIPS covered the shoreline next to the Sanibel fishing pier after high winds on Wednesday. Look closely at the bottom of the next photo… do you see that very large TRUE TULIP? It was very much alive but it wasn’t the only one mixed in with those PEN SHELLS.
The morning was so glorious, I couldn’t help but turn on the video camera to share this amazing sight with you. Boy, oh boy, I’m so glad I filmed this beach walk because I never could have explained this Beach Bling bananza. I’m so happy you were along with me….
Welcome Winter Whipping Winds
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When the winter winds start coming from the north, we (shellers, maybe not sun worshippers) welcome the chilly, high winds because we know that they will be bringing shells soon. That’s exactly what happened last night… wind gusts of 30 mph coming from the NW so I already found some goodies at Blind Pass Captiva this morning. I took a virtually shelling video to share the beach combing walk. I don’t know why I said winds of 12 mph… they were higher than that. AND I can’t believe how many good shells I missed! There was a WORMIE sitting right there and I didn’t even see it! And there was a LIGHTNING WHELK in the crevice of the rock that I didn’t see either! Dang! But I did find another one. I didn’t have my coffee yet so maybe that’s why I was a little spacey. Any hoo…. enjoy the cyber shelling…
PS- I still haven’t gotten a chance to photograph Clark’s monster shells yet so bear with me. It might even get pushed back a few more days too since this shelling weather has moved in- hopefully we will be a bit busy!
