Archive for Wentletrap
Beachcombing Breeze
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For me, this is the perfect evening… taking a walk on the beach without any rush, without an agenda and being happy with whatever I find.
That’s how I felt this week. I just want to melt into my beachcombing and have my mind completely focused on… well… focused on NOTHING. Ahhh. It worked. And as soon as I started breathing, feeling the warm breeze and being so happy to have my toes on the sand after a long week…. the rest of the world melted away.
That’s when I found WENTLETRAPS! …And SAND DOLLARS!
I get a little “edgy” when I cant get my fix of the beach. Yes, I know, I’m VERY fortunate to be have access to the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva as often as I do but this week was so busy catching up with life in general (we all know how that goes) I didn’t get to get my normal beach therapy. There is one thing I NEVER take for granted… beach time. That’s why I think it’s important to share it because I loooove looking through wrack lines like this one near LIGHTHOUSE BEACH and knowing you love it too…
I even think it’s cool to see SEA PORK…
I was thrilled to find my treasures to take home but my favorite thing on the beach I found this week (that I couldnt take home) was seeing a mama SNOWY PLOVER and her babies. So sweet!
They are so hard to see because they blend in so closely to the sand but I snapped a few pictures of them without getting too closely to disturb them. And I got a little video! Enjoy the THREE SNOWY PLOVER BABIES AND THEIR MAMA video and if you are near SW Florida, join us on the iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa tomorrow- Sunday May 18, 2013 at 1pm at Captiva Cruises. Call 239-472-5300 for reservations.
But for now… enjoy the SNOWIES! 
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.
Every Day Is A Gift
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Yes, I am a fanatic sheller and beachcomber… but some days I want to visit the sea to find calmness and peace.
The beach reminds me that life’s treasures aren’t always obvious. At times I have to stop for a minute or two and focus on everything that is surrounding me. Then take another minute or two to refocus from the large obvious objects, to the smaller items that I may not have noticed.
There is so much there and so much more to enjoy. That’s when I am happiest.
By the look on Kelly’s face, she found a little happiness too.
Kelly (Colorado) picked up a TINTED CANTHARUS, WENTLETRAP and golden CHESTNUT TURBAN near Gulfside City Park.
I don’t see the TINTED CANTHARUS often so here is a look at the aperture side of the shell…
It also makes me so happy to find someone else that only collects one little shell to make them all warm and fuzzy (although we didnt need much help with getting warm… it was in the mid 80s. Nice!). I was happy to meet Susan from Naples…
She was thrilled to find this beautiful little COQUINA. She told me she loves butterflies and showed me her butterfly notebook which matched her sweet little COQUINA. That’s all she needed to make her day of shelling complete. One COQUINA. Every day should be that simple.
With all of the beautiful shells strung along the beach, Caryn from Michigan was quite amazed by the SPONGES, EGG CASINGS, and even the BONES (leftover bait from the crab traps that fell out) that were scattered on the beach. Ah! Somebody else that loves that BEACH BLING like I do!
And I met other beachcombers that found a few treasures but just as happy to be on the beach with the fresh air and sunshine. Here is Bernadette from Quebec City, Gertie from Arizona and Angela from Melbourne, FL (with the iLS shell ID card!)…
Ahhhh. Yes. I found my not-so-obvious treasures in seeing the happy faces of others enjoying what Mother Nature does best… reminding us that every day is a gift.
The Wonder Of Sanibel Beach Life
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After the rain stopped and the warm sunshine filled our weekend, the Sanibel Lighthouse beach was very popular for watching wonderful wildlife like this huge live HORSE CONCH Bijou is showing us in the first photo (with fresh sunscreen protecting that sweet little face!). Bill from Michigan found a different one moments later…
Three young girls look like mermaids calling the dolphins to tell them secrets…
Bruce from Eugene, Oregon was crouching in the sand filling up his University of Oregon cup with hundreds of shells…
Look at his collection of COQUINAS!
Allison from NC found everything from WENTLETRAPS to LEOPARD CRAB shells but wanted to find a pair of ANGEL WINGS to give to friend but couldn’t find them. So instead, she was collecting COQUINAS since they were like colorful wings.
Not one minute after she told me about the ANGEL WINGS, I looked down to find a pair of tiny ANGEL WINGS practically at our feet. What are the chances! We placed the wings inside one of her double DOSINIAS to keep them in her bag for safe traveling until she got back to her room. Best Wishes Allison!
Shelling worlds tend to come together and when they do, Sue and Ken tend to be there. Ken was busy collecting the miniature shells as well…
He found lots of other shells but he showed me these WENTLETRAPS, a SHARP RIBBED DRILL and a GULF OYSTER DRILL. I realized I don’t have the GULF OYSTER DRILL on my SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION page! This week, I’m going to work on getting that up to date, my friends.
You may not think the beach looks pretty in the next photo because it looks a little “dirty” at the surf line… but to me, that looks like a gold mine! That’s where all of the mini shells are hiding.
This is just a small assortment of what Clark found the beginning of the weekend. I haven’t had time to sort out our finds yet so I’ll try to get those posted soon too.
Just in case you were worried about what happened to those large live HORSE CONCHS…. after I took a photo of Bijou’s HORSE CONCH, she immediately walked it out in the water as far as she could and gently placed it back in the GULF OF MEXICO (without her mom Deanna having to tell her).
And Bill did the same thing. From all of us, Thank you for being good stewards of the sea.
Oh, and…. Join us for our iLoveShelling shelling adventure to Cayo Costa Island next Saturday! Click on the next image for more info…
Pen Shells and Beach Bling
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It has been an unusual week on Sanibel. The winds are changing directions and speed by the second which makes for an interesting site to see of all the different things that wash up on our beaches. I showed you lots of different EGG CASINGS in my last post but I found another one today… a SHARK’S EYE EGG COLLAR…
…oodles of PEN SHELLS…
but we also are seeing PURPLE SEA URCHINS…
And weird fish like this SHORTNOSE BATFISH
EEEEK! And an EEL! Yall know I love me some BEACH BLING… but EELS? They kinda creep me out for some reason.
Blllaaaahhh, Okay, now that I’m completely creeped out… I have to change the subject because I have some happy, happy stuff happening here too that I dont want to ruin! Okay.. here is a happy picture to get back in the mood of what Sanibel is NORMALLY like… having fun doing the Sanibel Stoop!
I met some awesome folks on the beach this week at the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach! This is Shelling Sister Donna R from NY…
She was on her way to finding the Sanibel Six. Yes, that ALPHABET CONE is pretty beat up but It’s still a CONE and it’s whole and HUGE!
I also met sweetie pie Katherine Haskins with her husband Tom.
Katherine love the minis so she was finding lots of different miniatures like WENTLETRAPS along with AUGERS, CERITHS and a little perfect WORMIE.
It was fun to see them on the beach together with their iLS shirts on! (teehee) Warms my heart.
I also met another awesome couple while walking on the beach today several miles west of Lighthouse Beach. Here are shellers Linda and Glen from Ohio…
Linda found an ANGEL WING! They also were happy to find their first KEYHOLE LIMPET along with these other goodies. Notice they even collect the broken SHARK’S EYES if the “eye” is still intact. Yep, they really are beautiful. I told them that when the SHARK’S EYE is brilliant blue in the middle that I’ve heard it called “Paul Newman’s eye”. This one is definitely a PAUL NEWMAN’S EYE!
Oh wait… I feel so badly that I never introduced you to Shelly (love that name!) and Kayle whom I met last week at Blind Pass when the weather was a little cooler…
I found a PYGMY OCTOPUS inside a PEN SHELL and Kayle offered to take it out in the water to put it back. So sweet!
Here are Shelly and Kayle’s gorgeous treasures from the sea that they were collecting. Keep the image of this gorgeous PAPER FIG (in the middle of this green bucket) in your mind to leave you with a happy day. See? I told you I had happy happy stuff to show you. 
Sending Warm Weather With Love
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As Jack Frost nips at the noses of you folks in the NorthEast, I want to send you some warm thoughts. I wish I could send you the warm weather too but my photos from the Sanibel Lighthouse Beach from last night will have to do for now. I was walking the up on the beach in the wrack lines and found a few sweet minis…
You may notice that something is missing from the photo above. Boohoo. For over 8 months, the photos of the shells in my hand were accompanied by my spiritual line bracelet that was given to me when I was blessed by a Buddhist Monk in Thailand. It fell off naturally… just like it was supposed to do. I miss it already but it’s okay. I know that every day is a gift so I don’t need it to remind of that any more.
Anyhoo, let’s get back to the lighthouse! Clark was working the shelling backhoe in the water just off the surf line. He was finding lots of cute minis as well but then he found something he had to have me see immediately. A juvie ALPHABET CONE!!! SUPER SHELLER CLARK is back in action! We don’t find them this small very often so it’s always exciting to see how stinkin cute they are…
Then he started really looking for the minis. We saw the “coffee grounds” and “crumbles” which are normally where we find the WENTLETRAPS. See that dark area in the water that Clark is picking through? See how it looks like coffee grounds? That’s one clue we look for when we want to find wentles and minis…
We didn’t find many of the WENTLETRAPS but we did some a few. They aren’t shown in his hand, but he found these other cuties…
It was almost dark when he found another really cool LETTERED OLIVE. Well, I’m just assuming this is a LETTERED OLIVE. It had such an unusual coloration but the form is a bit different as well. It looks like a GOLDEN OLIVE from this side (and notice that darker color strip along the lip)….
But from the other side, it no longer looks like a GOLDEN with that one brown streak down the center. I think this guy just had some growth problems but managed to overcome most of its hurdles. I think it is extraordinarily beautiful so I’m tickled Clark found it.
So I hope our little walk on the beach thawed you for a few moments because…
I want you all warmed up for my exciting post on Monday! I know, it’s a tease. heehee But I think you’ll really like it and I’m not finished with the final touches so it will have to wait until Monday. Until then…. Sending warm weather with love.
