Junonia shell on Captiva

A Junonia in the hand...

Yep, that’s a beautiful, perfect JUNONIA at the Blind Pass sand bar on Captiva……  in the hands of someone other than me. LOL It sure is pretty, huh? Okay, before I tell you all about who found this JUNONIA (don’t you like suspense?), let me tell you what has happened on this new strip of beach.

Clark and I couldn’t make it to the beach during the day yesterday but couldn’t stand that we were missing the shells rolling in with the west winds blowing 20 mph. So we got out our big coats (in the 40’s), knit caps, gloves and head lamp flashlights and headed to the new beach at Blind Pass at 10 pm.

Night shelling on Captiva

Night shelling on Captiva

You see that little light in the middle of all the darkness in the picture? That’s Clark’s head lamp. That’s how dark it was.

Lace Murex night shell

Lace Murex night shell

That’s a huge 2 1/2 inch LACE MUREX in the middle of all those shells. Wait, I’ll zoom in for the next picture.

Lace Murex close up

Lace Murex close up

Night shelling alphabet cones

Night shelling alphabet cones and whelk

I know this is a terrible photo above (the wind was whipping, sand was flying, my scarf was slapping my face….. you think I cared?) but I was so excited to find that 3 inch ALPHABET CONE, 2 and a half inch ALPHABET CONE and 4 inch LIGHTNING WHELK all with about 3 minutes of each other. Clark found a gorgeous candy (juvenile HORSE CONCH), an 8 inch LIGHTNING WHELK along with lots of other goodies ( I didn’t even get a chance to see them until we were in the car!). I don’t have pictures of the yet so I’ll show you photos tomorrow……but….

From the top of Blind Pass Bridge

From the top of Blind Pass Bridge

….. lets get back to the JUNONIA. I took this picture this morning from the Blind Pass bridge looking down at the new stretch of beach. All the way on the top right near the jetty is where this JUNONIA below was found.

Junonia with shells and water

Junonia with shells and water (staged)

This morning, I climbed over the jetty rocks to get to the shell covered sand bar to see somebody familiar jumping up and down. I ran over to find Anthony from South Seas’ Swimtastics holding out his first ever JUNONIA. You see, I had just met Anthony this weekend because he had a booth too at the Captiva Holiday Marketplace. He just moved here with his family four months ago and had never heard of shelling before he stepped into our iLoveShelling booth on Friday.

Junonia seashell Captiva

Anthony's Junonia

Yep, you guessed it….. a newbie sheller on his second day ever shelling in his life and he finds a JUNONIA. HaHaHa or should I say HoHoHo. He went out shelling yesterday for the first time to see what all the fuss was about and found 2 huge 10 inch (I think that’s how big he said) WHELKS and other treasures so just had to get back out there today. That’s when he hit the jackpot. His excitement was so contagious that I think at one point we were both jumping up and down. Did you ever think shelling could be this exciting? Lucky guy! He said he was going to go buy a lotto ticket on his way home.

The Point of Shelling

The Point of Shelling

I’ll get my other photos together and continue this adventure with you tomorrow. Until then…. Shellebrate!