Sanibel beached nutmeg

After hearing there was a surf advisory with high SW winds yesterday, I couldn’t wait to see the beach filled with seashells and cool Beach Bling.

cloudy morning sanibel lighthouse

 Shawn from Kansas was in perfect Sanibel Stoop position so I figured he had already found some goodies…

collecting shells Sanibel island

 He found a nice mix of shells. I looove that LACE MUREX with the link top…

shawn seashells

After talking to him, we realized that I had met his mom a few weeks ago, She’s Shelling Sistah Karen from that special day “When Shelling Worlds Collide“. Hi Karen! Now I met your son Shawn!

shawn kansas with sanibel seashells

 Massachusetts girls Kristin, Chloe and Haley were having a blast finding PAPER FIGS, SEA URCHINS and STARFISH. Most of the STARFISH were alive so they went back to the water but there were a few dried in the high wrack line. A souvenir!

Kristin, Chloe, Haley girls sanibel beach

 I didn’t see many shells on the pier side of the Sanibel lighthouse but there was plenty of SARGASSUM. This is a type of seaweed provides a rich environment for marine animals like SEA TURTLES.

sargassum

 More PAPER FIG EGG CASINGS

paper fig egg cases

Low and behold, I found a BABY’S EAR turned upside down in the bling…

upside down babys ear

 And just to get my heart racing, half way buried in the sand I saw the ribs of a LION’S PAW. I reached down to dig it out … and came up with a broken piece. That’s ok! Where there’s a broken piece today, there may be a whole piece tomorrow.

piece of lions paw sanibel

 We’ve had so many beautiful calm days for weeks and weeks. This is a wonderful thing for most people, right? But for us shellers, give us some messy weather! This wind was a start but maybe just 2 days back to back of high west winds… then it can go back to perfectly gorgeous island weather. Am I being too selfish?

low tide sanibel

 PS- The DOLPHINS and PELICANS were playing this morning too!

dolphin pelican sanibel gulf