i Love Florida! Whoever made this wonderful seashell sign made out of ARKS, must love it too because after a couple of days of rain (to water the plants) and continued wind this week, it has turned into spectacular weather on the beach with shells starting to roll in on the east end of Sanibel near Lighthouse Beach.
You know I love peeking in shell buckets so I figure you do too, right? Marybeth (from RI… but too shy for the camera) had such a beautiful collection of mini shells in her pink bucket separated by her larger shells in her bigger blue bucket. I think my faves would be the DUSKY CONE and WENTLETRAP in the pink bucket and the NUTMEG in the blue bucket.
Ronetta from Indiana forgot to bring her shell bucket along on her beach walk so she cradled all of her faves in the palm of her hand…
Since she didn’t have much room, she collected some mighty fine primo shells. I know you spotted that candy but I hope you can see how gorgeous that SHARKS EYE is with the bright blue center. We call that a “Paul Newman’s Eye”!
I also met Julie with her mom Pat from St Louis.
They had only been on the beach 5 minutes when Julie found this perfect PAPER FIG with such fabulous color…
I found a few goodies too but I stopped in my tracks to see this BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER…
I’m still trying to learn the different breeding plumage since most bird species change colors with their breeding seasons.
This BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER is dressed in its “Adult Breeding” plumage with the black belly. I’m not even sure I would recognize this bird in “Adult Non-Breeding” plumage since it doesnt even have the black belly. Really… if you can believe it… there is a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER without a black belly. Hmmm…. shell identification is so much easier!
You can see where we found most of the best shells and the birds by this next photo. You can see the lighthouse way in the background at the furthest point which is about a 15 minute walk.
Remember I showed a picture of the erosion at Tarpon Rd Beach Access on my last post ? Well it is already built back up as of yesterday evening… and there are shells on the beach! Yep, it can happen that fast, folks. AND…. There should be even more shells showing up soon because right now as I write this Sunday morning, we have experiencing 20mph north west winds. That should push more shells on our shores any day now!
Can’t wait to come back in July for a week…
That is a real nice ‘sign’, made with care and glad you got a picture of it. Amazing how the beach erosion repaired itself!
Oh, I forgot to ask you what kind of shoes you wear on the beach? Thanks!
Does Mike Fury still take people shelling and fishing?
Love your site!
Sure wish I had a private plane so that I could just jump in and come down there whenever the shelling promises to be good! LOL Can’t wait to see what’s next in your posts…yahoo for strong NW winds! Blow ye winds of May, blow!
Beautiful weekend to be on Sanibel !
Beautiful bird, beautiful fig shell, beautiful images!
Keep piling up those shells – I have a week to get there!!
Kim, I hope to ‘hear’ exshellent shell reports from you next week! We only got about an hour and a half of shelling in last Friday (5/3) not much time and didn’t find much!! It’s up to you!! :)
Less than 2 weeks and we will be arriving at Tween Waters with granddaughter, Coral. Can hardly wait!
Beautiful pics Pam! I love the Black-bellied Plover. I am trying to learn all of those shore birds too. They are very difficult – especially the small ones…so many similarities. Happy Shelling!
Beautiful birdie! Great shot of the fig shell with Gulf in the background.
Gayle, I wear water shoes on the beach so broken shells do not cut my feet.
Hey Pam – I sure could use a warm Florida shelling day! It’s been cold and raining here in TN. We had a black bear visit 6 times in the last 4 days – got a picture of him lying by my back door with his head in the garbage can (empty) – I think he was inhaling! ha. What a hoot. JL