sw florida miniatures seashells

Looking at this top picture you will see most of the shells I found last evening at Fort Myers’ Bunche Beach. Can you identify most of them? While you try to figure out each of the shells… Wanna go on a little CYBER SHELLING hunt for shells with me? All righty then let’s play a little “I Spy”! Don’t mind the “dirty” bling (a mix of peat and other good stuff that gives food to so many living organisms)… just look for some of those sweet little minis that we all love by clicking on the next image to enlarge…

cyber shelling miniatures Bunche Beach Ft Myers

This will give you an idea of how “big” those little gems are by looking at my handful of sweet somethings…

handful of small shells fort myers florida

As much fun as it was collecting minis, I was tickled pink when Clark showed me his fave find… A ROSEATE SPOONBILL FEATHER.

roseate spoonbill feather bunche beach FL

We didn’t see any ROSEATE SPOONBILL birds but we did see immature WHITE IBIS birds. Ibis juveniles are mostly brown but these guys have started molting out of their plumage becoming adults.

juvenile ibis bunche beach fort myers florida

Here are four immature WHITE IBISES hanging out with a SNOWY EGRET and a BLUE HERON.

birds of Sanibel Fort myers sw Florida

It was a bird lovers paradise last night. I even saw the dance of the REDDISH EGRET…

reddish egret bunche beach fort myers

Before it got dark, we stopped at Sanibel Lighthouse Beach just in time to catch a beautiful RAINBOW…

rainbow over sanibel water shellers

Samuel, Sheila, Gene, Freida (Cape Coral, FL) and their family in the photo above must have hit the pot of gold under the rainbow. They found all of these in the water…

sea shells lighthouse beach sanibel florida

I found another pot of gold under the rainbow when I met Bill, Jody, Brooke, Brandon, Laura Beth and Gramma Kaye. A golden family of shellers from Alabama.

family Sanibel Island beach with rainbow

 Okay, did y’all identify most of the shells in the top picture? Errrr….I have to confess, once I got going on my own I.D.s (and put my reader glasses on), I realized that some of these shells weren’t as obvious as I thought. There were a few that I had to look up… like the PAPER BUBBLE and TURRET. I failed my own test! hahaha I hope you do better than I did! I know the photo doesn’t show both sides of the shell, but if you know what #8 is by looking at this photo or you have a better idea if I misidentified anything, please let me know. Whoops! How embarrassing! LOL (blush, blush)

2.   Paper Bubble – an AMBER GLASSY BUBBLE
3.   Marginella
4.   Rice Olive
6.   Wentletrap
8.   Ummm. Why did I put that in there? I have no idea what it is. LOL Best guess?
9.   Dark Cerith
10. Pitted Murex
11. Turret
12. Oh geez- I’m just going with baby whelk so cute!
16.  Fish Vertebra

Do you love shelling? Would you like to meet other shellers who love the beach and its treasures just as much as you do?  Do you want to learn more about shelling in Sanibel and the out island islands? Join us for Shellabaloo 3!

Island Inn Shellabaloo 3