live sand dollars at sunrise sanibel florida

We’ve been waiting for a morning low tide that exposes parts of the beach we haven’t seen for months… and we got it this weekend. Near the water’s edge, we witnessed hundreds of live SAND DOLLARS uncovered for a short time while the tide was at its lowest. I could hardly walk without almost stepping on one so I searched higher on the beach in a few of the tidal pools. I had some great luck! I found LIGHTNING WHELKS, PAPER FIGS, APPLE MUREXES, BANDED TULIPS and so much more…

seashells at low tide sanibel island florida

This is how I saw most of the shells… half buried in the sand.

banded tulip in sand on sanibel beach

I was thrilled to find this perfectly colorful KINGS CROWN CONCH. A baby!

kings crown conch juvenile

I met Jan from Illinois who found this perfectly colorful LIGHTNING WHELK…

Jan illinois sanibel sheller

Hers is no baby. It’s a gorgeous adult.

lightning whelk sanibel island sea shell

To make the shelling even better, we had a little cool front come in on Saturday so the winds changed from the east to the west. That’s what we like to see in Southwest Florida! So with low tide mornings and west winds, today was some great shelling. I met Karley and Julie on Friday morning before the winds had changed but they still found a few treasures to start the week off. I hope you guys found lots more goodies this morning!

karley julie visit sanibel from denver

Unfortunately, I’m having troubles downloading the video I took this morning of my shell hunt to show you how to spot even more shells that are half buried in the tidal areas. Ack! It won’t download tonight! So I hope to get that fixed in the morning (after I get back from low tide shelling) so I can show you.

seashells on the beach of sanibel

Until then, think about joining us on Thursday November 7 for our iLoveShelling cruise to Cayo Costa in the morning. The tide will be low and after a few more days of this north west wind, the shelling should be awesome. Meet lots of other folks with the same shelling passion! CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

shelling adventures trips by pam

SEASHELLS sea shells