shell mound on Captiva florida may 2014

What a weekend! The shelling was pretty spectacsheller on Friday, but honestly, it was just as fun meeting so many shellers that have commented on my posts before here on iLoveShelling and on iLS Facebook. Like Heather Gray from who found the sweetest JUNONIA as it washed up at her feet. Shellzam!

heather gray with junonia captiva florida

Look at these other amazing shells she found too…

shells and coral of captiva

I was so thrilled for her especially since I felt like I already knew her…

heather surrounded with shells on Captiva

It was so much fun to finally meet Jodi from Indiana (with hubby Ted) at Blind Pass Captiva as well.

jodi ted from indiana visits captiva for shells

She was finding all sorts of fun shells and beach bling but the most exciting shells she found were from the Sanibel side of Blind Pass before and after I saw her. She found two CABRITS MUREXES!

jodi's shells she found on captiva island

This is so cool… Annie from Jordan Minnesota found this DOLPHIN VERTEBRAE …

annie jordan minnesota with dolphin vertebrae on captiva

She was in the scooping water to find it mixed in with a bunch of shells.

dolphin vertebrae found on captiva florida at blind pass

Anya from Lehigh Acres, Florida snatched up an ALPHABET CONE…

anya leigh high florida shells captiva

Did you notice Rae Ann (West VA) in the background of Anya’s photo? Well, that’s where she snagged this awesome JUNONIA cob –  in the water without a net. You go girl!

rae ann w va junonia

Judy from VA was thrilled to find all sorts of shells by sifting through the shells that were tossed on the beach…

judy from va visits sw florida to find seashells

Paul and Sveta from Lithuania filled up a leftover plastic bag from Publix with all of their souviners.

paul sveta from lithuania visit captiva florida

Lots of treasures to remember for a lifetime…

shells in a publix bag

But…. Just as fast as Mother Nature can wash all of these gems up on the beach, she can take it away as well. The first photo at the top of this post was taken on Friday late afternoon. I took this picture on Saturday around noon and you can see that the waves started to bring in sand to cover up some of the shells they had brought in the day before. It’s crazy to see the changes!

shell pile at blind pass getting covered by sand

But even though the waves were bringing new sand up on the beach, there was still a huge shell pile with plenty of shells to sift and sort through. I love when I see my shelling friends just hanging out, digging through the shells and sharing each exciting new find. My shell crafter friend Audrey ODonnell was in heaven finding all sorts of great shells for her artwork but this FLAT SCALLOP was one of her favorites of the day.

audrey odonnell finds a flat scallop shell on Captiva

Jean Holycross was there too gettin her Sit N Sift perfected.

jean holycross finds beautiful crassatella shell captiva

She found a shell she hadn’t seen before so she called me over…it was a BEAUTIFUL CRASSATELLA! Oh and of course she was thrilled about her bright orange HORSE CONCH. Candy!

beautiful crassatella and horse conch found on captiva

Now I gotta tell ya… this was a once in a lifetime photo-op. LOL It’s very rare to see Super Sheller Clark doing the Sit N Sift  (Jean called the “Jean method”) . As you can see, he was prepared for raking the waves for shells with his big, bad watershoe boots, shelling backhoe and even his knee brace just in case he “had” to be fighting waves all day. But, since he didn’t find much to scoop up in the water, he decided to sit down with everybody else and dig through the pile- thats where the action was. Oh lawd, I do love this picture.

clark sifting through shells

I also want to show you a few photos I received over the weekend. Cindy and Roger from Shellabaloo 2 are here this weekend and Roger found an incredibly large HORSE CONCH at Blind Pass Captiva in the evening at low tide. This rivals Cindy’s monster HORSE CONCH she found during Shellabaloo!

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Just after Roger found his trophy, Cindy snapped a photo of sheller Celia from Texas who found a JUNONIA in the same area at about the same time! Wow!

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I haven’t even had time to go through our loot but we found some really interesting pieces that I will show in another post. Until then, since I haven’t been roaming the beaches today, I have no idea if the shell pile at Blind Pass Captiva is still there or not. I have heard the the lighthouse beach still has the minis and the middle beaches of Sanibel have had some great shell piles come and go throughout this weekend as well. Good luck and have fun!

shells and coral found from Captiva sw florida