Last Hurrah

Team Cheri went out one last time, yesterday and I'm heading home today! :(

Last Beach Report: I noticed a bit of Red Tide as we got to the beach, but it seemed to get better as we continued walking....There were dead fish on the beach, that had been there for some time, and Cheri noticed several in the water that will end up on the beach, eventually.  I actually saw a live eel in the water that kind of freaked me out....good that he's alive, though I wasn't interested in sharing my space with him! I can only assume that the dead fish will continue to drift in until something is done about all of this....now on to the fun....

I did a lot of shelling on the beach, apparently the high tide line and along the edge of where the trucks had been cleaning the beach....and found several of these bright orange Scallops....

I found this tiny Melampus along the edge of the tire tracks....

and was lucky with the Baby's Ears again this time....

 This one was the biggest I have seen!  So this is the Shell of the day for this trip!

The Olives were pretty plentiful....I found this one, that was kinda neat with the repair he had done....

Cheri found two Awesome Olives....definitely her finds for the day.....

Like she said, they were 'fresh kills', which means that they probably died as a result of all the water issues..... Cheri also found this awesome orange Turban....

 and I picked up this 'freakish' Fighting Conch....I love finding unusual shells like this!

I Almost got an Alphabet cone....

Some of the shells you find these days still has some part of the animal remaining in them, I found several Lightning Whelks, and even a Kings Crown that had just a bit left in the shell, needless to say, a thorough washing out in the water then, boiling and soaking in bleach is necessary when I get home....Didn't have the time to arrange these for a pretty picture....gotta get them cleaned up before my plane leaves!!

I love Sanibel Island, and it is so sad to see what has happened here and all of the beaches and canals nearby, even sadder is that I don't really believe that anything is being done to fix this....can you imagine? 

Take care, and I will be talking to you again soon!

::Shelllady Hugs::

A Bittersweet Day

I decided to go back to my 'mini vacation' spot, from yesterday, Turner Beach, Captiva Island. I don't expect to fill my bag from any shells, So I've been happy with one special shell per day.....today they were Bittersweet Shells....

This is the only beach I've seen them, and they aren't very plentiful...but today I'd say they were!
I got a second special shell today....see it?

A Flat (ZigZag Scallop)

and another!

So already my day is complete!


I can't get over seeing the clear water....and being able to walk barefoot! You can see to the bottom in my shadow...it's just over knee deep....

Guess I shoulda got a picture of my knees, huh?! :)

There is a school of HUGE fish in this pic....

I couldn't see well enough to catch them in the center of the pic....the sun was too bright! There is one I caught in this pic...

There were more birds....a flock of Ruddy Turnstone were playing on the beach too!

I found this also...I have no idea what animal it is from, but I couldn't resist checking it out!

Orange was obviously the color of the day....I found several orange Scallops of all sizes! (I couldn't resist the tellin and piece of an orange Flat, wouldn't that have been a treasure if it was whole?!)

On my walk back to the car I found this special tiny guy..... He was alive....

...but he seemed very sluggish....I helped him to the water, and then was concerned that he may not be a water turtle....the waves washed him back to the shore....so I reluctantly left him, hoping he would find his way, whichever way that was supposed to be! 

I left Captiva and headed back to the other end of Sanibel to the Lighthouse, to meet Cheri to look for some minis..... She had found another tiny Arrow Dwarf Triton!....

Today was multiple day for me....apparently worm shells were plentiful also!

On the bottom left is an operculum (door) for a shark's eye....wentletraps above that with a TINY Lightning Whelk....Worm shells and 2 shark's eye...Big and Tiny!

I decided not to take pictures of the brown/orange water at the lighthouse, I have taken Wayyyy too many of them, it was fairly clear, though Brown and fairly stinky.  We did notice some Red Tide in the air....The city had several vehicles out there picking up fish....unfortunately that is the norm here lately. 

Cheri went out tonight at took some Beautiful Sunset pictures....it makes you forget about what's going on....if only for a minute!

Stay Tuned...

::Shelllady Hugs::

A Long Morning Walk in Paradise

I headed out this morning a little before sunrise to take a long walk along the Gulf to see what I would find....as usual I wasn't disappointed. Although I still haven't found that perfect Alphabet Cone, I know it's out there somewhere and I intend on keeping up the search! :)

There were some pretty good shell piles along the beach, a lot of what I call 'ordinary shells' but I did manage to snag a few little goodies! Like one of my favorites, a couple of small Horse Conch...

 ...this neon orange Scallop

 ...and this beautiful orange and white scallop...you can't have too many scallops!

This nice sized Top Shell...

I think this Gaudy Nautica will clean-up nicely

Check out the beautiful pink inside of this Calico Scallop!

 Another Horse Conch and Shark's eye

 Who doesn't love the minis? I need to stock up for more crafting! This was a tiny little Calico Scallop...

I found lots of minis: Coquinas, Bubbles, Jewel boxes, a Keyhole Limpet, another Horse conch, Apple Murex, Sharp ribbed drill and a tiny Lightning Whelk!

I love these mini bright orang Rough Scallops!!

 How about this bright orange Ribbed Cantharus and Jingle?! I should do well at replenishing my Mini supply!

I believe this is another Lady-in-Waiting Venus clam, but it has a dark gray green color on it...

The inside has the purple gloss like the one I found last week.

 I had to hit the books again on these shells, I think this is a White Atlantic Semele, it is hard to tell but it has a light gold and pink tip and inside...

I found these two Lace Murex side by side in a shell pile with 2 other very large ones that were pretty beaten up....obviously a hot spot for them today!

They cleaned up very nicely!

I found this very cool Brittle Star...

 I couldn't decide if he was alive or not so I carefully put him in the Gulf...

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning...

.

I think I came home with plenty of treasures!!

Time is growing short for this trip, but there still time for a few more adventures, Stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::