Shelllady: juvenile horse conch

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Keewaydin Trip!!

A little bit north of Marco Island is a long narrow island called Keewaydin. It is only accessible by boat & has become a favorite shelling spot for me!!

Yesterday I met 3/4 of the Shell Raisers in Marco to take the Hemingway Shuttle to Keewaydin! Jolene and Cindy came down from Tampa/St. Pete and of course, I came from Fort Myers (about an hour drive).

The 4th member of the Shell Raisers, Liz, is home in Oregon in the snow!!! She should have felt like she was there, as we 'carried' her with us, even gave her a call and talked with her! We tried to face-time from the island but it wouldn't work!

The weather was a bit chilly for us Floridians ;) about 52 degrees with a light wind, so the trip over was a bit cool, but pretty quickly, I forgot that I was cold....we hit the beach at low tide and there were immediately treasures galore!

2 Alphabet Cones, and a nice juvenile Horse Conch....

followed pretty quickly by a sunray venus pair (for painting) and 4 more little Alphabet Cones, notice the one to the far right, we call that a 'Chocolate Cone'! It just means the coloring is much darker.

A few more steps and I have a Shark's eye for my dad, another Alphie, and a pretty big Lace Murex....Ok, I feel like I've been on this island only a little while, and I'm already satisfied, anything else would just be amazing!

At this point I decided to stop taking pictures and do some serious shelling! Cindy, Jolene and I all kind of went our separate ways while shelling for a little while, I found Jolene walking along the surf line to see how she was doing and she showed my this MASSIVE Alphabet cone and a beautiful Albino Fighting Conch, 2 of her favorites!

Notice the vertical line on the cone, it's a growth line, it began making it's shell bigger and the color and pattern changed, I believe it means it was on a different diet at that point.....

After we finished shelling, Jolene showed me more of her favorites...

a pretty Florida Cone, a True Tulip, A Flat (zig-zag scallop) and a beautiful Lace Murex. We have found very few Flats on Keewaydin...this is definitely a special find!!

She also found a nice sized Gaudy Nautica! Beautiful colors and pattern on it too!

Cindy had some special treasures too!! The find of the day for her was this Baby's ear, (far left) I don't recall ever hearing of them on Keewaydin, in fact, the owners of the Hemingway Shuttle had never seen one, so they were in awe of it! She also found a nice cone, a tiny spiny Jewel box, Nutmeg, she also found some beautiful Gaudy Nautica and a Turkey Wing.

We brought chairs and hung out at the beach after we were tuckered out from our beach walk, and just throughly enjoyed chatting and the beautiful view!

Jolene and Cindy have Matching hats....

The boat we came in on is directly behind me, with the blue sides....

Jolene is just Chillin'!

It ended up warming up to the 70s or low 80s and was just perfect weather!

We reluctantly said goodbye to Keewaydin until next time....

We went to the island of Capri on the way back toward the interstate, Captain Matt recommended checking out the Island Gypsy restaurant for lunch on our last trip. Jolene and I tried it and enjoyed it so we took Cindy....it's an outdoor restaurant with GREAT food!!! The lunch afterward is just another part of the adventure!!

Here are Jolene's finds for the day!

Here are my finds...I went crazy....found quite a few shells for painting/crafting...but I'd say it was a good day, wouldn't you??

Of course the Alphies were my favorite...19 of them this time!! (Notice a few Chocolates in there)

and I also found a few beautiful Gaudy Nautica!! Don't you love that pattern??

We had a great day, if you're down here, look up Hemingway Water Shuttle and take a trip to Keewaydin....they are an awesome, family owned business and you will not be disappointed!

Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Enjoying the Negative Low Tides, No Matter What!

Team Cheri got back on the beaches this morning to take advantage of another day of Negative low tide. The North winds kept the tide out for us this morning and we got to see lots of neat stuff! I took a lot of pictures, cut several out, and still have too many, so I'll keep the wording to a minimum ;) That way you can just look and not have to read too! I know it sounds silly, but it was very windy and chilly this morning, 48 degrees doesn't sound chilly to most of you from the north, but it is to me, so excuse the gloves.... The theme for the day was the many calico crabs we saw, all alive, all just trying to hide from the chill and the wind....here are a few...

Cheri found this "Worm thing" sticking out of the sand, have NO clue what he is...

There were live Scallops....see the many eyes along the shell?

and lots of these guys, I believe they are Sea Cucumbers, in so many different patterns....

and lots of Live Cockles...

the strangest thing we saw was this guy!

We think it was a Snook, see how huge he is? That's my foot down there by his tail....and he was eating a fish called a Sheeps Head! Both were dead and laying on a sand bar...