Playing in the Mud...Flats!

Team Cheri decided to try something a little different, we went to Bunche Beach....which is just across from Sanibel, in Fort Myers. It has a wide flat beach and traditionally has more mud, which brings different shells....and a little different adventure! It has a very flat long area, and exposes a lot of area during low tides....

Most things on this type of terrain will be partially buried so you walk along rather slowly and look...There is a lot of live things, so you figure that the beauties are occupied.....like this King's Crown....

 But it wasn't this time!!!

There were Rose Petal Tellins....

....we ran across an area that had so many....I (we) ended up picking up so many.....I love these, and until tonight, I had very few! Here is just a sampling...

The color doesn't do these justice.....they vary, but most are a beautiful pink!

There were lots of Sunray Venus....this one was a surprise....

 A pair!

There were even some tiny pair!

Lots of minis also....Like this nice shiny Marginella....

Talk about Minis....there were several places along the beach like this....

When you get down and look closer, this is what you see! There must be Billions of minis there....I brought some home in a small ziplock, just to see what there was....I saw so many clear Bubble shells, tiny Cerith, something that looked like clear mussels...I will have to let you know later what all is in there!

Here is a tiny pair of Morton's Egg Cockles....I found a lot of these!

Today was Cheri's day for finding King's Crowns that were empty....she found several and gave them to me!! Here's just one, I think I ended up with six!

I'm anxious to see how they clean up!

She also found this perfect pair of Razor Clams....That was a first for her!

Besides these we saw LOTS of interesting live things....I had to 'hit the books' to find out what some were, some I never found out....like these guys....

I think they are tubes from an "ice cream cone" worm...that is fine packed sand in a cone shape....they turned into sand!

These LIVE Nassa's were all over the place....these guys were gathered on a horseshoe crab carcass in the tidal pools!

Cheri got this shot of a 'Tube Dwelling Anemone', (I think) 

 it was neat....when he drew in, it was just a hole in the sand.....

We found this HUGE True Tulip skeleton that was covered in Live Marginellas...

They started falling in my hand as I held it for Cheri and I to take pics...

There were so many live Marginellas, all over the place.....(That's King's Crown eggs in the center of it)

Cheri found a couple of LIVE Wentletraps!

Here is a King's Crown laying an egg casing.....

I took 65 pictures of the cool stuff at Bunche, and chose only 30 to show, not including the ones Cheri took!  If you look closely, that is a Bald Eagle in that tree....So amazing!

...and the sunset NEVER disappoints!
That is the bridge on the Causeway to Sanibel....

I found these crazy hermits, running around in the tidal pool like crazy, I couldn't resist taking a video!....Notice the live Kings crown creeping out of their way..enjoy!

We are on to another adventure tonight....Stay tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Still Here!

Yep, we're still here in Florida! We actually moved on Saturday from our paradise on the beach of Sanibel to OUR paradise, just off of the beach in Ft. Myers! We headed down to Florida a couple of weeks ago, expecting the worst and ended up enjoying the best! We got a Vacation in a Vacation! A week on the island! But there is no place like home! We have restocked our fridge, and I have spent the last two days cleaning shells from the last weeks adventures!  

But I digress...our last adventure, last Thursday, Cheri and I had a few minutes to spend at the beach (3 hours) so we went on a long walk to see what we could find... The water was pretty clear...

The shelling wasn't crazy, but we were pretty steadily picking things up... today was going to be an Orange kind of day...We each found a Carrier Shell, along with some tiny Horse Conchs, a tiny Cantharus, & Orange Scallops and Jingles.

I also found a tiny Marginella....

Cheri, The Flat whisperer, found another awesome Flat!!

We came upon a small little area with a group of shells, and we just sat down and sifted through the shells.....we both did pretty well there! Cheri Found 3 Alphabet Coned, 3 Nutmegs, a DARK Lace Murex, 5 Florida Conchs and 2 Olives...these were just her favorites!!

 I didn't do too badly either...Some of the treasures I found were Olives, a Helmet piece, 3 Florida Cones and 3 Alphabets, along with some Worm shells....

Check out this HUGE Olive Cheri found!...

 This is the dark Lace Murex....what a Beauty it is!

 She also found a Goldie Lace Murex on the walk back!! So unusual!

She spotted a Flat that she gave to me, and I found this unusual colorful Scallop....

 This was Cheri's last trip, as she had to head home, but will be back in a few days....All in All, I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Ok, all the shells are cleaned up...Today was spent at Shellcrafters, so tomorrow I'm going back at it, I only have a few days left....wish me luck, and Stay tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Pieces of Spots and MicroMinis!

The shelling lately has been pretty slow, but today we found some Micromini's to go through...some so small, we didn't even try to get them!! We were greeted to the beach first thing by this guy...a Ghost Crab, he came up and just sat there so we could snap his picture....then very quickly scooted on down the beach, in fact he moved so quickly he went between Cheri's feet as she was taking a step! I love these guys!

I found a mini scallop that nearly glowed in the dark....

Then nothing for a long time....but we had a sunrise that never disappoints!

I did find a perfect Banded Tulip...

I had a little heart palpitation as I saw this peeking through the sand....

 But alas....only a piece of an Alphabet Cone!

Cheri and I always say "Look for Spots" hoping it will make us find and Alphabet Cone or a Junonia....one can always hope! Well for the second time today, I saw spots, but only pieces!  There is also a small Jasper cone (bottom) a Rice Olive (or dwarf olive) and a teeny little Lightning Whelk Micro Mini, a Tusk Shell and a Well-Ribbed Dove shell.

We did see a Manatee on the beach!! :)

Then we started finding micro-minis...another Waxy Polygyra on the head of a Penny!

 Dwarf Olives, (Rice Olives)....

And I believe this is a Micro-mini True Tulip and Lightning Whelk...must be newly 'hatched'!

 From the left, 2 Coffee Melampus, and a Green Erato! (Never found one before, and it was recognized by someone who read this!...Not in my books!)

Cheri found a Scotch Bonnet!! Not perfect, but he went home with her anyway!

She found this Live Lightning Whelk also, aren't they beautiful?

Here is the mini's I found today....One day I'll collect enough to try a sailors Valentine!! That's one of my dreams, and I will need many more days like today to have enough! Nice group though, don't you think?

As slow as the shelling is, I'm going to keep checking things out and reporting back to you, so Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::