Lots of Minis on a Long Walk

Yes, I'm still here! I have been very busy doing shell stuff, but not shelling! Shell Club meeting on Sunday, and Shellcrafters on Monday...am I in Heaven or what?!  Early this morning Team Cheri got back together and headed out for another adventure. The shelling was pretty sparse, but there is always so much cool stuff to see and the weather is fabulous! 

The first big question we had was what in the world is this? Neither of us have ever seen it before, and we found quite a few of them on the beach.  They are jelly-like, obviously eggs of some sort, they sink when put in the water.  I pulled out the books and searched, and the internet.  Cheri and I thought that they may be Octopus eggs when we first saw them. According to what I could find, they could be that or squid...though the insides of all the pictures I found showed the squid and octopus developed, these weren't yet...any ideas out there? Would love to find out, and I will report back when I do!

The prize find of the day was Cheri found a Maculated Baby's Ear!

...and another Baby's Ear and Button Shell

We then started finding the mini's....

I found this tiny Banded Tulip...

and this little perfect Wentletrap

Can you believe this is a Lightning Whelk? From this....

 

To this!!...

I found A Keyhole Limpet...

We each found tiny Shark's eyes

 Lots of mini's!

We found some other neat stuff as well... This Sea Pork with Spots!

and a Live Bubble Shell...

Cheri had to leave about 8:30, and it was such a beautiful day, I decided to walk back to my car at Gulfside...about 3-1/2 miles! Something I have always wanted to try!

I have a craft project I am going to start working on and need some Coquinas, so I will be collecting all I can find!

 I hit the jackpot as far as finding coquinas! There were lots of Coquinas, especially in this one area! Very tedious to pick through them, but so much fun. I also found mini fighting conchs, bubbles, murex...it was definitely mini day!

Most of the take home today were these beautiful Coquinas!

I also found this odd colored Fighting Conch...

He was live, but look at this beautiful Purple lining!! (Don't worry, he went back in the Gulf after his photo op!)

I couldn't resist this Spiny Jewel Box....

I did find a cone....a Florida Cone!

I also couldn't resist this Small perfect Pear Whelk...

and this guy!!! This is a Reddish Egret and he was in a tidal pool doing his little chicken dance...he was so funny, I could have watched him forever!!!

I tried to catch a him on video, he moved around so much it was hard to keep up with him!

Stay tuned....more adventures to come!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Birthday Week Trip #1 Day 2

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day! It was cool and dry this morning and we opened the windows and doors at our house and kept them open until well after lunch time.  After a walk around the neighborhood, we headed out to Gulfside City Park about 4:00, an hour or so before low tide. Going to the beach is always such an adventure....like that famous box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get....or what surprises the beach will present to you!

 

Today was another adventure.....the beach was covered with these little 'gooey balls' I called them.  It was almost like they were little balls of sea pork with all kinds of shells attached to them....they would trap shells around them both on the beach and in the water!

I would like to add that it was also rather smelly, with promises of getting more and more that way as they bake in the sun!!

We had a great time searching for shells, both among the gooey balls and found a few buried treasures! I didn't get a very good picture of this guy (a lightning whelk) because I was too excited to dig him up to see if he was alive or not.....he was empty so he got to go home with us!! 

I dug around in the sand and found quite a few other beauties to include 3 of my favorites, Horse conchs, a baby's ear, and several tulips!!
Here are the pre-cleaning pics of our finds for the day!! Not a bad day....this was only about 2 hours of shelling!! I will post the cleaned shell pics tomorrow. I still haven't found my alphabet cone, but it's still early!!

I did find several live jingles, which was a first for me!! I've always found one piece, there were several with both sides, and I managed to bring some home that were no longer alive...  Here are three live ones that were joined together!! I guess you could say triplets!! :)

I played with several today that were attached to the gooey balls...

I saw this awesome Sea Anemone and couldn't resist snapping his pic as he was sifting through the surf...

We found this Bald eagle that had taken over the Osprey Nest at Ocean's Reach, and heard that earlier today there were a pair....how awesome is that!!!

We had an awesome day of Beach Therapy and it was such a beautiful day.....I just have to share...so sit back, crank up your speakers....and just relax for a few seconds!!!

More tomorrow!!

::Hugs::

Cheri