Catching Up!

First, let me show you the horse conch before cleaning and after...

Before

After 

It has a hole in it, but it still has good color, so it is proudly displayed on our front porch!

The shelling the last couple of days (Thursday & Friday) has not been very good, but the weather and the beaches have been awesome!

I ran across 3 more turtle crawls, these appeared to be successful!

 

                              
I think this is so awesome, would love to be a 'turtle' person one day, and follow them!
The shelling at Sanibel wasn't so great so I decided to try Bowditch Beach, which is the far west end of Ft. Myers Beach. It was a nice park, with all the amenities....

...and it was beautiful, with very clear water...

...but there were no shells to found here either, and it is VERY touristy!

I got up on Friday, back to my favorite beach at Sanibel (Gulfside City Park). Still beautiful, but no shells on this day either!

I did spy a live sea star...

..and a slow moving dolphin...

...so I left and went to Blind Pass to give it a go. It too was beautiful, and there were LOTS of people snorkeling.

...and there I saw 2 manatees!

But alas, I left there with a nearly empty shell bag.

Saturday I went back to Sanibel, and it was a MUCH better shelling day!

I did find an Alphabet cone, but still not worth checking it off my list, it was a perfect size, but the color was sadly lacking....I did keep it anyway! :)

I can always find beautiful Scallops & Cockles...

and the apple murex (top) and juvenile fighting conchs made an appearance...

found a mini very dark calico clam, kittens paws and a pretty jewel box...

 I also found this Green Mussel shell, it was the largest I had ever found and it was in perfect shape! I love the 'mother of pearl' interior of these shells!

...and last but not least, a small very lightly colored Florida cone...

So I only have one more day of shelling, I will be back out to Sanibel at morning light tomorrow, hopefully I will find something really awesome, if not, I know it will still be a perfect day here in paradise! Stay tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Just a Morning Walk!

I got to the beach this morning at Sunrise....and the Gulf was very rough!

 Pictures never do it justice, believe me, it was very windy and quite rough, there was even seafoam!

 It's difficult to tell, but apparently the rough water went on all night and created quite a shelf on the beach.

 I knew right away that this wasn't going to be a shelling day, but a looking around and just enjoying the beach day.  So I did just that, making up for yesterday, I just looked at all that I could see, and had a nice LONG walk!

I saw two ''false" crawls. (Turtles came out of the gulf, and turned around and went back without laying eggs.) I watched the 'turtle cart' ladies come and check it out to verify that there wasn't a nest.

Lots of Snowy Plover running around, feeding in the surf....very difficult to catch them with the camera, they are so tiny and move soooo fast!

I even sat down and just stared out into the Gulf for a few minutes....just taking it all in!

I did bring along a ziplock to collect random scoops of mini shells from various shell piles, guess you could call them 'craft shells!

I couldn't resist!! :)

I hope you enjoyed YOUR day today....stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Don't Forget to Look Around!

Today was another beautiful day at the beach! I got there just after sunrise.

 Then the search began, after a very long time, I realized I hadn't looked up from the water. I always try to take everything in at the beach, not just staring for that special shell....I love it for ALL of it! The birds, people, boats, clouds, occasional dolphin, manatee or sting ray. I suddenly realized (after being startled by a person right in front of me) that I was missing so much! I was shelling and thinking about a thousand different things! 

Shame on me!! 

 The water was so crystal clear....just gorgeous!

Live Sand dollar

Millipede Sea Star....kinda looks like a huge spider...huh?!

These pelican amaze me flying in formation just inches above the surface!

Shelling today wasn't as fruitful as yesterday, but I did find what I think is the perfect size horse conch!

I still can't quite check off the Alphabet cone from my checklist, had one Fail, and a "Well, it's good enough to keep....sorta"

"Fail"

"Sorta"

 Beautiful Beaches.....see, Don't forget to Look around!!

 Here is the sum total for the day...

(top row, from left) Shark's eye, Alphabet cone, Florida Cone, King's crown
(Bottom row) Fighting Conch, and 2 nutmegs

(From left) 4 Pear Whelk, 2 paper fig

various minis, Coquina pairs, tiny lightning whelk, top shell (gold, near center) 2 fairly large auger

Apple Murex (3 top left) and Scallops

Tiny Buttercup Lucine pair

Please don't forget to look around, no matter what you are doing. There is so much more to see and enjoy!

::Shelllady Hugs::

My Checklist

It seems like forever since I have walked the beach at Sanibel. We finally made it back home to our place in Ft. Myers, and I was so excited I slept very little last night. Silly, right?! I just had to make sure I had everything with me....

Lucky shorts===Check

Lucky Bracelet===Check

Waterproof Camera===Check

Beautiful Beaches===Check, Check Check!

I am so glad to be back in our paradise, we have needed this R & R for a while, and it is just gorgeous here (isn't it always?)

The low tides are around midnight, so I just hit the beach around sunrise, and was so pleased to see the water crystal clear.  Our last trip here in February was when they were releasing the water from Lake O, and the water was much darker.  Today it was that familiar blue-green.....with several of these baby blonde cownose stingrays swimming around!

They startle you at first, but they are more afraid of you, so you just do the 'Shuffle' while in the water and they swim away. We used to see huge groups (actually called 'fevers') of these when we would come in mid summer.

The shelling seemed pretty slow at first so I took to walking in about knee deep water, it was so clear....so much fun! I found this one first....

Perfect Shark's eye===Check!

This is my Dad's most favorite shell, when I found it I sent him a quiet 'Thank you Daddy' from my heart.  But before the morning was done, I ended up with three of these guys....all huge and absolutely perfect!! I actually thanked him out loud, right there on the beach!!

Right after that I found this awesome guy!! A huge Horse Conch.

He is taking a  50/50 Clorox/water bath, and I will be working on getting him presentable.  I believe it will have great color when it's all clean, so stay tuned.

I had a lot of fun today, and I think I did pretty well....even if it wasn't low tide.

Paper Figs (center) and Jingles (top right) and just one olive

Banded Tulip (left) and two Orange True Tulips

3 Huge Sharks Eyes (or Moon Snails)

2 Pear Whelks

Still looking for that Alphabet Cone.....can't check this one off the checklist today!

Hopefully before the week is done....

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach===CHECK!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::