I have to start this post out with an apology, I have neglected my posting, so I will attempt to catch-up here in this one post. There are shelling trips to Bowman's Beach, Lighthouse and Blind Pass, so I have been all over the place!
Since my last post, I went to Bowman's Beach. I am not very familiar with it, but plan on becoming more familiar as time goes, especially since the very first thing I found was this!
A Beautiful piece of Junonia! .....I've found many pieces but never this dark mahogany color, or this large...you can bet I did a lot of searching for the rest of it! ;) . There was a lot of Orange at Bowmans....the picture doesn't do it justice, They were very bright....
Lots of shell piles all over the beach....
Unfortunately, not much in them but plain ol' white shells...
This Lace Murex even had some orange in it....
And the water here was very nice, more like the color it used to be....
For some reason, these Oyster groups intrigued me...so they went in my shell bag....I'll figure out something cool to do with them...
Does anyone else see a heart?
Just look how tiny this little Scallop is!
This was the only Flat (ZigZag) Scallop I found, it had a tiny chip out of the top, but I kept it anyway...
I also found a Rose Tellin, one of my favorites. They are few and far between...
The next day was a trip back to the lighthouse. I found a very colorful Nutmeg...just barely buried...see it?
Nice size and color...
Can never resist an Angel Wing, even if it is covered in Barnacles
...and check out the size of this Wentletrap!! I found it buried like the Nutmeg, it measures nearly an inch long! If it had it's little tip it probably would have been!! Gotta Love the Wentles!
The last 2 finds of the day were these Alphabet Cones....Very close to each other, partially buried....Such a great way to end the day!!!!
There was a small little Horse Conch buried with this one!
The water at the Lighthouse continues to be like root beer....
But I was still able to find some more Wentletraps...
as well as some other Minis...
I had heard that a shell pile came in at Blind Pass, so I had to go check it out. I had Shellcrafters the day before, but figured the shells would still be there....and they were! It almost looks like a mountain of shells....
The first thing I found was a Carrier shell, they are not particularly beautiful, but unusual, so into the shell bag it went!
I walked the beach for a while before sitting down to sift through the mound of shells and found yet another piece of a Helmet shell, one day.....this is on my bucket list to find whole...
The water was beautiful here also....looks tropical doesn't it?!
Back at the shell pile, I found a few small shells...
A nice colorful Florida Conch, Gaudy Nautica, Shiny Olive and a tiny Horse Conch! Pretty quickly after I sat down the sun began to set, so I had to take lots of pics....here is my favorite...
The last evening low tide, I spent at the lighthouse....My camera wouldn't work properly, so I only got a few pictures with my phone...one of this Awesome Tulip!!!
....and a calm night at the lighthouse...
Beautiful....and The noseeums chased me in....!!
So we are up to today, the first day shelling before the sun came up, Low tides are now early morning. We are not supposed to use flashlights up until Nov. 1st because it is turtle season, and they could confuse the nesting turtles. Well even though I charged up my favorite flashlight, I grabbed the wrong one, and had very little light out there...Let me tell you it's DARK out on the island, especially with the Gulf of Mexico, no city lights on one side....but AMAZING stars! My light was not very good, so the shelling didn't really start until after the sun came up....which is always amazing!
....
I figured out the camera issue, but didn't take many pics, so here is what I found the last two days combined.
They are taking a bath in bleach water....
Stay tuned, I will be much more organized tomorrow am, and will give you a much better post! The tides will be going lower every day until I leave next week....I'll keep looking for the rest of that Junonia!! ;)
::Shelllady Hugs::
The last couple of days have been a little chilly for Florida, Fall is definitely here. I went out to the beach yesterday in long sleeves because it was 62, ....I know, not cold for up north, but chilly here!!
Crazy windy too, it pushed the water out, but I found very little.
I did find another Baby's ear though!
I saw lots of broken Angel Wings
and spotted this Alphabet Cone....
It was pretty rough, so I left him for someone else.
Today it was much cooler, 54 degrees, that's sweatshirt weather for me! So on went the sweatshirt and I headed for the beach, there was less wind, today, but the water looked awful....root beer colored everywhere!
I found an area up on the beach where there were lots of minis, so I just sat down in the sand and took my time to look. Usually I head down the beach and look for something else, this time I just settled in and started looking.... here's a look for you too...
Did you see the wentletrap in the center?
I scooted down a few inches and looked here....
See the 3 Wentletraps in the center?
I kept on looking, slowly moving down the beach...another Wentletrap and a small Baby's ear...
Then I found this tiny guy, another Baby's Ear, so tiny and perfect. I put it on my finger for a pic, and just after this (not so good pic), the wind caught it and blew it away....I never found it! :( so sad!
After a while, my minis ran out so I headed up the beach... found all of these together stuck in the sand...a Banded Tulip, Juvenile Fighting Conch, Small Pear Whelk and a nice Shark's eye.
Also this true Tulip and nice pointed Fighting Conch...
...and an ALMOST Flat Scallop
I found this odd shaped Pear Whelk and Kings Crown covered up in the sand also
The minis were the highlight for me though....here they all are...added a few more Wentletraps to my collection!
...and here is another Tiny Baby's Ear (next to the dime) to show how small it is!
Stay tuned!
<<Shelllady Hugs>>
We are back home in Ft. Myers! We got here just in time for me to go to my Shellcrafters on Monday. Have I ever mentioned how much we enjoy it here? The tides aren't real low here, but I decided to head to the lighthouse today for some much needed Beach Therapy. Pretty quickly I noticed that there were lots of shells washed up high on the beach, I first spotted these guys...
see the red circles?
Those are Baby's Ears! They are not readily found....and I ended up with 7 of them!
That right there is what I would call a good day!...
Then I started noticing minis....all over the place, in the water, along the edge of the water and up on the beach...
I kinda wished I had tweezers, there were so many tiny guys, click on the picture to enlarge it and so some cybershelling!
I also found lots of these transparent shells....the picture makes them look sort of Milky, but they are perfectly clear. I have never seen them before. This is definitely going to require a search in my books!
Eyes and Ears.....and a Gaudy Nautica
I came home with my pill bottle full of minis.....another reason to call it a good day...
and 61 Wentletraps of all sizes...
And a nice colorful Rice Olive...I've never seen one like this!
I did find 2 Alphabet cones, both were misses :( Broken and Worn.
The water was a lot greener at the lighthouse today, but you could see the line out a bit where the 'root beer' colored water was lurking....see the line of dark? It's so sad to see, hopefully they will stop soon, and we will get back our beautiful blue-green water.
Stay tuned!
::Shelllady Hugs::
