A Live-ly Evening!

Last night and tonight are going to be the last opportunities to do any good shelling during low tide, if I want to do it in the daytime.  So, understand why I was worried when the summer thunderstorms started as early as 1:00 yesterday! Low tide was to be one minute before sunset, at 8:20 pm! We had some pretty impressive storms with lots of rain, lightning and thunder.  We even had rain with sunshine!  The last one blew through at about 6:15, so off I went!  It looked like I had made a good choice!

Sanibel Lighthouse from the causeway

The area around Gulfside City Park, where I was heading (from the causeway)

 When I arrived it was beautiful, though I did keep an eye on the sky!

 I walked down to Sundial resorts, (this is the first time this week I have felt like I could without getting stuck by a storm!) Sundial has some great tidal pools that tend to show up during low tides. Tidal pool searching is my favorite type of shelling.

I passed this on my walk....does anyone else see a palm tree?....or am I just in a tropical state of mind?! :)

I could tell right away that this was going to be fun, the water was shallow and very clear! Here is the edge, believe it or not, this pic is taken of the small waves 'lapping' up against the shore. No, I did not see the tiny turkey wing or lightning whelk until I reviewed this pic!! :(

This was so much fun! I was walking in water about knee deep and could see very clearly!

Most of the next pics were taken into the water, so you might see a little bit of distortion in some of them.

It was so much fun....so much life going on under the waves!

A live olive out for a walk....

 A HUGE Millipede Starfish...

Lots and Lots of live pear whelks, this one I had to pick up to get a better picture, he was eating a live sharks eye, I thought about sticking around to get the shell, but I had so much 'ground' to cover and it was quickly getting darker!

Another live pear whelk....love these guys!

 There were many sand dollars, this guy was also out for an evening stroll in the tidal pools...

And this, though broken in 2, is the LARGEST sand dollar I have ever seen!!

I just measured that part of my hand and it measures 5 inches! Just HUGE!

I did manage to pick up a few treasures along the way, mostly mini, which are normally much prettier!

I had to leave my temporary paradise as it was quickly getting dark, and I had quite a long ways to go to get back to the car, but I had a blast!

The sky got more and more colorful, so I snapped a few pics along the way back...

It was a full moon, so I attempted to catch it too, though a little fuzzy, still a nice photo op!

Here are my finds...

(top row, l to r) Olives, sharks eye
(2nd row) Minis...Top shell, Tuban, Nutmeg, lightning whelk and Horse Conch
(3rd row) juvenile fighting conchs
4th row..Scallops, banded and true tulip minis

These minis had so much color!

Love the color on this true tulip!!!

So stay tuned, not sure if I will go out tonight, the low tide is after sunset, but I might just check it out up until dark!  After that I will go back to sunrise shelling, which may or may not work out with the tides...we'll see!

::Shelllady Hugs::