Shell Life on Sanibel

There was lots of life on Sanibel beaches this morning. I love seeing the live shells, that means the shells will continue to come.  I counted at least 12 live lightning whelks peeking out of the sand.

 I saw several live sharks eyes....

I've heard them called a "Paul Newman Sharks eye", because of his beautiful blue eye!

Some were live with a hermit crab...

Then I ran across this little 'village' of life

growing on an apple murex!!

 I did manage to find a few awesome treasures that were empty along my way... a couple of banded tulips...

This guy is peeking up from the sand....can you see it?

 a nice Lightning Whelk...there have been many of those to take lately.

 See the large dark 'blob' in the center....can you figure out what it is?

 It's another big Horse Conch...I left him for someone else to take home, in fact a lady that was shelling behind me quickly put it in her bag!

 This guy was far from live, but I couldn't resist getting his picture, I thought it was neat...

 A Horse Conch 'skeleton'

 Sometimes what you see peeking out of the sand 

 Is all there is.....But that's okay, as you have seen this week, sometimes you can really find some treasures, so I always check.

Like this guy....see the knobs peeking out?

 An AWESOME Horse Conch...to me this is the PERFECT size...I almost did a little dance right out there on the beach when I found him.  His color is good too, he's soaking right now with his Big Brother that I found yesterday....I'll post 'after' pics when they are all cleaned up.

On the way back to the car I found this treasure half buried....

 Another Alphabet Cone....this time it's a keeper!

Would have loved to have found this one complete...he was HUGE in his day!

I also found a few more treasures along my walk...

This colorful nutmeg..... I haven't found one of these in a while, this is my Son-in-law Brad's favorite shell.

This shark's eye was just barely peeking out of the sand...

 SCORE! Another Flat Scallop, it was a little rough, but into my bag it went!

And I couldn't resist this beautiful Gaudy Nautica.

It was so nice an calm today, and the water was again crystal clear, the tides are later in the morning, so calm winds and clear water just make it so much better.

Stay tuned....another adventure tomorrow!

::Shelllady Hugs::