Wentle Hunting

Team Cheri headed out again this morning into the dark for low tide at the Lighthouse searching for Minis and Wentletraps. Cheri's radar is finely tuned for Wentles (as we call them) she can spot them very quickly and can squat down and stay there to survey the area. Me? That's another story, I don't (can't) do the squatting thing, so I am doing the Sanibel Stoop all the way down the beach.  I suppose my New Years resolution should be to do some exercises so I can also be a squatter....lets see how that goes!

Though a bit chilly, there was a lot of life out there in the dark, lots of live Cockles....

I believe that's a tiny hermit drawing patterns in the sand....

 These are live Bubble Shells, they were all over the beach drawing all kinds of pictures....

a live Olive....

 and I can't help but think this live Sand Dollar was attempting to use the sand as a blanket to keep warm...

I thought this was interesting, though creepy... a skull of a bird of some sort...

 Cheri found a tiny Calico Crab that was still live, but very still.....she put him back into the warm water after his photo op....

This guy was high and dry up the beach, I tried to carry him back to the water, but Cheri ended up rescuing him in her net and putting him back into the Gulf, she said after a little while he happily swam back into the deep....I think he was some kind of an eel, he had a 'fin' that went down his back, was pretty awesome looking when he swam.

The Wentletraps started showing up in the dark.....there is a rice olive in this picture too, see it?

another Wentle...

The sunrise never disappoints here....

It made it much easier to see the minis.....

Check out this beautiful mini Lace Murex...

Cheri found another Arrow Dwarf Triton....(sorry, bad pic, a bit out of focus)

and a pretty Lacey Lace Murex...

You have to look very closely for the Wentles...you never know where they will be....

see it?

This was my fav of the day, this guy was a 'biggie'!

I'm not sure how many Cheri found, but here is a picture inside her container at one point....looks pretty good to me!

...and mine...

When the day was done, I counted 45 wentles I found....

along with LOTS of other minis!

Love those minis!

Stay tuned for more adventures....I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year! See you next year!!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Golden First Day Back!

I hope you all had the Merriest of Christmases with your families! Hubby and I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to our favorite place, our home in Ft. Myers. It seems the whole world had the same idea and headed down I95 south, so the first day was mainly avoided the traffic clogged interstates. We made it, in good time, so now it's time for some Beach Therapy!

I couldn't let this morning pass without at least trying the shelling on Sanibel. The weather has cooled off, but it still is so much nicer than up north! I met my best shelling buddy Cheri, and we headed out mid-tide, for a quick early morning stroll....I didn't expect to find much, just needed the therapy!  Cheri started out the morning with a beautiful Golden Olive! Here it is between two Lettered Olives she found... It is perfect!

How awesome is that!

I found a perfect Lady-in-waiting Venus Clam

and a HUGE Calico Scallop....with this Horse Conch Cheri pointed out and saved for me!

She found a Flat....also called a zig zag Scallop, this one will take a little cleaning....

I also found a Gaudy Nautica, these are quickly becoming my favorites with all the intricate coloring....

and I found another one for the books!

If you know what this is I would appreciate the information. After checking several books, I think it is actually a Tampa Tellin....it's the only thing close, it is shaped like a Sailors Ear, but is very smooth on the surface...it's thin and fragile, I will keep this one, and investigate further!

I enjoyed this morning's mini adventure, we will start paying attention to the tides this week since they are going to be Negative lows (really low!) ;) Hopefully we'll have some great adventures to share!

Stay tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Twenty Years Ago....

Twenty years ago today I married my walking partner and best friend. For our Honeymoon, we came for the very first time to a little island we had heard of from a friend, called Sanibel. We stayed at Sundial Beach Resort, who would have ever guessed that today, twenty years later, we would walk in the same tidal pool in front of Sundial! How cool is that?

We actually started the day at Jerry's for breakfast, then headed to the lighthouse. It was so foggy, you couldn't see the lighthouse itself! If you really look, you can see it....just barely!

It was a nice low tide, and there was lots of life out there....See this BEAUTIFUL True Tulip?....

 Occupied by a Hermit Crab....

This Calico Crab was all snuggled down waiting for the tide to come back in....he was looking rather grumpy.....but Cozy!

These are squid eggs! They were just nonchalantly floating along the tidal pool....

We found very little, mostly minis, so we decided to go to another beach and check it out there, we still had plenty of time before low tide. On the way back the the sun had burned off the fog around the lighthouse...

But it was still looming over the Gulf...

Here is what I found....

We headed West down the beach a little further, and ended up in front of Sundial, the tidal pool had very little in it this time...Another pretty True Tulip

 Occupied by another Hermit Crab...I'm thinking he needs a bigger shell!

This Lightning Whelk had one of those Big Red Hermits in it, like I showed you the video of the other day....remember Sebastian? 

I scooped up an Apple Murex....that was also occupied and got this little guy too! He was not happy to be out of his comfort zone, so after a quick pic, back he went into the pool....

We didn't even see many live Lightning Whelks this trip, Hubby did find this one as we were headed back in....check out the points on this guy!

One scoop brought up this pair....they were having a serious discussion and did not want to be bothered, so they just stuck together....It's a Sharks Eye and an Oyster Drill, both occupied with hermit crabs.... 

I tried again to get a video of another live Scallop, they just will not act silly once you point the camera at them...kinda like kids, right? Notice his 'eyes' all along the edges of the shell! (click the pic to enlarge, then just click the 'x' in the top right corner to return)

I found this tiny Fighting Conch with what I believe is a Chiton on it?! Have never seen this before!

This is disturbing, I don't know what this is from, or why is was in the tidal pool, but I found this tail from something, on the bottom. It was beautiful, but It made me sad...

We had a great time, but didn't come home with large bags of shells, but we enjoyed ourselves and it was a beautiful day as always!

My finds.... (BTW, I boiled the sunray venus at the top, so it's orange now!)

Hubby's finds...

I hadn't thought about us spending the day in front of the place we spent our honeymoon until we got home.  I Thought it was a great way to start our Anniversary, even if it was and accident!

I fly back home to VA tomorrow, back to real life and cold, I have lots to do and catch up on but I hope to be back right after Thanksgiving. Hubby is staying here in Florida....such a lucky guy!!!

Stay tuned and thanks for coming along and your kind comments!

::Shelllady Hugs::