A Three hour Cruise and Mini Hunting

Team Cheri has been out and about the last couple of days, on one adventure after another! Yesterday, Cheri's Hubby's Brother in Law, decided to rent a boat and learn how to drive it! So they invited me to go along, on a 'Three hour cruise'....  It was such a beautiful day!


They dropped us off at Cayo Costa for a bit, while they practiced and we walked the beach! Imagine that! We didn't go very far and ran into an area with lots of minis! 

Cheri's Hubby (left) and his Brother in law.....

Cayo Costa has always been a beautiful place to me, and it's been quite a few years since I've been!

 North Captiva from Cayo Costa point.... Check out that beautiful water

I managed to find my FIRST Speckled Tellin.....minus the speckles! ....

and a nice spiny Jewel box....

Cheri found a bunch of these tiny Bittersweets...

...we both found quite a few colorful coquinas, a couple of false angel wings, and several other minis....The Sanibel Shellcrafters need colorful coquinas so I will continue the search, wherever we go! It's kinda nice to have a specific goal!

When we got back to the dock, Cheri got these amazing pictures.....
A Manatee (with a fresh propeller wound on his back) :(

and this cool Pelican....AMAZING pics Cheri! Thank You!

This morning, Team Cheri went back out right at sunrise to find some treasures....

the tides aren't very good in the morning now, and we didn't have much luck at the first beach, we left and went to another....not much there either! But there's always something to see!

This morning there were lots of Shell Egg Casings on the beach....hopefully most had already hatched because these guys were way up on the beach and pretty dry!

This is a huge Apple Murex Egg Casing....

 On the left is Lightning Whelk Cases and the group on the right is Florida Horse Conch!

I did find a live Spiny Jewel box...

and a few minis, buried in the mud....

From The top: Dusty Cone, Juvenile Horse Conch, Wentletrap, Olive, Lace Murex and a Tusk shell

From the left: Nutmeg,Apple Murex, Bubble shell, Tiny rice Olive,another Dusty cone, Lace Murex, Juvenile Fighting Conch, Horsie, Coquina pair, Worm shell, Keyhole Limpet and another tiny Wentletrap

and of course Cheri is a Wentletrap magnet! She has quite a collection, and added many more today...this was just in one spot!

 I did find a nice Chocolate True Tulip...

Remember that Lightning Whelk Egg Casing? We decided to check it out, Cheri Split it with me and we each took half home.  This one, unfortunately had not emptied itself....these are amazing....

 Each little disk has a whole in the end where the live baby shells come out and release into the Gulf when it is time....

 I tore this ONE disk open to show how many of these Lightning Whelks there are!

 Here is a size comparison....so tiny, and they already have the colored stripes of the traditional Lightning Whelk!! So amazing!

Here's one all grown up! ...This is just an average sized one, they get huge!

Now comes the tedious job of getting them all out and cleaned them up!....

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::