Last Hurrah

Team Cheri went out one last time, yesterday and I'm heading home today! :(

Last Beach Report: I noticed a bit of Red Tide as we got to the beach, but it seemed to get better as we continued walking....There were dead fish on the beach, that had been there for some time, and Cheri noticed several in the water that will end up on the beach, eventually.  I actually saw a live eel in the water that kind of freaked me out....good that he's alive, though I wasn't interested in sharing my space with him! I can only assume that the dead fish will continue to drift in until something is done about all of this....now on to the fun....

I did a lot of shelling on the beach, apparently the high tide line and along the edge of where the trucks had been cleaning the beach....and found several of these bright orange Scallops....

I found this tiny Melampus along the edge of the tire tracks....

and was lucky with the Baby's Ears again this time....

 This one was the biggest I have seen!  So this is the Shell of the day for this trip!

The Olives were pretty plentiful....I found this one, that was kinda neat with the repair he had done....

Cheri found two Awesome Olives....definitely her finds for the day.....

Like she said, they were 'fresh kills', which means that they probably died as a result of all the water issues..... Cheri also found this awesome orange Turban....

 and I picked up this 'freakish' Fighting Conch....I love finding unusual shells like this!

I Almost got an Alphabet cone....

Some of the shells you find these days still has some part of the animal remaining in them, I found several Lightning Whelks, and even a Kings Crown that had just a bit left in the shell, needless to say, a thorough washing out in the water then, boiling and soaking in bleach is necessary when I get home....Didn't have the time to arrange these for a pretty picture....gotta get them cleaned up before my plane leaves!!

I love Sanibel Island, and it is so sad to see what has happened here and all of the beaches and canals nearby, even sadder is that I don't really believe that anything is being done to fix this....can you imagine? 

Take care, and I will be talking to you again soon!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Lessons at the Lighthouse

What a fun day! Cheri and I met Lori and Laurie at the Lighthouse! 

How funny is that! We all met each other on Facebook, a few years ago, Cheri and I met in person, I think 2 years ago. Lori and Laurie met in person an island a few years ago also, and have also been shelling buddies. Now I've gotten to meet Laurie and Lori...in person! They wanted to meet with us to do some Wentleing! (Looking for Wentletraps)

So meet Lori and Laurie....

And Cheri and Cheri

We had a great time, Lori started the day out with a HUGE Baby's Ear!

and pretty quickly after that, Another!

They all know that I hope to do a Sailor's Valentine one day, so any minis anyone would find, they would toss into my bag!

Laurie found this cool little piece of carrier shells all connected together!

Cheri and I each found Sharks eye operculums that we gave to Lori...

There was a lot of shell trading going on! ;)

The Wentletraps weren't very plentiful, but Cheri started lessons for them....

She would circle an area and say there are 3 Wentletraps here...

and then they would search in the circle...

Pretty quickly they were spotting them...

We had a great time, but we had to cut the visit short because storms were moving in...

I'd say they did pretty well in our short time!

Lori and her Baby's ears....and some other goodies...

and Laurie and her Wentles...she even found a little Dusty cone....

When we got back to the parking lot, Cheri gave them each a jar....that already had a few Wentletraps in it!!

How nice was this?! They were so tickled! AND They had been taught by the master Wentletrapper! ;)

and I cleaned up too! These were my treasures that everyone contributed to! Thanks Girls!

 I hope to meet with them again one day soon...My trip is quickly coming to an end... :(   Hopefully I will have one more post before I leave...Shellcrafters today! 

As you can see in the pictures....the water is brown and a little smelly....I detected a tiny bit of Red Tide at one point, but it quickly went away. The city folks were there cleaning the beach of the dead fish....so it continues here, I suspect it will for quite a while longer!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

A Bittersweet Day

I decided to go back to my 'mini vacation' spot, from yesterday, Turner Beach, Captiva Island. I don't expect to fill my bag from any shells, So I've been happy with one special shell per day.....today they were Bittersweet Shells....

This is the only beach I've seen them, and they aren't very plentiful...but today I'd say they were!
I got a second special shell today....see it?

A Flat (ZigZag Scallop)

and another!

So already my day is complete!


I can't get over seeing the clear water....and being able to walk barefoot! You can see to the bottom in my shadow...it's just over knee deep....

Guess I shoulda got a picture of my knees, huh?! :)

There is a school of HUGE fish in this pic....

I couldn't see well enough to catch them in the center of the pic....the sun was too bright! There is one I caught in this pic...

There were more birds....a flock of Ruddy Turnstone were playing on the beach too!

I found this also...I have no idea what animal it is from, but I couldn't resist checking it out!

Orange was obviously the color of the day....I found several orange Scallops of all sizes! (I couldn't resist the tellin and piece of an orange Flat, wouldn't that have been a treasure if it was whole?!)

On my walk back to the car I found this special tiny guy..... He was alive....

...but he seemed very sluggish....I helped him to the water, and then was concerned that he may not be a water turtle....the waves washed him back to the shore....so I reluctantly left him, hoping he would find his way, whichever way that was supposed to be! 

I left Captiva and headed back to the other end of Sanibel to the Lighthouse, to meet Cheri to look for some minis..... She had found another tiny Arrow Dwarf Triton!....

Today was multiple day for me....apparently worm shells were plentiful also!

On the bottom left is an operculum (door) for a shark's eye....wentletraps above that with a TINY Lightning Whelk....Worm shells and 2 shark's eye...Big and Tiny!

I decided not to take pictures of the brown/orange water at the lighthouse, I have taken Wayyyy too many of them, it was fairly clear, though Brown and fairly stinky.  We did notice some Red Tide in the air....The city had several vehicles out there picking up fish....unfortunately that is the norm here lately. 

Cheri went out tonight at took some Beautiful Sunset pictures....it makes you forget about what's going on....if only for a minute!

Stay Tuned...

::Shelllady Hugs::