Bag Lady Night

We decided to try our luck again last night, so Team Cheri headed out on another adventure. It was obvious pretty quickly that the shelling was not going to be as it had been the night before.....Pretty colors that we can't resist picking up....Scallops...

Olives, Tiny Horse Conchs....

I even found a first for me....Cheri called it when she saw it, and I looked it up...it's called a Beautiful Crassatella...

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the point closest to my rings is a vivid orange...
Here are a couple of better pics in the daylight...

We decided to head back to Gulfside, still a few hours before the low, but still a nice walk....Once again we were greeted by a Cane Toad....these guys are so Huge....I thought at first it was a Rabbit!!

We walked past him, giving him his space (after his photo shoot) and headed to the beach, Cheri very quickly found an Alphie (Alphabet Cone)...not perfect, but good enough for me!! 

We walked a long way, and saw very little....even those Millions of Dosinia that were there the night before were gone!  She did find a Huge Horse Conch buried....

We left him for the next 'Avid Sheller'! ;)

I found, what we call a Pony, a middle sized Horse Conch....with some nice color...

....and we found some Horse Conch Egg casings, that appeared to be empty!

 That's great because it means that hopefully they will grow up and we will be on our way back from the awful Red Tide last summer! BTW, I wanted to mention that the water by the causeway has been a beautiful blue everytime I've gone across it these last two weeks....such a welcome change, I hope it stays that way!

Ok...Back to the beachwalk...

Cheri Found a Big Horse Conch that she decided to keep....though its covered with tons of barnacles....

The color and the tip look really good....so this will be her project for a while!!


Further down the beach we started noticing trash and toys spread all over the place....funny, we had just mentioned that it had gotten better....

well that thought was very quickly over!!  We gathered up at least 6 Beer cans, cups, straws, plastic bags, wrappers ....and lots of toys scattered everywhere...mostly broken.

Cheri stuffed what she could in her backpack, I carried a bag full, she had a bag of trash and was dragging the boogie board.....couldn't believe the mess! I wish I had taken a picture of us walking back....remember, she already had a huge Horse Conch she was carrying! We had to put something down if we saw a shell we wanted! Cheri got pretty good at picking up stuff with her toes out of the water!!

I don't have a lot of pictures because my camera battery died, most of the pics were taken by Cheri with her phone. On the way back, we hit a 'Honey Hole'. The sand was very soft, almost like quicksand, if you stood there you would sink to your ankle....and she spotted this BEAUTIFUL Alphie!....

See anything else there? We both dropped our bags and toys and decided to take our time and check this all out....

She also found this Banded Tulip....that we think is not a standard one from here....the markings are so distinct...

and it's even a bit heavier than a standard Banded....

Here are the ones shells she kept for the night...

A couple of Big Dark Olives, that beautiful Alphie, the Banded and a HUGE Shark's Eye!

I kept a few more! ;)

Oh, I almost forgot! I got an Alphie too!! :)

As usual, we had a GREAT time! Hopefully more to come!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

A Night Time Easter Bonnet

My time is growing short, as usual I'm trying to do as much as I can while I'm here in SW Florida! It just so happens that the tides are only offering one High and one Low tide per day. The Low is late so being the Avid shellers we are  (I know many of you have another word for that!) Team Cheri has to check it out!
The tides are not super low, but we still need to see....right? And I will never pass a chance for a beach walk!

I was going to miss the sunset, so I took some pictures from the car on the Causeway headed to Sanibel....

It was immediately obvious that the new West Winds were making a difference on the shelling.... My Dad's favorite shell was a Shark's eye, I always feel like he is there when these pop up!!....and this was the first shell Cheri found! ;)

There were so many Shark's eyes and Apple Murex....

Banded Tulips....

Lightning Whelks of all sizes...even larger ones!!

Then we started seeing True Tulips!!!

This one I found....I thought it was a Beauty...

Then Cheri picked this one up!.....Even more Beautiful, and HUGE!

Then more!

Then came the Horse Conchs.....Big Ones..

Buried under the sand....see those knobs??

and Medium/small ones!

Cheri found this Helmet piece....we wish it had been complete!

I found this amazing Olive!!! .....it's HUGE and perfect!

Finally a beautiful Alphabet, Cheri found this buried just waiting....

...and a piece of a tiny J!!! (Junonia)

She also found this Dolphin Vertebrae...(I think)...

I even found Bubbles and some Wentletraps....in the dark...see it?

I found what I think is an Apple Snail (freshwater) at the Lighthouse!

It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's nearly transparent.

Since the red tide last summer we have found very little live stuff...tonight I saw more than I had seen in a long time, a live Lightning Whelk...(forgot to take a pic)
A Sea Anemone...

A huge live Sea Urchin....which I carried back into the Gulf since he was way up on the beach....

Cheri saved Bunches of Lined Sea Stars that were all over the place...on dry land....she took them to the tidal pools as the tide was beginning to come back in....

Look how fast these guys move!!

We had some fun watching a live Flame Box Crab...

I have been searching for a Scotch Bonnet since they began to wash in after the storm before Christmas....and have had no luck....just before we were to head home, Cheri walked over toward me, looked down...and there it was....

...and she gave it to me!! How cool is that...we call that a friend shell.....

Now to clean it up and get it ready for Easter! :)

As usual, we had a great time....were crazy tired...but would do it again in a heartbeat....

Here are the final finds for the night....turns out I got many 'friend shells' from Cheri! 

LOTS of Banded tulips! 

A HUGE Keyhole Limpet, Easter Bonnet and Apple Snail? 

Bubbles, Wentletraps, Baby's Ears, and minis

Lots of Small Dosinias for Flower making!

Monster True and others!

Monster Olive and friends

Is that an Albino Lightning Whelk, I think so!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::