Beach Walking and Watching

The evening low tides have gotten to be after dark, and since it is turtle season, we don't do any shelling after dark, so we have been going late...until the sunsets. The shelling still isn't terrific...but I have found a few keepers....


The last few nights we have been to Gulfside park, for those of you not familiar with it, it's at the center of Sanibel island, and I have been going here for years and generally is the go to beach to try.  The tidal pools have come back, and in my opinion, that makes a big difference in the opportunity for shells. It's also my favorite type of shelling....this evening it showed us some nice treasures....one of my favorites...a Horse Conch, my favorite size!!! Beautiful Color huh?!

and just a little bit down the beach, ANOTHER!

SCORE!!!

As we went further down...there were probably 2 dozen of these live Cockles all over the beach, Cheri and I put all of them back into deeper water....hoping they would make it! It was strange, they were all about the same size, about the size of your hand...not sure why this particular spot, but  we tried to help...

Coming back through the tidal pools, there were so many of these little crabs, using anything they could find for there little homes...you have to be careful! I reached down to grab a shell and one of these guys got me! Startled me mostly but it was quite a pinch!! You can see their claws sticking out from under pen shells....

I found this gorgeous Lace Murex, just before we got back, look at the color on this guy!

The clouds were rather ominous following us, but nothing came out of them, except a great picture!!

The next day Team Cheri tried another beach, to find nothing, so we headed back to tried and true Gulfside Park....
The water continues to be a beautiful Blue-green, just as it should be! So pleased to see it everywhere like this! The picture doesn't quite capture it.

 Almost immediately we started finding shells in the tidal pool.... Banded Tulips, Olives, Lightning Whelks, a nice Gaudy Nautica, and a couple of Nutmegs....

Cheri was finding a pretty scallop, Lightning Whelks and all kinds of Fighting Conchs,

There were many minis there also, like this baby Banded Tulip and a Sanibel Turret.

Another beautiful cloud, followed us home....

Today was another Bird day....I noticed an Osprey with a fish as I was traveling along the causeway and we saw at least 2 on the beach with these pretty big fish....This one was being attacked by crows...

If you look in the next pic, right at the bottom, he ended up dropping the fish....

 poor guy!!!

Just a little bit down the beach we saw another one (maybe same one) with a fish, I think it was too big for him to fly with....

We stood and watched for a little while and then continued down the beach....I spotted this little Flat Scallop (Flat)....

It was perfect!

Unfortunately this was the only thing I found, so we decided to head to the Lighthouse just before dark.....

Can you see the spots? I saw this under water, and it looked like it was going to be a pretty good sized Alphabet Cone!!

But Alas....it was in awful shape! :(

but a little further down, Cheri spotted this Beautiful True Tulip....

and then a Paper fig, that was in GREAT shape and color!

Every trip has brought a little something....and like I always say, GREAT therapy!!

I have a few more days....Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::