Birds, Scallops and Crabs oh my!

This post will have a couple of day trips on it because I have neglected my posting.  As it has been lately, the beaches are amazing, the weather is wonderful, the shells....not so much.  But you know me, the beach walks are my favorite and much needed therapy and my trip is quickly coming to an end....

Team Cheri continues to hit the beaches early, in the dark, mainly because of the cool things that are out there....Tuesday was Tellin day! We didn't find much else, but as we were heading back, just after sunrise, Cheri noticed a few tellins...the more she looked the more she saw! It was amazing!! We both filled up our scoops with Tellins...they are actually called Alternate Tellins...

I love them because they make beautiful flowers....I couldn't believe how many there were!

Wednesday was Scallop day..... as we were walking the beach, we noticed many live scallops on the high tide line, 

I had to take a video...these guys are so cool...notice the row of eyes along their shell on the top and bottom....

Cheri knew it was long time before they would see water so she began to put them back in the gulf first it was a few here and there, then it got ridiculous....there were SO Many! I joined in and she was filling bags and I was filling my scoop and putting them back in.....

It felt like there were hundreds of them out there!!!

Of course, I always have to get a shot of the sunrise....I love this glow!

Today was Crab day....the beach had so many Flame box Crabs...they are the coolest looking things, and some of these were really small!.....

Aren't they amazing?! They were a lot of them out there...I won't bore you with too many pics, but I couldn't resist taking their picture!

I did see one small calico crab out there with them.....

The Pelicans and Skimmers were out there too....obviously it was breakfast time!

I just love these guys! Notice how he looks like he has a bowl haircut!! :D

In one area, we ran across a HUGE school of fish....notice the dark area in the water...the water was crystal clear and you could see there were hundreds of them in there!

and here came a couple of dolphin....!! I just knew we were in for a show! Of course, I didn't get it....but he did one fast pass toward the shoreline....

Then just slowly followed them along the shore....

We were hoping to find a few Flats on the walk....we found several partials....

I finally did find one with a small chip out of it....

Cheri got one too!

I did find a nice Shark's Eye....

a cute little Bittersweet...

a piece of a Lions Paw...

and Cheri found a Junonia Cob

and a couple of cute minis...a true tulip and Bright orange Scallop

as I said, my trip is rapidly coming to an end, hopefully I will have another couple of adventures to post before it does!!

Stay tuned....

::Shelllady Hugs::

Full Moon at the Lighthouse

I met Liz at the Lighthouse this morning, she is another friend/admin from the Shellinators facebook page! We started out with only our flashlights, a full moon and the Lighthouse Light to guide us! My camera made it look much lighter than it actually was....that is Liz there, just under the lighthouse....

There were not a lot of shells out there, but we did have a long walk, picking up a few along the way....I found a nice small Pear Whelk

and right next to it was a Shark's Eye Operculum...

and believe it or not a small Alphabet Cone...

worn and tattered, but he went in my shell bag!

Liz found a small False Angel Wing....I found out later that it was actually a pair!

She also found this really cool Albino Apple Murex!

I did manage to find a few other minis.... Like this small Pear Whelk, Baby's ear, sharks eye and Winged oyster pair...

There were so many crabs out there...of all sizes and shapes! Most were small, and alive, if just barely....we tried to save several by taking them back out to the gulf since the tide was so low....The first was this Spider Crab....

Lots of Calico Crabs....small to very large!

...and the starfish (Sea Stars) I don't know how many of them were high and dry....we both were taking them to the nearest water we could find!

My most unusual find was this watch....it was almost under a log in the water....the battery was barely working...

After the sun came up, we were able to find a few smaller minis....like these two Wentletraps...

Liz actually found one first, in the dark!

I actually found quite a few minis!

...Liz took a pic of some of her favorites from today

As you know, I always have to finish off with a Sunrise pic....or two...

These Royal Terns were enjoying the sunset with us!

Stay tuned....More adventures to come...

::Shelllady hugs::