Sunset and Sunrise

 The early morning tides are to be very low this week....so you will probably be getting more sunrises from me this week!  Cheri and I did go out a couple nights ago for the sunset. We went to Bowman's Beach, my hope there is to find some Flats (ZigZag Scallops) I love them! In fact I said as we approached the Gulf, I hope the Gulf gods give me flats...as soon as Cheri stepped in the water She came up with this beauty!!

a little ways down the Beach and she came up with another, this time on the beach in the wrack line!!!

Cheri has always had a natural 'radar' for Flats and Wentletraps...today that radar was definitely on point!

The walk was so nice and the sunset was remarkable!

I couldn't resist getting a silhouette of this Great Blue Heron as we were making our way to the car....

It was so calm, I love this time on the beach....Cheri ended up finding another small Flat and I found a broken one!!! :)

We got up early this morning to go to Bunche Beach in Fort Myers....It's a beach really close to my house known for mud flats and lots of life....especially birds...

 

It's directly across the bay from Sanibel Lighthouse, so the sunrise would be behind us....Not very good for getting a picture, 

but it is a pretty cool beach, you never know what you are going to see there....

I found this tiny pair of Sunray Venus...

and it's a pretty good bet that you will find a few Kings Crowns, maybe even some that are empty!

You never really know how they will turn out until you take them home and give them a good cleaning, I'll try to remember to post an 'after' pic in a few days so you can see the difference.

It must be Pear Whelk season here, I saw several of these Pear Whelk egg casings that appear to come out of the bottom. I believe he/she is down there spinning these things now, or it is attached to something else until the babies flow out of the casing.

This is hard to see, but it's a very large Lightning Whelk, apparently alive with 3 smaller whelks on and around it...

There were a few Angel Wings out this morning too...

These are always so beautiful to me, very intricate....

This is actually a Live Kings Crown making his way along the flats...

I found a huge Tellin of some sort, they are generally much smaller than this...

and then a tiny little (empty) Kings Crown

This is also a type of Angel Wing, called a Mud Piddock or Fallen Angel Wing...

I found another Angel Wing that was so tiny, I rarely keep them anymore, but this one had to come home with me! So sweet!

Cheri spotted this little Mangrove Island....how cute is this?!!

We see these 'mud bubbles' all the time when we are in the mud-flats. Not sure what they are called or how they get here....they range from so small to sometimes pretty large....I spent quite a bit of time researching it this morning but have not had any luck so far but I will continue to try and let you know.....

The tide came back in pretty quickly and we called it another fun adventure....I ended up with a few treasures...a few empty Kings Crowns, a huge Barnacle and Tellin..

Lots of Sunray Venus that I will be painting later.....

and a few Rose Tellins and some tiny Rice Olives and a perfect Angel wing!!

Stay Tuned!! Hopefully more adventures coming soon!!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

 

Shell piles, Birds and Sunsets

The last couple of days have been so busy with all kinds of wonderful therapy, I'm already behind on my posting.... Cheri and I met up for a walk and talk and to see the amazing sunset....we ended up doing more talking and less walking because we ran into an area on the beach that had LOTS and LOTS of minis! Wentletraps galore too....and if you read my posts often, if there is something that will stop me it's those 'wentles'. I neglected to take pics of the areas, but I did take some of what I found...I didn't bring any containers for smalls, but I did fill up my shirt pocket!  There's a dime in there to give you an idea of size....

 The sunset didn't disappoint either!

Just before sunset, the Skimmers came out! I absolutely love these guys and have not been able to successfully photograph them, tonight I got a little bit closer...they are so graceful and so fast....with the fading light it's just tough to catch them. These pics aren't too bad though for my little point and shoot water camera!

They fly along just off the surface, and their bottom beak onto the surface, just amazing to watch!!

Early the next morning, Liz came by and picked me up and we went to check out the newly refurbished Turner Beach, just across Blind Pass Bridge at Sanibel on Captiva Island. It traditionally has a large shell pile right at the rock Jetty and today it did but we walked up the beach for a while to see what was out there.

We couldn't find anything on the beach, so we decided to try our luck in the shell pile....

I haven't done this very often, but have seen many posts where people have found lots of treasures in there! It was still damp inside, so I'm thinking it hadn't been there for too long....right off I got a teaser....a pretty good sized piece of a Lion's paw!!

Then after a little while I ran across this....see it in the center of the pic...in the shadows

Score!! A nice sized Alphabet Cone, and it was perfect!

I got teased a couple more times with two pieces of Junonia!

But alas, it wasn't going to happen today....I did find a few orange scallops, sharks eyes, a couple Gaudy Nauticas, Bittersweets, and a sweet little True Tulip.

We took a short walk on the Sanibel Side at Blind pass, 

and found this Calico Crab taking a dip in the clear Gulf...

That afternoon, I got a call from Cheri and she wanted to know if I wanted to go by Ding Darling to see some White Pelicans on the way to our afternoon Walk-and-talk and Sunset....

I've only seen White Pelicans in flight, never 'up close and personal' they only fly in during the winter here as they migrate here. I was truly amazed! I love the 'goofy' brown pelicans, but these guys are so much larger and much more graceful! They eat like ducks, (don't dive after fish like their cousins)

We spent so much time looking at these guys, we got to the beach just in time to see an ABSOLUTELY gorgeous sunset... and this guy came by to say hi....

How about that for a beautiful ending for a day!! 

 Stay tuned! Hopefully more adventures to come!

::Shelllady Virtual Hugs::