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::