Collecting Ghosts

First let me give you an update.....remember this guy?? 

 You probably asked yourself, "why in the world would she keep that!?" You would be amazed what you can do with a little elbow grease and some bleach!

Viola!!

It has a bad spot near the bottom, but I'll take it! Love the color!!

I have a facebook friend who I met in person over a year ago. Jolene came to Sanibel Shellcrafters and checked it out, and we have chatted online ever since. She had a similar situation with her Mom fairly recently. When she found out my Mom had passed, she reached out to me and took me to lunch when I got back down here. I have found that we not only have that in common, but also the Shelling bug....you know...go out at all hours, at all tides, night or day we love it!! So we decided to check out the beaches in the wee hours before I headed to Shellcrafters and again the next early morning....so post is 2 days worth....I'll keep the chit-chat to a minimum!

We saw this guy first thing....started thinking...it can't be a Lobster...Florida Lobsters don't have claws....then it dawned on me....It's a Hermit crab...a HUGE hermit with no home!!!

He was alive so hopefully he will find a home soon....I was going to put him out into the gulf when the waves took him out right after I took the above picture!!

A little further down the beach, Jolene found this monster True Tulip!!

I found this tiny Millipede Sea Star....

Before long we each started finding treasures....

Jolene found this beautiful Horse Conch...

Then this beautiful Lightning Whelk....

and then....2 Alphabet cones, pretty close together!!!

I stumbled on this Horse Conch and Huge Lace Murex...

Jolene followed up with a Kings crown and another True Tulip...

and then this Gorgeous Scotch Bonnet....sitting right on top of the shell pile!!

She was so excited!!! So fun!!

I found another, bright orange Horse Conch....

Jolene mentioned she always wanted to find an Albino Fighting Conch....she squealed that she had found one!!! But Alas, it was live....

so back in the gulf he went....very shortly after that she did actually find her bucket list Albino Fighting Conch....and of course I forgot to take a pic....but she sent a picture of her 2 day finds and it's in there!!!

Here she is, still on the hunt as the sun begins to come up....

I took a picture of this tremendous shell pile after the sun came up....it had Lots of treasures in it!!!

We went back the next early morning, to the same place...it wasn't quite as lucrative and I guess I didn't take many pics..

Jolene found 2 awesome Bright Orange Scallops...

and another Alphabet Cone, I call her the 'cone whisperer'!!

I did find one as well!!

...and quite a few nice sized Shark's eyes

Walking back to the car we found these 2 beauties...both Live, both put back in the Gulf after the photo op..

a Beautiful True Tulip...

and Nice Horse Conch...

We stopped by the lighthouse and one point to check it out and catch the sunrise....it was a mess....very stinky from all the washed up shells, that were beginning to die.

Billions of Sea Urchins!!

they were everywhere!!!

Cockles and Dosinia also...

I wanted to catch a picture of the sunrise....I always try to catch a bird also....there were lots out there that morning....

How about this for timing!!! I got photo bombed!!

Here is Jolene's treasures for the 2 days.... See that beautiful Scotch Bonnet right on top?! It was an Awesome catch!

The reason I called this post 'collecting Ghosts' was because I was just diligently collecting Paper figs as we were walking along, they aren't too common but do usually show up after a storm...I paint them like ghosts for Halloween!! 

So Since I had basically used up most of what I had, I was collecting for next year.... then we ran into that shell pile!!! So I gave up on Collecting Ghosts! :)

Here are my 2 day finds....

I stayed in today to get some stuff done, but I will be out tomorrow bright and early for those negative low tides!!!

Stay Tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

PS....Here's a tiny Pygmy Octopus we saw on the sand, I put him back in the gulf!!