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::

 

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::