Taking in the Sunrays!

 I'm still in paradise! It's hot down here in sunny Florida, but it's August! It's summertime and it's no hotter here than up in Virginia! I love it! Before Susan and Katie left to go back to Virginia, we decided to hit a couple of beaches during a lower tide, we were unsuccessful with shelling but did get a slow dramatic show of dolphins! I didn't get great pics, but you can see them pretty well!

The water is pretty and the beach is clean....

a little too clean this day, not even any shells! ;)

We left Gulfside beach (mid island) and went on up to Blind Pass, my first time seeing it since Hurricane Ian rocked these beautiful Islands!

The beach is still beautiful, but you can definitely see the loss of foliage....not to mention the view of everything else is still obvious, they are working hard to get back to whatever the new normal will be, but it is a slow tedious process! No resorts are open, well one is...with limited rooms, on Sanibel and it will still be months, maybe years before it's fully open again! Restaurants and business are making great progress, it seems like every week someplace new has finished restoration and will open.

Time to change the subject....

On Friday, Team Cheri got back together for a little walk and talk, birding and shelling, the tide was nice and low so we headed to the mud flats. Boy were the Sunrays out...Suns rays AND Sunray Venus Shells in pairs!! 

Cheri had a small 2-1/2 gallon bucket that she filled, I had a shell bag and both pockets of my backpack full before we finally decided we had enough!

We use them as 'canvases'...we paint them and put them out around the island for folks to find...like the rocks! Heres just an example of what we do with them.... the long slender ones (crow, cat, Jelly fish)bottom right are sunray venus....they are some of my favorite shells to paint!

We had so many and our bags/buckets got heavy so we headed back to the car to lighten up and grab some water! Then back out!

There were a few birds out, Cheri is an amazing photographer and was very pleased to see many Avocets, 

according to Bird-nerd Cheri they migrate through here and only stay for a short time. 

They're very cool looking birds with their slightly curved beaks and long legs...Cheri has the camera for a much better shot of them....

and she can stay in this position for a long time!!! I can't even get into that position, much less hold it steady for a period of time!! My highlight for the day in the bird world was a Roseate Spoonbill! He was there all alone, and was so colorful!!

I found this nice Lightning Whelk rolling in the surf! It was covered in moss and yuck, but I believe with a little work it will clean-up nicely!

We also found quite a few empty Kings Crowns...

...and a few white and Rose Tellins.  Here's my final tally for the day....check out those Sunrays!!!

On the left are Kings Crowns, up to Sunrays, (four columns on there back and One group at there base showing the outside) in the center are white and rose tellins, (all the white are still in pairs), below them to the left are a few Alphabet cones and to the right are 3 nice Pear Whelks.

Kings crowns

That ugly whelk, a little bit better!

The whelk and Kings crown aren't completely done in the cleaning process, I will post pics of the 'after' when they're done!

It was a great day, and I had a lot of fun! The tides are pretty low the next few days so hopefully I'll have some more adventures to post! 

Stay Tuned!

Thanks for coming Along!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Last nights sunset from my driveway! How beautiful is that??

Delayed departure: Negative Tide trips

Hubby and I had planned on heading back to Virginia this last weekend, but looking at the tides, we realized that the lows go to -1.1! That is a super low tide and one that is that low doesn't happen very often. Of course I couldn't resist and we decided to stay a few more days...(any excuse to stay in paradise!) 😉 

Liz and I went out on Friday just before sunrise in hopes of finding some treasures....unfortunately there hasn't been very strong winds to bring in the shells as we had hoped, but we didn't do too badly.  Of course it was a beautiful morning and a beautiful walk and sunrise! You know me by now, I love the sunrises....!! 

I didn't take very many pictures this trip.... Sunrise and shells....perfect!! 

Liz did well I think....Lightning Whelks, Huge Sharks eyes, Horse Conchs and a Lace Murex...

I forgot to take a picture until I had already put them in for a bleach bath, I did manage to get 5 Alphabet cones in various condition...and of course, I gotta find those Shark's eyes, a nutmeg (bottom right) and some mini Lighning whelks and gaudy nautica!

The next morning I got up and went solo to the lighthouse, there was absolutely nothing there but live Cockles....strangest thing! I didn't even take a picture and left before sunrise!! It was a beautiful morning and I still had a nice long walk!

The next morning, yesterday, Hubby decided he wanted to go out there and see what he could find! He doesn't go very often, so it is special when he does! It was a beautiful morning, and we got there just as the sun rose....

The tidal pools were out and we slowly shelled them to find treasures....shelling wasn't great ....but it's always fun! Hubby got Apple Murex, a Nice Gaudy Nautica, Huge Sharks eye (his first that size in a very long time) Banded tulips, Lightning Whelks, One of those I believe is an Albino....which is fairly rare, A Florida Cone (center) some Juvenile Fighting Conchs and a couple nutmegs...and at the very bottom a Bubble shell!

My finds.... of course Sharks eyes, a beater cone (we call them that when they're not perfect) aI also got an mini Lightning Whelk,  a couple nutmegs, I also got a small Gaudy Nautica, a Horse Conch, some olives and a handful of colorful coquina pairs!

This morning, Jolene and I decided to head out in the fog to the mudflats....there's always something cool to see there even if you don't fill up your shell bag!!

It was a bit spooky as it was so foggy just as the sun came up....

There were many less shells this time, but much more live things to see! Horseshoe crabs of every size...Here's a video of one of about half dozen that were running around this much larger one....check out the trails!

I found this little one, I believe is just a 'shell'....

Here's one that is a little bit larger....

I googled to see what a group of pelicans is called, I had many choices....so here is a Pod, squadron, pouch or scoop of Pelicans that slowly flew by....

I believe that is a little blue heron between us and them.....

We even got to see 3 Roseate Spoonbills...Bright pink! Unfortunately my camera didn't get the coloring right, but we spent a lot of time watching these guys....I had to use the digital zoom as we didn't want to spook them! (Notice the Mangroves in the background!)

You can see the pink a little bit better in this fuzzy picture I took as one of them flew away...

As we turned around from watching these beautiful birds, there were 2 dolphin swimming by, and they got a little shallow I believe and stirred the water up, of course I didn't catch it on camera....but oh, what fun to see!

There were quite a few live King's crowns like this one, but many had Hermit crabs in them!

                              

There were several Thorny Sea Stars in the Sea grass....

Lots of HUGE live Sand dollars....

A Blue Crab....

Jolene went home with this awesome Oyster cluster....

and I saw a crop circle!!!

along with all this other stuff, we did manage to find some empty Kings Crowns....

They're all different....some have big spikes like this one Jolene found....

Each one has a different pattern, wide stripes, different colors....and they take a while to clean properly! But it's usually worth it! As Jolene said today...'it's a process'. To make something that starts out like this....

Look clean and beautiful!!! 😆 I will have to show you an 'after' photo later when we get back!!

Jolene ended up with 20 King's crowns and a few more Rose Tellins!

So we head back to Virginia tomorrow....I will get to see my Grandsons and spend a few days with them while their Mom and Dad and friends go on an adventure of their own. Then I will head home for a quiet Christmas with my Hubby and then our plan is to head back down....to have some more adventures!

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by and going along with me on our adventures! We are hoping for many more to come soon! 

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::