Exploring the 10K islands

Liz and I got together and went on a charter from Goodland Florida, (near Marco Island) to go shelling among the mangroves in the 10,000 islands. These islands can only be accessed by boat so normally the supply is much more plentiful....and interesting than the public beaches. We have done this before and enjoy this trip every time....there's just not enough time there! ;) I didn't take a lot of pictures as I wanted to cover as much territory as possible in our limited time. 

It was the coldest morning we have had since I've been here, so we bundled up in many layers!

I saw many live shells out there, always fun to see....these BEAUTIFuL Lace Murex were all alive....

Notice there is a Live Horse Conch (orange) and Lace Murex on each side of these roots!

Another live Horse Conch...it you look closely you can see that his body is actually Orange! These guys, especially this size are pretty close to the top of my list as favorites!!

The highlight of the day is Liz found a Golden Olive....the pictures don't do it justice, It is a gorgeous bright golden color, and quite the find!!

She said it was just laying there, waiting for her to come along and pick it up!! She even was lucky enough to get her picture posted with it on the Charters' facebook page!!

I did pretty well, found many favorites.... and some Sunray Venus shells to paint for hiding!

I picked up more than 3 dozen Olives...(these are the normal colors for Olives)

Top shells, Horse Conchs, Gaudy Nauticas, Lace Murex, A couple Alphabet Cones....love the tiny One, True Tulips

More Horse Conchs, and Both sides of a Spiny Jewelbox with a yellow center!

They are all soaking in a bleach bath now and are cleaning up nicely!

I also found these Brittle Stars....unfortunately they were already dried....

We had a great day....again, it's never enough time....but I'll take what I can get!!! It was a great day and we both had a blast! 

We finished up the day with a nice lunch on the water!

Oh and this guy....an Orb Spider greeted us when I was dropping Liz off....how about that for freaky?!

On our way out, we came across some dolphin that played in the wake....I also posted a video at the bottom! So fun!!

Hoping for more adventures before I have to head back up North, time is growing short.....Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

It's About the Little Things!

I went back to the Lighthouse on Sanibel this early morning, solo this time. As usual it was a beautiful morning....there were a lot fewer people out as early as I went which is always a plus. I saw lots of life there, the dolphins were playing again as the sun was coming up, but I wasn't close enough to get a picture :( But I got to see them which is always fun.  One of my favorite birds here is a Skimmer....it's beautiful and has an uneven beak, the bottom is longer than the top because they fly just a few inches above the water with the bottom of his beak actually in the water! 

(These are obviously Googled pictures)

I love these guys and don't see them very often, this morning there must have been 2 dozen of them out there, all gracefully flying inches off the Gulf! I must have taken 20 pictures trying to catch them in action, and could not get one in good focus because they are SOOO fast....so here are the best I got, you can get the idea from them I think....

I found a couple of different kinds crabs out there this morning, 2 I think (hope) I saved by putting them back in the water...

a Purse Crab

This Common Spider Crab, I rescued from a bird!

He was being pecked so I moved him into the water, and I think I ran across him walking around out there on my way back by....we're gonna go with that anyway!! ;)

I also found these Calico Crabs getting acquainted with each other...They didn't need saving as they were right on the water line...;)

I found so many of these Burrowing Brittle Stars way up on the sand....took a few pics and videos as I was taking them back down to the water... I love these guys!

Why they are called Brittle stars, I have no idea, they are anything but brittle!!!

I saw a few more live Lightning Whelks...

The shelling was so interesting, there were minis and micro minis all over the place...That requires doing the Sanibel stoop, if you're not a squatter! I did a LOT of Stooping this morning!

I found Wentles!!

and lots of other micro minis!!

Another Crested Tellin....bigger than I've seen before....

a BEAUTIFUL Gaudy Nautica...

and of course a nice Sharks eye!

....and several more smaller shells...

As I have said many times....the therapy was awesome!!!

Enjoy your day! Stay tuned!

::Hugs::

A Little Bunche of Life

Team Cheri decided to head to the beach in Fort Myers today, Bunche Beach.  It's always an adventure in the mud flats, and Cheri, being a Bird Nerd, can usually find lots of birds...I always learn so much when going Bird Nerding with her! 

We started out by seeing this beautiful Brittle Star....

Not really quite sure why it's called that because as you can see it's anything BUT Brittle! But they are very cool and such a pleasure to see it alive and well!

We also saw a few live Kings Crowns....

There were also lots of these 'Jelly Bubbles'....don't know what they are or what they are called, but they were all over the place, in and out of the tidal pools....

 they are connected to the mud....and appear to 'inflate' when submerged in the water....weird, but interesting!

Here's a video of one with a couple Live Marginellas....Marginellas are one of my favorite shells....so tiny, but so beautiful!

There were even some fiddler crabs out there fiddling!!! I love these guys.....

The small disc shaped things on these EMPTY Kings Crown are actually Egg casings.....so glad to see these, its so important for them to grow and multiply, so I opted to leave this one so these guys could grow....

This crown had a very shy Hermit crab in it....

Cheri got to do lots of Bird Nerding....she knows so much about these birds.... This guy is actually a 'White Morph Reddish Egret' 

Cheri says he has a baby out here, is rare because of his unusual coloring, and is actually rigged with a satellite tracking device so 'they' can keep track of him...

She spent a lot of time looking through the amazing lens on her camera, looking for leg tags and flags on migratory birds...

She actually found her first 'Nanotagged' plover....she was very excited! 
Being Nanotagged means that they are picked up by local towers and their migration path can be tracked. She thinks this plover is actually from Virginia Tech....small world! We are from Virginia and our daughter undergrad and Vet School training was there and our Son in law is currently in their PHD program.
Amazing stuff, huh?!


We did find several treasures to carry home....Sunray Venus pairs...

It's always been interesting to me that they seem sensitive to heat...most of this was buried in the mud, but you see the "pinkish" color, it was in the sun...

you may remember that at the very bottom of a past post here....I showed the color change when you boil them....


We found a few Rose Tellins....

 Cheri found a single Angel Wing....

 and we each found several empty Kings crowns...

It's always an adventure at Bunche.....

if you look closely, you will see the causeway bridge to Sanibel, so it's so close, and so different from the Sanibel beaches!

Stay tuned for the next adventure!

::Shelllady Hugs::