Beach Therapy Time Again!

Hubby and I decided if we had to continue on quarantine, we'd do it in the Sunshine State....at least for a couple of weeks. The water is so clear and beautiful here with that greenish-turquoise hue. Just makes you say ahhhhhh! 

As I have said many times before, the shelling isn't great but the beach walks are awesome! Team Cheri got back on track (of course with social distancing) and headed out for some long beach walks.

I did find one of my favorite shells, in my favorite size...Love the color on this one!

Cheri found what we think is a wedding shell, (shells that were bought and put out as decorations for wedding... but maybe not, still a beauty! We think it is a juvenile Eastern Murex.

Tonight we saw a lot of live things...love to see this!!

Cheri saw this Sea Hare up on the beach....I love these guys!...

He just swam away so gracefully....

They have large wings a look like a butterfly under water....I'll get a video next time!

The trees had lots of Live Barnacles and Periwinkles...

There were sea stars...both on and under the sand....

 and lot s of large live Sand dollars...

Check out the pattern on this one....

 We found another Sea Hare further up the beach....the coloring on him was amazing! We tried to get him to open his wings, but he was stubborn!

 He almost looked like he was posing for me in this pic...

and who could resist picking up a baby on the beach??

It was such a beautiful evening....and, as always, GREAT Therapy!

Stay tuned....

::Shelllady Hugs::

Full Moon at the Lighthouse

I met Liz at the Lighthouse this morning, she is another friend/admin from the Shellinators facebook page! We started out with only our flashlights, a full moon and the Lighthouse Light to guide us! My camera made it look much lighter than it actually was....that is Liz there, just under the lighthouse....

There were not a lot of shells out there, but we did have a long walk, picking up a few along the way....I found a nice small Pear Whelk

and right next to it was a Shark's Eye Operculum...

and believe it or not a small Alphabet Cone...

worn and tattered, but he went in my shell bag!

Liz found a small False Angel Wing....I found out later that it was actually a pair!

She also found this really cool Albino Apple Murex!

I did manage to find a few other minis.... Like this small Pear Whelk, Baby's ear, sharks eye and Winged oyster pair...

There were so many crabs out there...of all sizes and shapes! Most were small, and alive, if just barely....we tried to save several by taking them back out to the gulf since the tide was so low....The first was this Spider Crab....

Lots of Calico Crabs....small to very large!

...and the starfish (Sea Stars) I don't know how many of them were high and dry....we both were taking them to the nearest water we could find!

My most unusual find was this watch....it was almost under a log in the water....the battery was barely working...

After the sun came up, we were able to find a few smaller minis....like these two Wentletraps...

Liz actually found one first, in the dark!

I actually found quite a few minis!

...Liz took a pic of some of her favorites from today

As you know, I always have to finish off with a Sunrise pic....or two...

These Royal Terns were enjoying the sunset with us!

Stay tuned....More adventures to come...

::Shelllady hugs::

Night Shelling...Last Low Tide

Since I will be leaving tomorrow, Team Cheri decided to make the best of my last night. The tides are super low, because it is nearly a full moon, so we hit the beach at 3 am!! Did I mention that we're crazy?? Gotta be the first ones out there, before low tide, right? I don't think it is possible to be the first one out this time of year....within 5 minutes we spotted some flashlights, and saw footprints letting us know that someone had already been there.... that's ok...Night shelling is still a blast!

We walked for quite a while and saw little to nothing on the sand bars, tidal pools, so we got in the car and tried somewhere else....Cheri pretty quickly spotted a Horse Conch in the tidal pool....

Not a great point on this one.....so back he went....

a couple minutes later another....

Good color, good point....this one went in her bag..

another.....

I think this one went home with her too!.....

She then found a nice Lightning Whelk!

She didn't want it, so this one went home with me!! You know me, I cannot resist Lightning Whelks for some reason! I'm getting better, but still come home with at least one every single trip! 

She found a pretty nice Alphabet Cone too!

Further down the tidal pool got a little bit deeper and we started seeing Live Horse Conchs....LOVE to see this! The Red Tide this summer didn't get them all!!

If you look at the dark shadow, there is another one here too!

Then I noticed the top of a large Lightning Whelk sticking out....I ran my hands around him and lifted him out.....woohoo, it's empty!

Beautiful White inside!

I looked over and Cheri had found one too!! Before we were done, we found 5 of them!! 

Can you imagine if we had kept all of these....we couldn't have carried them all!! Cheri and each picked one and tossed the rest in the tidal pool for someone else to enjoy finding....

We continued down the beach...under a beautiful, nearly full moon!   But we had little shelling luck after that....

We did see some awesome live stuff though....
Sea Stars...I believe these are Brown Spiny Sea Stars...

Sea Anemones....

I'm still learning with my camera....that shiny spot is the reflection from my flashlight.....keep in mind, these guys are all under the water....so getting the light just right can be tricky....Cheri has it mastered...her pics are awesome!!!
...and it's her cell phone!! ;)

She found this guy....and I did some investigating....I think it is a Featherduster worm, fully extended....how cool is this??

Like she said, it looks like an eyeball!!

She also found this Sand dollar, burrowing in the sand....

The shelling wasn't great, but the therapy, walking and talking were great!! The sky was gorgeous as the sun began to rise....

We didn't see the sun rise, but it came up as we were headed home.....another beautiful day!! 

This Osprey was saying goodbye as we headed off the beach...

These were my finds for this trip....with a couple of gifts from Cheri!!

Lightning Whelks (of course) Olives,  a couple of Alphabet Cones, orange scallops, small Horse Conchs, little Lace Murex, and Shark's eye, a Gaudy Nautica, and a couple of Banded Tulips..
Yes, that is a piece of Junonia in the front....still hoping!!

As usual, today was a great adventure, and I can't wait to come back for more....Hope you enjoyed coming along!!

I may post more another day obout other trips to get you caught up... 

...Stay Tuned! ;)

::Shelllady Hugs::