The Last Hurrah

The Gulf was pretty angry this morning and it was very windy due to upcoming storms. It was obvious pretty quickly that one would need to be creative. But the sunrise never fails to impress!

The tidal pool offered very little this morning, but the live tulips and fighting conchs were still there...

You can see in the distance the salt spray, and the foam on the beach, this is a rarity here on the beach, the gulf is usually pretty calm...almost like a lake at times.

I ran into my new found Facebook friends, Cheri & Carol and told them goodbye, they weren't having much luck either.  We will meet again, soon I hope!

I did manage to find a place with pen shells to dig, but that didn't last very long as the tides were coming in very quickly. But, I got a few treasures!

...and I got another Alphabet cone, a nice paper fig and a tiny lace murex...

a tiny little keyhole limpet 

...and horse conch

Have I mentioned how much I love this beach?

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this trip, stay tuned, I have a few more stories to tell!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Beach Bling, Another Day!

I said that I didn't pick up a lot yesterday, but I think I did pretty well! It's funny how every day there seems to be one thing that is easily found, today it was lightning whelks ....and paper figs. Paper figs are so fragile, but somehow they always show up when chaos hits the beach! Rarely do you find so many with such good color!

 I found a little bit of everything!

 This huge winged oyster was stuck in the middle of a pen shell...

 So ugly on the outside!

Of course I had to bring some of the bling home! :)

Sea Urchins, a Sea Whip and a sponge

And a couple of nearly perfect Millipede Sea Stars!

 Of course I can't resist the Scallop pairs.

 ...a pair of Sharks eyes

 and Gaudy Nautica

  

I got out to the beach a little earlier today, just in time to see another glorious sunrise, I will never grow tired of them, & they are never the same, but always beautiful!

The beach bling was there, but was different, this time it was mostly white shells...scattered among the pen shells

 ...with a few little strange creatures showing up here and there, like this batfish

 or this orange blobby thing, not sure what this is, but didn't investigate it too closely!

 This colorful blowfish, or blow toad they are sometimes called.

 This pink shrimp, as big as my hand!

Beautiful tulip egg cases, if you look closely, you can see some tiny tulips inside!

There were several areas where there were so many curly strings of these lightning whelk egg cases

and the horse conchs were still there, closer to the water, still alive in small groups

I found this beautiful 'teenager' bouncing around in the surf

This is my favorite size, and such beautiful color!

I had the perfect end to the day....finally an Alphabet Cone! It has been a long time since I have found one!

The adventure continues....

::Shelllady Hugs::

First Sunrise of Spring!

Let me start out with showing the tally of shells this week, this is Monday through Thursday. Good shells, but not nearly as abundant as our usual shelling.

 Very Large Sunray Venus Clams I found at Bunche Beach yesterday,

Sunray Venus Clams, coquina (butterflies), kitten paws and jingles

This is a Kings Crown I got yesterday at Bunche Beach, It will take a miracle to get all of these organisms and stuff off.....but I'm going to try....I can see the points on all three rows! Stay tuned for how this turns out! I will work on it when we get home...

Small coral bits found on Sanibel

Mini sand dollars from Bunche Beach yesterday.

We got to Sanibel early this morning, and there was a bit of a chill to the air....even the sand felt a little bit cool under my feet. It was by no means cold, and the Gulf didn't even have any 'shock' to it when you walked in it.  We were so early we beat most of the birds there this morning! These guys came flying in just before I snapped this!

I took this just has these guys ran in from the park, and took flight....hunting for breakfast!

...As the sun appeared, so did the birds! It just looks like spring doesn't it?....Pinks, yellows, oranges, lavendars....

It was another beautiful morning, Spring has Sprung..... 

The stars were out....

Even this Brittle star was dancing a jig...

Check out this HUGE piece of coral!

I noticed a little bit of spring orange color in the sand, see it?.....could it be????

YESSSSS! Score!! One of my favorites, a Horse Conch! 

From this moment on, the shelling was SO much better than the days previous! Our last day was a success, and so much fun!!

Remember the pic at the beginning of this post, shells from the last 4 days?.....Here is just today's finds!

Now that's more like it!!!! 

Here is the Horse Conch all cleaned up, notice the 'repairs' he has done over his growing!

Notice Hubby's Horse Conch on the left of the ruler in that awesome deep orange, and I got an angel wing too!

Seems purple or pink was the scallop color of the day!

I found this Florida Cone in it's Springy colors....

...and this small King's Crown!

I'd call today a success, wouldn't you??? It was a welcome change!! 

We head back North tomorrow....it was 84 here today, and a high of 48 at home in Virginia, not looking forward to that, but that's why we call this paradise...right?? I will have some more posts in a few days....! Stay tuned, and thanks so much for tagging along with us!

::Hugs::