Negative Low Tide Part 2

Another adventure on the beach at negative low tides! "Team Cheri" has had such fun on these beaches! The day started off with Cheri finding an Angel Wing! I think that is a GREAT start, don't you?

(*note: You can click on these pics to enlarge them)

...just a little ways down the beach she found this beautiful nice sized Shark's Eye

Cheri also found this NICE Lightning Whelk, it doesn't show very well in the pic but it has a Lavender inside!

I couldn't resist taking a pic of these tiny live ark shells in this HUGE Cockle pair..

Then we began to see A LOT of life out there...

This beautiful LIVE Lightning Whelk...

...and lots of live Fighting Conchs....with their eyes exposed...

Even this Albino Fighting Conch was checking things out!

There were crabs of all types...Like these Calico Crabs...

Live Olives and Arks were writing in the sand...

These 2 Sea Anemones were fully extended in the tidal pool on each end of this Lightning Whelk!

And alas, the Horse Conchs have once again beached themselves along the shoreline, hopefully the tide will take them back out again...

 All the dark spots in the center beach are Large Live Horse Conchs!

This was a MONSTER Lightning Whelk!

Did I say Shark's eyes? I could not believe how many there were, every color you can think of! Here are 2 of them pretty close together...(front side on left, bottom side of another on the right.  I ended up with 24 of them!

There were tons of minis out there too!

 Like this beautiful Wentletrap...

 and another Small False Donax, this one was alive....so he went back in the gulf...

Also along the beach were sandcastles, sand people and this awesome 'fish' that someone made out of Dosinia and Pen Shells! Someone was so creative and really planned this out, it was Huge!!

The day started out with a light sprinkle, and then fog moved in....still a beautiful picture with the sun peeking through!!

Stay Tuned!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Negative Low Tides Part 1

As the full moon approaches for the next few days we are going to be seeing 'negative low tides' which means it is below zero, which is awesome for shelling! I am not down here very often for them, so I'm excited! My Shelling buddy Cheri and I went out early...the shelling was fun, I got one really 'special' shell a Baby's Ear.... and this bitty horse conch.

I really liked the color on this Lightning Whelk too...I have never seen one so gold...

For some reason, I can't seem to pass up most Lightning Whelks, especially the darker ones...

I found 10 Sharks Eyes this time....

I found a tiny Pear Whelk, which I haven't seem many of these last few trips...they are also one of my favorites!

The wind picked up some, and we noticed that the Pen shells and Dosinias were starting to come ashore...to me that means some more shell piles in the Gulf are getting stirred up! Hopefully that means more shells coming in!  

Cheri found another Alphabet Cone, I should have gotten a picture of it, it was just sitting there waiting for her to grab it!!

We saw this HUGE Millipede Sea Star holding on with it's toes under the edge of the surf....Like Cheri said, he looked like he was trying to hold on, all bowed up in the middle! :)

We were so busy shelling, we almost forgot to check out the sunrise....it NEVER disappoints!

I found this HUGE Vertebrae from something...I didn't save it, but couldn't pass up a photo op!

....This is the same type of crab I posted yesterday with the orange hat....this one needs a manicure like that one....he reminded us both of a spider by his movements and all that hair!! (Funny, I just looked it up, and it is actually called a Spider Crab!) Very Cool!

We had another GREAT day with lots of talking and laughing....stay tuned!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Reunion Sunday

Today was such a gorgeous day! 81 degrees was the high, low humidity, calm winds....absolutely paradise. It wasn't a  really low tide, but on a day like to day it doesn't even matter.  My Shelling buddy, Cheri (yes, that's right, her name is Cheri too!) and I got together midday and walked along my favorite beach for a couple of hours.  The shelling wasn't fantastic, but I had a lot of fun!

We got to see a dolphin slowly swimming along the shore...

I was so busy chatting that I forgot to take very many pics, but we really weren't finding too much anyway.... Cheri found this awesome little crab that had made a 'hat' out of this orange goo.  We both laughed at how he looked like he got a manicure to match!!

We did find a section of beach just into the shallows where there were some buried shells...

and I did find this guy, can you tell what it is?

It's an Alphabet Cone!! They have been such slim pickin's for me, that I'll take what I can get, and see if I can clean him up! ;)  Cheri did find one before this that was in pretty good shape....again, I was too busy talking to remember to take a pic.

I did find one of my favorites, a nice colored Horse Conch...

...On the way back, we both spotted this ark shell rolling in the waves and noticed something was inside it....of course we had to check it out!

Cheri figured out right away what was hiding under those shells! A little Pygmy Octopus!

It was an awesome day with lots of fun stuff to look at!  Tomorrow is shell crafting day, but stay tuned...more adventures on the way!!

::Shelllady Hugs::

A Mini Saturday!

We are back in paradise! Hopefully you will be reading a lot more posts from our visits! Hubby has now retired so we will be able to come more often and maybe stay a little longer each time. 

Today must have been mini day...which is fine with me as I have made a lot of projects lately and need to replenish my supply...

I was a little bit late getting to the beach as I had to load up all the shelling stuff this morning, besides HIGH tide was at 6:30 am so I wanted to catch the tide as it was going toward low.  I did manage to catch the sunrise as I was coming across the causeway.

It always is so beautiful.

The beach was just covered with mini shells, and the Gulf was so calm..it was a very slow pace just trying to make sure I didn't miss anything...Ahhhhh!

There were Billions of ark pairs that had opened up...

I couldn't resist this mini horse conch...

 or this coquina butterfly...

also found several mini shark's eyes...

and two sets of jewel boxes...

I had to look this guy up, I believe it is a 'Small False Donax' it is a first for me, I love to find new things!

I couldn't resist this tiny lace murex with it's pink tip, tiny banded tulip, drill and jingles of all different colors!

I did find a 'normal' sized Florida Cone...

and lots of wild life....like many many starfish...with a trio of ibis in the background!

I returned him back to the gulf as I did this tiny brittle starfish

I'm not sure this one made it, he was very dry....

This Calico Crab was enjoying the morning sun...

I noticed this egg casing floating in the gulf, and it appeared to have a rider on it, I picked it up and found this Pygmy Octopus holding onto a live fighting conch, just floating along the shore!!

Here is a quick video I took just before returning them back to the gulf... enjoy!!

So glad to be back Home....stay tuned, I hope to have lots to share!!

::Shelllady Hugs::