Shelllady

Thursday, November 15, 2018

More Friends and an Attempted Rescue

I'm still here! More of my Friends have come down and we have been pretty busy scouring the beaches. The shelling hasn't been great but the company has been awesome! We have been fortunate to see a lot of wildlife, which is such a pleasure since the red tide was so devastating a couple of months ago....

Cheri rescued this Pygmy Octopus from a ladies shell bag....

We had passed two ladies and a little girl on the beach and one of the ladies started screaming...she ran back to us because she had just seen this little guy in her bag....apparently he had been in a shell she picked up from the water. She was both excited and distraught! She couldn't figure out how to get him out of her shell bag! By now y'all know Cheri.... She just reached in and picked him up....the best part was he wrapped himself around her finger hanging on for dear life...and of course, neither of us thought to take a pic of that! I think that lady will not soon forget him!

We have seen LOTS of birds.... like this Reddish Egret...he was doing his little fishing dance when we came across him...

a Snowy Egret....gotta love his yellow feet!

We even saw a Skimmer, trying to hide himself among some Royal Terns...

The most interesting was trying to rescue this Cow-nose Ray!

Cheri found him up on the sandbar, and at first, thought he was dead....we saw just a little movement in his wings, so we decided to help him out to deeper water....these guys are a bit slimy....and HEAVY. You have to be careful of the barb on their tale, so we needed to be careful!

We got him turned around and headed out ...

it was really difficult to get him out there....and as the waves would come in, he would end up back on the beach!

We did it multiple times, and once he even ended up flipped over by the waves...

Out we took him again....but he just didn't have much fight left in him...

so as Cheri put it, we decided to let nature take its course....and we found him on our way back, just there on the sand bar....

Very sad....but we tried!....and thank you Jodi for being our photographer!!!

As I said before the shelling wasn't very good, but our friend Jodi found a few treasures....a LIVE Florida Cone....don't worry, she gently put it back....

a BEAUTIFUL Candystick (I think) Tellin!

and a Baby's ear....

Cheri found this nice set of Shark's eyes....

I found a Jewelbox pair...

and an Olive trio...

and (pardon the bad pictures) an Alphabet Cone....

piece!!!! ;(

Pardon the bad pictures....obviously I was so excited I splashed water on the lens of my camera!!!

This 'Fearsome Foursome' will be together for the next few days...and we have many adventures planned so stay tuned!!

From left: Jodi, our photographer; The Other Cheri, our Beautiful Cindy and Me, This Cheri!

::Shelllady Hugs::

Friday, November 9, 2018

A 'Mini' Adventure!

I'm back down in paradise! Arrived just before Hubby and my 21st Anniversary! Can't think of a better place to celebrate than Florida, can you?! This trip won't be real long as we have to head back for Thanksgiving, but I'm gonna make the most of it!!

Today was my first shelling day and I got to meet a new friend, Tina! She is a friend of a couple of friends, and I have to say, she is so fun! She wanted the Wentletrap Whisperer, Cheri to give her lessons on Wentling....so I tagged along! What fun!

Cheri started out with her 'circles' draws a circle in the sand and says...there's one or two in this circle.....it really helps finding them as they lay, so you can sharpen your sights!

If you look closely in this pic, there are three intersecting circles here!

and it worked!

Pretty soon, Tina was finding them! There weren't very many today, we walked all the way around the point and on down toward Colony....

I saw this guy and thought it was a Maculated Baby's Ear!!....

Which is a Baby's ear with a higher spiral and Brown smudges....but Alas....it was just a Slipper!!

I know I've said it before, but I really don't like Slippers....they continue to trick me into thinking it's something else!!!

I did find a Baby's Ear though.....

...and gave it to Tina as a 'friend' shell....You can't refuse a friend shell!! It's a rule! ;)

I also found a piece of a Junonia....

The water was super clear and a LOT Less Brown than it has been the last few months!...and I found life!!!

Sea Stars..... like these Thorny Starfish....

I believe this is a Lined Sea Star hiding just under the sand....

and one area where we walked there were hundreds of live Coquina!!

...and a few 'plate sized' Jellies!...I believe this is called a 'Moon Jelly'

I did find a Brown-Banded Wentletrap....not perfect, but he came home with me anyway!

and the last thing I found was this Wentletrap...a nice sized...perfect one! SCORE!

I came home with quite a collection of Minis.....!!

A few Wentletraps.... a tiny Keyhole Limpet....worm shells, a tiny Apple Murex...a couple of tiny Sparse Dove shells, and two Waxy Polygyra (far right)