Scotch Bonnet
Looky what I found!! A gorgeous 2 Â 1/4 inch SCOTCH BONNET! Woot! Woot! I’ve only found pieces of these delicate shells before so this was a biggy find for me. Yippee! It was so exciting.
Scotch Bonnet aperture
Clark and I had never shelled around Marco Island, Florida (about 90 minutes south of Sanibel) before so when we were invited to go on a friend’s boat around the island we jumped at the chance. There were plenty of sand bars exposed because of the extremely low tide so we anchored out and waded in to a couple of different islands (just glad we made it back).
I was so excited to show Clark my find then witnessed his face turn green with envy. Fifteen minutes later, I heard him howl with laughter. What? What could he have found that could beat this? His own SCOTCH BONNET!
Clark’s scotch bonnet on the left and mine on the right
The same thing happened with the ROSE MUREX yesterday… I was so excited to find an uncommon shell and minutes later, he finds one to match it. We both laughed in amazement.
Florida Cones
Clark found the deep orange FLORIDA CONE and I found the other one. Notice the pronounced colorful tips on both of these shells.
Juvenile horse conchs
I found me some candies too! Love, love ’em. Always a good day finding a handful of my “candy corn”.
Alphabet cones
Ta Da! We even found these ALPHABET CONES.
Lori with horse conch
This is our friend Lori with a huge empty HORSE CONCH. It’s a beauty!
The shell pile
This pile is where I found most of my baby HORSE CONCHS and a FLORIDA CONE, ALPHABET CONE, LACE MUREX and a bunch of TOP SHELLS (I’ll show pictures tomorrow… whew- I’m still tired from that big, long day).
Amy Tripp holding a tulip
I was also thrilled to meet photographer and shell enthusiast Amy Tripp from Marco.
Our Marco Boating Gang
Boating at sunrise
WOW!!! Pam that Scotch Bonnet is awesome! Is Clark jealous that yours is bigger and prettier?? lol
BTW, I like the company you had that day, nice folks ; )
LOL yes, he’s jealous and I love it…… but the man is a cone magnet. He definitely beat me in the cone and lace murex department. Wait until you see his 2 nutmegs too.
Double Wow Pam :) The shell pile, the Scotch Bonnets, the beautiful Alphabet Cones..everything is just gorgeous. Now I’ve got to add another place visit for our upcoming trips :-) Can’t wait to see more.
LOVE the image with the anemone attached to the shell, how beautiful! We got more snow here in COnnecticut – thanks for the reprieve.
Pam………………..shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh don’t let the cat out of the bag!!
Heehee- No worries, it wasn’t enough to make it better than Sanibel. No where is better than Sanibel/Captiva!
What a fun day for you guys! Shelling is great – doing it with friends and family is even better. Just another reason why I Love Shelling. I would have loved to do the boat thing. The 6 mile out and back to Tigertail Beach almost did me in the next day even with my Wonder Wheeler beach cart.
Boating was fun but it was a dang long day. Even from the boat you had to walk a really long way and wade through lots of water- not an easy boat ride. Both Clark and I are sore, stiff and still tired from that whole day…..and we are used to boating- but around Sanibel which is much easier. I’m not sure there are any places that are easy to get to…. are there? I dont know the area well enough.
Nope. I didn’t check out the beach to the south end because I heard such raves over Tigertail. The beach access is there it’s the parking that makes you walk. There are only 2 public lots with limited spaces.
Love it and loving the reprieve from all the snow. Thanks again for all your beautiful pics!
“Holy catfish, Batman!” I mean, Pam! Looks like quite the lucky shelling trip! I am so jealous of all those empty huge horse conchs! Scott bonnet you found is terrific…all your finds are in such excellent shape. The colors are spectacular! I’d say you hit the bonanza!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAM! What lovely gifts Mother Nature gave you! Can’t wait to see more pics!
Thanks Christine- more to come from the “Batcam” soon. ;)
Enviable finds! My daughter would be so jealous.
Awesome! I’m pretty sore from shelling this past week myself, but it is all worth it. Looks like you had a good time.
Well come on Simone – we want to see what you found!
What a fun shelling trip! Congratulations on your Scotch Bonnet. Those Florida cones are really super too. I didn’t realize the shelling was so good at Marco, but it sounds like you were somewhere that was only acccessible by boat?
I think we hit an exceptional day for shelling and since the islands aren’t easily accessible, we got very lucky.
It’s lovely to see a Scotch Bonnet alive! I’ve found a few on the east coast of Florida. Those cones are so beautiful. I keep hoping each time I got to Sanibel that I will find one!
Hmmmm. Alive? There wasn’t a mollusk in my scotch bonnet. Did you find a live one?
Wow, great shells. Congratulations you all had a wonderful shelling day.
Lee
Ok your Scotch Bonnet (nice name…makes ya thirsty just typing the name..I bet lol!) is nicer than Clarks…and his Florida Cone is nicer than yours…OK…your even!! It looked like a great way to Shellabrate your Birthday!!
Wow, like hitting the lottery—-with the luck you and Clark have, it’s amazing you don’t have a bucket full of Junonias by now. Thanks for showing the bonnet as you found it, gives us an idea what to look for.
I am so loving seeing all these shells! We don’t find such cool ones here (not very often,anyway) in Galveston, so it’s such a treat to see what’s on the OTHER side of the Gulf. Wish I was there!
Glad to see that your birthday turned out to be a wonderful shelling trip somewhere with some great new finds and the usual wonderful ones, I never pick up “candy” on the beach without thinking about you and how every one is a special find.
Luv it!!! Very envious!!!
Pam,thank you again for sharing. Such a great day you had! I love your blog, your photos, your stories and information. I love reading what everyone has to say and the joy that we all get from it! Thanks again for taking the time for all of us!!!!
Ya know, after looking at those alpha cones again, that one on the bottom has an unusual pattern. The “letters” have melded together. Very interesting. I never get tired of the color and pattern variation of shells.
Looks like you all had a fun day!!!
Which shelling trip would you recommend for a day at Marco island? Any catamarans? We didn’t like the Sweet Liberty trip since there was too much time looking at mansions.