Wrack of clams
All along Middle Gulf Drive beaches on Sanibel, there was a nice wrack line of PEN SHELLS and soooo many different CLAM shells. The first one is the SOUTHERN QUAHOG clam.
Southern Quahog Clam
It really has those beautiful blue stripes running through it but one of the most incredible things about this shell is that you can count the rings on this clam to tell how old it is…. like the rings of a tree! The second incredible fun-fact is that an Arctic QUAHOG found in 2007 was to be considered one of the oldest living animal on the planet. 405 year old! To read the whole story click on National Geographic.
Egg Cockle
I found several EGG COCKLE clams. They are as smooth as silk and actually feel like an egg in my hand.
Buttercup Lucines were everywhere
The BUTTERCUP LUCINE is another shell crafter favorite, as you can imagine with that pretty yellow inside.
Disk Dosinia
There were even more DOSINIAS every step of my walk.
Ponderous Ark
And oodles of ARKS with both side still attached.
Double ark and other clams
I didn’t see many of the regular faves like the CONES or CONCHS but the west winds will be moving in for the weekend so we might have better luck finding those and a TULIP or two. The best find of the day I saw was by Alice from Chicago. She was collecting the Buttercup Lucines and lots of the other clams but she was most proud of this perfectly large ANGEL WING. Great Find.
Alices' Angel Wing on drift wood
We found some Ponderous Arc’s when we were there in November. Silly me tried to scrub off the ‘black!’ I took a good look at it and consulted the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum and was horrified to find out it was supposed to be there!!
I’m totally curious, what does the inside of the egg cockle look like? Yellow or white?
It’s egg color! ….Well maybe a dirty creamy egg color. ;) Next time I see 2 on the beach together, I’ll show you both inside and out. Thanks Lizbeth.
Learning something new here everyday. That blue striped one is so pretty
I would have picked that one up..and those Angel Wings Gorgeous, would love to have a few of those too…ahh………….the stuff dreams are made of..
Great finds, I actually found lot’s of the blue Southern Quahog’s, but by the time I got home a few days later and cleaned them, the blue was gone! Very disappointing, as I collected a heavy bag full of them thinking I had some cool blue shells to display.
beauty on the beach!
I just have to thank you for the daily walk on the beach in Sanibel Island. Alas I work in New York City and don’t get to the beach often. Still, my heart is there, and each day you provide me with a wonderful walk on the beach. I can’t thank you enough.
Terry
Just 42 days and I will be on that beach! Thank you for the lovely and refreshing posts.
Love seeing the everyyday shells that most of us step over to get to something “better” featured lately here. Makes you stop and look at all the shells now. Found a piece of a Junonia up here in Venice so maybe I will find one some day somewhere other than Sanibel. Thanks for the great pics when I can’t be there.