Through cloudy skies and and patchy rain, I was thrilled to find this bright beam of sunshine called a CHESTNUT TURBAN colored brilliant orange. I know it doesn’t look at all “chestnutty” but believe it or not that’s what it is.
My second fave find in the last few days is another ray of sunshine…. a COLORFUL MOON SHELL (or also called a GAUDY NATICA). This one seemed exceptionally colorful AND gaudy…
Clark and I were convinced that the out islands would be loaded with shells still from Tropical Storm Debby and the weather the last then so we hopped on our boat with some friends and headed out to Cayo Costa. I found more sunshine with a little HORSE CONCH candy!
Daron, Jacob and Berringer donned the snorkeling gear…
…And found a FLORIDA CONE!
There were pockets of seashells hidden around the tree roots in the high tide wrack line where we found some BABY’S EARS.
Everybody loves these tree roots! Susan and her son Berringer were no exception. It’s the perfect backdrop for photos.
Clark was busy working his magic with the shelling backhoe and pulled up lots of LETTERED OLIVES and a few TRUE TULIPS…
All in all, it was a really fun trip on the boat but it wasn’t at all “loaded with shells” like we thought. So after our boat ride, we stopped at Blind Pass Sanibel….where it was “loaded”. I found my 2 fave shells of the weekend (the orange TURBAN and the MOON above) within 10 minutes.
I was also fortunate to have met EJ who is a research associate with Department Of Environmental Sciences at UVA (where my nephew just graduated…with distinction!) , Hannah (an educator at UVA as well) and her mom Crystal (AL). It was fascinating to hear about EJ’s project to map the mangrove ecosystems of Sanibel and research the soils and sea grass beds along SouthWest Florida. What a fun job! Well he must have mapped out where the ALPHABET CONES would wash up because they were plucking them out right when I walked by…
Crystal showed me her fave find which was an unusual cluster of shells. It is a double CORRUGATE JEWLBOX, double KITTEN’S PAW, BARNACLES and a few sprouts of CORAL that cemented together to make a beautiful little shell bouquet.
While dodging the storm clouds for 3 days, here’s an assortment of the shells we kept (Clarkis saving the LETTERED OLIVES for next year’s 4th of July parade already). Need help identifying all of these shells? Check out my SEASHELL IDENTIFICATION page!
Great pictures and lovely shells, especially the turban! So the dredging is not on the Sanibel side of Blind Pass? I thought the beach there would be blocked off when I arrive in a few days. Hopefully there will be nice shells and ample parking, even if no shell fountain :- )
I absolutely love the drift trees on Cayo. I stalk Capt Brian’s blog for all of his gorgeous shots of the island…just about as much as I stalk yours for your gorgeous Sanibel and Shelling Shots!!
Love the orange shells; but the dark whelk & tulip really caught my eye! Nice finds!!
What an awesome day! Thank you Pam and Clark
What an amazing chestnut turban! In my experience, on Nevis they are never orange, just the regular mottled brown color.
Thanks for sharing. Where we you when you found these on Sanibel or Ft. Myers Beach? If Sanibel exactly where or did you have to take a boat to a private island? I was down there the week of 4th of July. Found a lot of colorful shells but nothing like this. Trying to figure out if I was just on the wrong part of Sanibel.
What a great post….love the shells you found. Really miss Sanibel and can’t wait for our next visit but I really wanted to say that my hubby and I are scuba divers and that cluster of shells looks just like a moray eel poking out of their hiding place….so funny!!
I see the eel also! lol It does look exactly like that!
Wow!! That orange chestnut turban and orange colorful moon snail are just amazing!!! I am sooo sad to be back home.. But thank you for your posts! I love them! I also thought that shell cluster looked like an eel popping out, lol! By the way, I am going to try your muriatic acid trick next week! I showed my friend your video today. We can’t wait!
Sherri from MN
Amazing color, especially on the moon shell, wow!! Keep shelling everyone!!
Mary Ann
Hey Pam, it’s Betty Jo from Georgia. We will be on the island this Saturday for a week. We will be staying at Blind Pass Condos this time instead of Oceans Reach where we usually stay. We needed more room than we usually have at Oceans Reach. You know I can’t wait to get there and your pictures are making me more and more anxious to be there. This is the first time I will have my whole family plus a few extras with us. I think last count was 22! Family wedding planned for the 26th on the beach so they are all coming down! It will be the first time all but 3 of them have been there so I cannot wait to share Sanibel with them. Can’t wait! Can’t wait!!
I plan to bring peaches and home grown tomatoes with us and would love to share some with you.
Hope to hear from you soon.
forgot to leave my cell 478 397 6803
As always Pam and readers, it is such an encouragement and joy following this blog… thank you Pam for always giving us such beautiful photos and shell education. Perhaps we cannot be there on the shores as we would like, most of the time. But your blog transcends time and space… It is such a part of my healing…and I am sure for many others. Cannot wait for the day that I am well enough to be over there on the shores with you… most of the time when you are looking forward to spending time with someone.. you say..”let’s lunch soon!”.. but with you Pam, I say..”Let’s go shelling, soon!” ;>} have a blessed week and weekend! Again, huge thanks for sharing your love of shelling with all of us!
Cathy B pbprojecthope at yahoo dot com
LOVE the Chestnut Turban – wow….
Loved meeting you today Pam. I did find some pretty shells in the area you suggested. Love your photos and all the details on your website. One year we were at the light house beach (2005) at a super low tide. There was a small indentation by the water’s edge and I began digging. It was one perfect beautiful shell after another. It has never happened again and it has baffled me why so many shells were there. It was a couple of years after hurricane Charley and a bad red tide outbreak. We were fortunate enough to be here when they dredged Blind Pass the last time. Everyone was so nice and would share the shells.
I just discovered your website and I cant stay away I’m on it everyday. Look forward to new post everyday. We LOVE shelling. Learn so much from this site its awesome. We are from the east coast and often travel over for the day but this time we are headed down there this weekend for a long weekend and need a shell sifter is there any local places to purchase one?
Nancy, glad you found us! Welcome! You can find several different shell sifters at YOLO ( you only live once) on Andy Rosse Lane in Captiva. They have all sorts of cool beach/shelling stuff in there.
Awesome thanks.. We will definately check both of those places out. Looking forward to this weekend hope for good weather and to maybe meet the shelling Queen. Lol.
Oopps…meant to say we will check out YOLO..