Let the Shellabaloo begin with a bang!!! That’s right folks! On our first day of the Island Inn shelling extravaganza, Joe from Ohio found a very rare (for this area) LONG-SPINED STAR SHELL! Holy Toledo! Ok, (hee hee) he’s not from Toledo, Ohio… he and his wife Patty are from Akron and had no idea what this shell was.
Joe thought it was maybe the top of a cracked shell but as soon as I saw it I knew it was a rare find. For some reason I said it was a “sundial” and it stuck in my head since Im not used to seeing LONG-SPINED STAR SHELLS on our beaches. Whoops! So embarrassing! I’ve even blogged about LONG-SPINED STAR SHELLS when we found a few on a vacation to The Keys.
Here is Joe’s LONG-SPINED STAR SHELL in his hand to show you how big it is…
Congratshellations! And guess what… He didn’t even consider himself a real “sheller”. He just agreed to go on this vacation since Patty is an avid sheller. Ha! I think he might be hooked on shelling now too, huh? Here’s the aperture side of the shell.
I have got soooo many photos to show you since we’ve all been have a ball shelling and hanging out together but I had to post this first thing. I’ll have more photos and stories coming soon! But wait… now that I’m on the subject of Joe and his awesome shelling skills, I have to show you another beautiful shell he found too… a LIGHTNING WHELK! Â The mollusk was alive inside it so he had to put it back in the water where he found it but it is always a thrill to see this awesome creature.
I promise to get to everybody else and their found treasures very soon so I can introduce you to all of these fabulous shellers like …
…and like these fabulous shellers too!
Woo Hoo!
Shellaballoo!!!
I think i have found these when on vacation on st.maarten in the caribbean. Cool!!
Yes, they are quite common in that part of the world. When they are live, they have nice spines around the edge, but the beach drift shells almost always have the spines worn off. However this one is in pretty nice shape all things considered.
Apparently the species ranges from North Carolina all the way to Brazil, and gets as large as 67 mm, which is about 3 inches.
http://www.malacolog.org/search.php?nameid=884
Hey Donna, do you have like a box of shells from St Maarten? I ask because I am writing a paper on the shells of that island and if you have kept your material from there separate, I would like to see if you have any species that aren’t yet recorded from there! :)
Luckybeachgirl, Do you ever get back to Antigua? There is a new book with color photos of Antigua seashells. It’s called “Antiguan Shallow-water Seashells” by Deng Yan Zhang.
http://www.amazon.com/Antiguan-Shallow-water-Seashells-Deng-Zhang/dp/061534335X
The writing is a bit weird because the guy who wrote it is Chinese and his English is really wonky, but the pictures of the shells are very nice.
I’ll email you pics of my st maarten shells, not many though.
Thanks Donna! I am interested to see what you found.
The Long spined star is awesome!
Well, it looks like the festivities got off to a great start. Can’t wait for more pictures.
cool beans, when they were dredging up Indian Rocks Beach, I found a slew of the long stars, didn’t know what they were at first. Now I’m really excited to know they are rare around here
I found tons of those in Antigua! Seems like it’s usually a Caribbean shell!! Great find!!! Congrats!!!
Yes, that’s right, they are quite common in the Leeward Islands. :)
I found one on Sanibel in 2006, that’s when my love of the Island began.
I’m so jealous. So wish I could e there. Waiting on pins and needles for your stories and you pics. Hello everyone. I wish you lots of luck!!
I love these shells. I found several on Anclote Key a long, long time ago. I’ve only found one sun dial on Sanibel back in the ’70’s. Great find!
Hello all ,
Oh what a great find, congrats!!!!
I hope you all fantastic weather, lots of seashells & a fun fun time; oh how I wish I could be there!!!
Oh, & someone have a drink for me!!! Cheers to shelling!!
Can’t wait to hear about more
Mary Ann Preston
East Granby. CT
One of these years, I will plan my vacation to be there for Shellabaloo! What a wonderful way to spend a vacation.
I hate to say this but my granddaughter Kaitlyn , of Jan 5th Junonia fame, found one last week in front of Mitchell’s sandcastles. We had never seen one here so we looked it up and found out about it too. Sue
Kaitlyn is an amazing sheller! And her brother too!
Please don’t hate to say that…………right time, right place and luck and ANYONE can get those “rare” shells. And Pam is in the right place at the right time to take your grandaughters picture!
Sue, OMG you should always share the news of a rare find! It’s so exciting to find unusual shells and its good for us to learn from it. We need more young eyes out there finding those rares. Congrats to Kaitlyn!
pam, i have a similar looking shell that i got in folly beach, south carolina. could i please possibly email you a picture of it to identify? i actually thought it was a partial shell but looking at this wonderful picture i think i may have a full shell! i’m not on facebook so if there’s an easy way to send it to you via email i’m happy to do that.
thanks for your help!
amy from snowy steamboat springs, colorado
amy I love Folly Beach! My sister is going to college at Wofford so we vacationed there last year! Its such a cute and quirky beach town! I even found a lightning whelk there!
I can see that everyone is having a blast! And the weather is great! Lucky people! I can’t wait to see what else they found! :)
We fell in love w folly beach. Luckily our niece lives there so we have an excuse to go back!!!
Hello everyone!!
Im here at Pam’s Shellabaloo!!! We are having a great time and weather has been perfect, water beautiful and shelling great! Pam is absolutely wonderful , sweet as can be and very shell smart!! She showed me how to find wentletraps, tusks and rice olives!! Small little things but they are cute as can be. I found wentletraps!!!! Wahoo!! Thanx Pam!!
Just thought Id put in a little note here from someone who is doing the shellabaloo!
You are all having so much fun and I check our site several times a day hoping for an update and photos of your Shellabaloo!!! days. Thanks for sharing you enthusiasm.
WOW! What a special find! I’ve been thinking of y’all and the Shellabaloo! Been so busy myself these past few days, I can only dream of the shore and the shells. :-/ I hope you all are having a wonderful time! You’ve been having GREAT weather-lucky!
Until I can feel the sand between MY toes again…I’ve gotta bea shell “creeper” here… ;-)
Great find! Congrats to all of you on the Shellabaloo. Pam is great and Sanibel is wonderful. Can’t wait until I get there on the 22nd.
Crazy finds are happening in the bird world too. People just found a Crested Caracara and a Western Oriole in New Jersey. The first belongs in Mexico and the second on the west coast. I guess they went east instead of south during migration. Maybe all of the critters GPS’s are off. Hope some of those mixed up shells wait for me.
We have had razorbill sightings lately here. They are cold weather birds! I’ve heard it may have been hurricane sandy that displaced them.
Is the 6 image your collection of your best shells?