If there is a better souvenir than finding an awesome LIGHTNING WHELK like this to remember a wonderful vacation… I dont know about it.
Therese told me she only saw a tiny bit of the top of this shell and thought it looked interesting enough to start digging around it. Then she realized it was this perfectly empty WHELK! Congratshellations Therese! She and her husband Dan (visiting from Minnesota) had an exshellent afternoon at Blind Pass Captiva under the bridge at low tide filling up their shell bags with WHELKS, CONCHS, OLIVES and one nice piece of a JUNONIA.
She even found one of the biggest CHESTNUT TURBANS I’ve seen in a while too…
Wendy (a local Sanibelian) found a few goodies to take home to make into jewelry…
She also found a SHIVA SHELL (which I didnt even get a picture of – darn!- so CLICK HERE if you want to see one) and this incredible DOUBLE JEWELBOX. It has pieces of CORAL growing on it!
Clark found a few nice shells too but the one I got most excited about was the WHITE CRESTED TELLIN in the top left corner. We have found them more on Cayo Costa but to find one at Blind Pass is pretty rare. The shell in between the two OLIVES is a huge and thick weird shaped JINGLE I thought was interesting too. I love that weird stuff!
You really couldn’t see how big the NUTMEG was in the last photo so I thought I’d show you how big it is in Clark’s hand. It’s shellacious! It measures in at a whopping 48mm… which isn’t like a world record size (Susan H?) but it’s the biggest one we’ve seen in a long time!
I found a regular sized NUTMEG that I thought I’d keep along with a BITTERSWEET, a CALICO CLAM with a cool pattern, and my new faves- the CALICO SCALLOP.
We ended the evening watching another gorgeous sunset over a big pile of Sit ‘N Sift shells on the other side of the jetty rocks at Blind Pass Captiva.
The sky turns a lucious orange right at the horizon when the sun sets over the Gulf Of Mexico.
Then it melts into the water to end another sensational day on the island.
Oh Wait! I did take a short little video right when we first got to Blind Pass at 6pm yesterday. It’s just a little something to show you exactly where we were. This was right before Therese showed me her WHELK! Have a wonderful weekend!
Jean and Linda are there without ME now….sigh.. I just know I would have found something amazing if I were there too!
Awesome shells…
Oh I wish the water would have been that calm when I was there. It was so rough all week. Lots of broken beauties. But sometimes the incredible sunset is more exciting than finding that perfect shell. It really was spectacular from Blind Pass. Great finds! I just took a mini vacation watching the video. Can’t wait for October!!
I wish I was there too! Love all the shells-nutmeg, olive, bittersweet, calico clam, and scallop. Great lightning whelk Therese found. Will save the sunset picture and enjoy the video again. Just a PS-I checked my top shells and back in 2004 I think I found a Gulf stream top shell. The BMSM doesn’t have a picture, but I found it in 2 other books I have. Enjoy your weekend of shelling.
Pat
Oh how I miss Sanibel….
Those super low tides and all those beautiful shells!
November is a long way away…
Oh but I just checked and there are negative tides in November!!!
YEAH!!! Have that too look forward to!
I went to Bowman Beach yesterday and the tide never got low. I arrived around 5pm and stayed almost to 8pm. Help, am I doing something wrong. I thought about Blind Pass. But you know how that goes.
Hey Lori – I spent the afternoon at Blind Pass Sanibel and stayed way past sunset. The tide went out, it got low, but it never exposed a sandbar. ???
I did hit it big finding empty Fighting Conchs just in front of the giant Mansion south of the bridge, so I am feeling very satisfied and grateful.
Hi Lori, I’m not sure what you mean by ” the tide never got low”. You may just not realize what the beach looks like on a high tide (?) and it’s not a rush of water running off the beach unless you are in an inlet (or pass) where you can witness the water traveling out of a smaller body of water into the gulf… Like a blind pass. The low tide just exposes more of Bowmans beach but isn’t as shallow as the lighthouse. Each beach has a different look to it and that’s what the treasure hunt it all about in finding shells. Who knows, if you were at a differnt beach you may have not seen that spectacular sunset.
I wish I were there too – but will be shortly…. Thanks for the video – I’m taking notes. Hehe….
So great! I always love the videos!
Love the video, I cracked up laughing because when I watched it, I said “NICE!” out loud, right before you did, haha!!
The sunset pictures are suck-in-your-breath-at-the-sight beautiful. I hope you don’t mind, but the first one is now on my desktop.
Great post!
What a bunch of biiig beautiful shells. Love the nutmeg. And Kim’s ring! Is that a gold scallop? Are there other shells on her ring, too? I want!!!
Come to Mama at Blind Pass! I sure wish there were low tides other than early morning and evening…. Comeon moon, switch it up sometimes. :)
What? I’m sorry, Wendy – It’s Wendy with the fab ring. How did I ever come up with Kim. I hope this isn’t the same as putting the keys in the refrigerator…
What an incredibly beautiful sunset picture! And incredibly beautiful shells-on-rocks pictures!
The world record size for a nutmeg is 55 mm, which is ridiculously humungous, but at 48 mm Clark’s shell is less than half an inch from that record and very pretty in terms of color and state of preservation.
I would guess that the world record size nutmeg was probably found in Brazil.
When I can’t be at the beach….I come here! It always makes me feel better! Enjoy your weekend! Sweet hugs from across the way!
Love Wendy’s earrings!!!!
WOW! That nutmeg is huge!!!
Pam, Wow, beautiful sunset pictures… I got a 14- 1/2 ” horseconch on St. Patrick’s day.(Sanibel side, near where they were dredging, buried out in the water. I have before and after pictures of it. It still has some of the brown on it. Should I put it back in bleach or just set it out in the sun?(If it ever gets hot enough around here. Really miss Sanibel!!! I got to meet Donnie the Shellinator and his daughter this year, you meet the nicest people SHELLING!!! Janet
AND I’m loving that ring Wendy is wearing!
Ahhhhhhhh :-))
I just found your website/blog recently and love checking it every day to see what fun you and everyone else are having as you spend the day looking for beautiful and interesting shells. I’m planning on retiring next year and moving to the Tampa Bay area from Oregon. One of the first things I want to do after I arrive is head down to Sanibel and spend a few days shelling. Can’t wait!
I LOVE the videos! The sounds are so soothing and I feel like I am shelling right there with you! Olives are my favorite. I’ll be near Captiva Island in two weeks. Love the shelling there as well.
Really Nice whelk, surprisingly clean too.
Pam
Your photos are always so artistic, and I especially LOVE these sunsets!!! Thank you for the video, too; that was fun!
Love the videos, it gives those of us who are landlocked (Kansas) a bit of the ocean. I’ll be on Sanibel in June and can’t wait to go shelling!
The sister and nieces just came back from Spring Break vacation in Florida they brought me back some shells. I took the ones with holes in them to wire wrap. I was wondering what makes such perfectly round holes in the shells?
Cheryl
from Wisconsin
Some shells (mollusks) eat other mollusks (the living animal inside the shell). Some get to the other mollusk by drilling a hole in the other guy and sucking the meat out. It’s a wild world!
Pam, I’m not 100% certain, but I think that great whelk is NOT a lightning whelk at all but a Keiner’s whelk which is very similar but has those huge projecting knobs on the shoulder. It’s really cool because I’ve been lookin’ to find a Keiner’s whelk for simply years and haven’t. This is the first one I’ve seen in a long time. Opinions anyone?
Sally, Darn! I’m not at my computer right now to check it out but I’m hoping maybe someone else can look at it…. But doesnt the Keiners have a squatter “tail”? And an east coast shell? MurexKen? Susan H? Yall out there?
Okay Pam, I’m home with my books now….assuming you didn’t reverse the photo, it looks sinistral or left handed so that would make it a lightning whelk after all. I’ve just never seen one with such large knobs at that size. And you’re right about Keiner’s whelk, it’s on the other coast. However it could’ve been what is called the perverse whelk which does have the large knobs but it is not sinistral and has a much larger or wider aperture than the lightning whelk. I love learning new shell stuff!
Hi Sally! You assumed correct, LOL I didn’t reverse the photo. I thought those knobs were incredible and the rich color since it was that big but although I called it a lightning whelk, I’ve been known to miss stuff and assume. I had so much going on today, I couldnt really look back and give a definite answer until I got to a good connection. Def a lighting but awesome for all of your input!
Pam-
Is a Shiva shell the operculum of a turban or the operculum of a moon snail or both? Or, is it possibly a word connected to the operculum of many different shells? I have only seen the Turban operculums on Sanibel.
I always think about a shiva shell as being the operculum of the turban because of the porcelain type look and feel of it to make jewelry and such….BUT now that I think about it, the gaudy natica ( or colorful moon) has a similar type operculum that is used in jewelry. Hmmmm. The common denominator would be the heavy, whitish porcelain-like operculum used in jewelry. This would be (in my humble opinion) what one would call a Shiva Shell. I hope this helps!