Tropical Storm Andrea swept the seashells onto Sanibel’s Lighthouse Beach on Friday but she also swept most of them out into the Gulf Of Mexico by Saturday night. I figured the shells had blown to another beach so I headed to the other side of the island… Blind Pass. I found some! There was a pretty nice shell mound under the bridge that leads to Captiva. That’s where I found Jamie and Alex from Hollywood, Florida shellebrating their one year wedding anniversary. Their wedding had a seashell theme so Alex surprised Jamie with a shelling week Sanibel. Sweet!
They were sifting through smaller CLAM shells to find a few nice FIGHTING CONCHS, LGITHNING WHELKS, LETTERED OLIVES, CALICO SCALLOPS and COCKLES…
Kealey and Chad from Sarasota were having good luck shelling the same spot…
Oooooh… Look at that WORM SHELL! And they found a few nice SHARKS EYES, WHELKS and that sweet candy.
Cheri, Rylan and Amanda from New Smyrna were having a ball collecting JINGLES and SCALLOPS…
I was collecting CALICO SCALLOPS too. I can’t resist picking them up when the colors are this gorgeous!
I had a question here in the comments section the other day asking “Is there a good beach to find shells while my husband fishes?”. Now you can see for yourself! Danny caught this nice SNOOK (he gently released it immediately after I took the photo) in the same spot we were finding these shell…
I ran back down to Lighthouse Beach happy to see there were still people finding shells… the miniature shells. Jesse, Erick and Jonsiah from PA were thrilled to find their very first WENTLETRAPS…
The iLoveShelling FaceBook Page was rocking too so I wanted to share a few photos of shells that were posted from the weekend… like from Steve O who found his first PAPER FIG…
Brooke L posted this next photo and said “The shells were great, the beaches empty, waves rolling in, and a perfect sunset! Thank you TS Andrea!”
Kelly M from Dunedin, FL found the big “J” on Honeymoon Island over the weekend. Wahoo! A JUNONIA!
I love this next photo that Greg D posted. He found three huge HORSE CONCHS! He wrote “Three horse conchs I scooped up at Bind Pass Friday night. Great ending to our vacation”. Boom Shellalaka!
I never got a chance to check out Gulfside City Park but I have a feeling there might be shells showing up on that beach soon. I hope to get there tomorrow!
Don’t forget! Only 5 more days to enter to win a Shelling Vacation on Sanibel! CLICK HERE!
So amazing! Thank you so much for bringing Sanibel to everyone! Love seeing and hearing about it…thank you :)
I would love just ONE big conch and Greg D finds three…I can’t take it!! The count down to arriving the 22nd has begun….can’t wait!
Every trip I say I’m not going to pick up any more scallops and I fail every year…I must have hundreds….love those unique color combo’s!
Parker, Greg D also said he found them in chest high water. He worked hard for them I’m sure!!!
Super stoked to see my home beach turnout a junonia! That’s where Olivia found her “lucky piece of junonia” which she believes led her to find the whole shellacka on Lighthouse Beach :)
Kelly has the junonia touch because she has found several there at Honeymoon.
4 over the last 4 years, not that I’m bragging, well maybe just a little LOL
Yes, Andrea did one thing good at least! I was sad for all the live shells washed up on Cayo Costa though! I couldn’t throw them back fast enough but felt I might have done SOME good at least.
Just posted a photo on our FB page with a mound of nice big shells and driftwood. Was hoping for shark’s teeth but no such luck!
Where is Honeymoon Island?
Hi Susan, sorry! I should have put a link to Honeymoon Island in the story- I’ll do that now. Anyway, I did a 3 part story on a weekend trip Clark and I took up there – this will tell you all about it… http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/category/day-trips-from-sanibel/honeymoon-island-state-park/
How is the shelling at Bowman’s beach? Is it worth the trip over to it? I love all the shelling info and pictures from what everyone is finding. Thank you!
I heard Bowmans was just okay for shelling the last few days. Of course that could change in a second! :)
I hope you all have good luck with Gulfside! Looking forward to some photos!
Very interesting how the shells shift from one beach to another.
Question for you, Pam. Can we enter more than once for the shelling vacation? Do you know? Some contests only allow one entry per email address. I’ve entered but only once. Thanks.
once for vaca- daily for grab bags
Ooops, I’ve been doing them both daily!
We finished our first glorious vacation in Samibel and left the Saturday before TS Andrea arrived … with much regret because I KNEW everyone else would be finding aMAZing shells after the storm blew through! It’s fun to see all the lucky finds here in the newsletter, but OH am I envious!!! Congrats everyone! :-)
Are paper figs really rare? We found 3 when we were there last November. I don’t seem to hear many comments about them on your posts. So happy they survived the trip home to Colorado!
Amy- I like the paper fig shells too. About 10 years ago we were there in January and found quite alot of them after a storm. When they are fresh they are very colorful. After a few days they had disapeared or were broken. Since then I only find a few when I visit. You never know what you’ll find and it’s different at each beach.
Pat
I am in love ever since I found this site! I check it a couple of times a day to see what your finding today! I use to shell in Blind Pass when I was a little girl, and I knew then, it was my passion! Unfortunately, I live in Pennsylvania, and there’s no shelling going on here! Luckily, I was reunited with my love for shelling about 5 years ago, while visiting St. Petersburg Beach and Pass-A-Grille. I do find some beautiful shells there on a good day, however I am envious of what you guys find! I’m hoping that some day soon, I get to visit, and will be lucky enough to ignite my passion with some beautiful findings! Thanks for sharing!
i always find it so amazing that there are so many shells washed up on shore.
And this is only in one small part of the world. There is no place else in the world that I want to visit right now. Hopefully there will be some shells left for me when I finally get a chance to visit. I, too, am envious of the shells everyone finds.