It’s the small things in my beach life that I seem to get most excited about. When I found this tiny juvie GAUDY NATICA (Colorful Moon), I literally laughed out loud because it was just a perfect beautiful baby. And then I said to myself… “Self? Why don’t we find more juvie GAUDY NATICAS on our beaches?”. We find baby SHARKS EYE all the time so why wouldn’t we see more baby GAUDIES. Things that make you go Hmmmmm.
But my attention quickly changed when I saw Noah (Fort Myers) filling up his bucket on a nice shell pile right at the entrance to Bowman’s Beach yesterday. He walked right over to me to hand me one of his shells after seeing me collect a few too. I told him the shell he gave me was called a JINGLE shell so he repeated it once… then quickly found another and another to share them all with me. Each time he said “JINGLE!” How sweet! Thank you Noah, you are an excellent sheller.
We only found a few of those nice shell piles on the beach but the water’s edge was holding a few more goodies. Clark emptied out his pockets and put them in his shelling backhoe to show me what he found from his walk from Blind Pass to Bowman’s Beach.
We started out at Blind Pass Sanibel and in just a few minutes I pulled these lovelies out of the the surf line…
Susan (Sanibel) showed me her favorite find of the day… A ROSEATE SPOONBILL FEATHER! How lucky! I rarely see them on the beach so I would call that ultimate BEACH BLING…
Speaking of ultimate BEACH BLING, some creative soul made this cool BLING art sculpture. Yes, it’s cool, but I don’t want to encourage anybody to make tall sculptures or sand pits in the summer (May through September) because they can be disastrous for SEA TURTLES. They can get trapped or disoriented by moving around them or they can get stuck. So please be aware of nesting SEA TURTLES.
But if you can’t keep that inner artist trapped inside you while you’re on the beach, just make a flat design like this beautiful SEASHELL MERMAID made by artist Christy and her creative daughters Baylee and September.
It was a beautiful weekend finding beautiful treasures…
Come on! Come shelling with us on Wednesday June 19th!!!!
We are taking a shelling cruise to Cayo Costa June 19, 2013 at low tide at 1pm so I’d love for you to join us! Call 239-472-5300 and tell them you want to be on the iLoveShelling cruise or CLICK HERE for more information. It’s so much fun!
Pam,
Will you be doing a shelling cruise to Cayo Costa in November? We won’t arrive in time for the October trip.
Thanks,
June
Thank you for asking June! I am going to try to get dates for November through April buttoned down this week. As soon as I know exact dates I will post them here. :)
Hopefully it will be the week of 11/17. I have been to Cayo Costa twice and would LOVE to go with you.
Nice smalls. Love the gaudy natica, babys ear, rough & calico scallops and bittersweet. I first got hooked on comb bittersweets when I found my first one in January 2012. Then I read about the giant bittersweet on your website and was determined to find one. I had the most luck at blind pass. Hope the shells hold out.
Pat
Gaudy Naticas are one of my favs and I’ve only found 2 in my 4 trips to Sanibel. That little guy is just precious! I would love to add one of those to my “nursery” of baby shells! ; ) I love that assortment in the last picture too! Thanks for sharing!
Heehee I love that! I wish I would have run into you on the beach to see your “nursery”. :)
Wednesday is my birthday and I would LOVE to go shelling with you! Unfortunately I’m in Iowa and don’t get to come to Sanibel until the end of Nov. so you all have a great time and find lots of shells. I’ll be thinking about you!
I just love your facebook page and website. I’ve been going down to Sanibel/Captiva for over 30 years to vacation. Your pictures bring it all back to me and I love revisiting the islands even if it is vicariously through you! Thank you!
Looks like Super Scooper Clark did quite well on his long walk!
Would love to go on the 19th but we r not arriving until the 22nd! We will be shelling everyday! For the past 3-4 months my 10 yr old son has to look at your blog each night before we go to bed. I think we have looked at all of your videos and posts even the ones from last year! He gets so tickled when you get all excited while shelling. We will be looking for you while we r shelling!
What lovely red rough scallops! And what a cute baby natica!
So many amazing shells…my head is spinning :) cannot wait for July 6th to come…need my Sanibel seashell fix ;)
Pam, I just love your site! My family and I are coming for our 1st trip to Sanibel the end of July. My four kids have been watching all your videos and are very excited. Lately when we go to the beaches here in Southeast Georgia my 5 yr. old daughter keeps telling me she doesn’t want to go here she wants to go where all the pretty shells are, lol! I do have a question, is there somewhere on the island to get a shelling backhoe like Clark’s or is that something I would need to order online before our trip. Or could you recommend some tools that we may need to bring with us. Thanks so much!
Everything you would need, you can find at the very cool YOLO Watersports on Captiva. Its my favorite surfshop on the islands! http://www.yolowatersports.com
Hi love your website and blogs makes my day when I wake up to read about the beach and shelling. Want to thank you, I received one of your grab bags form the contest, it was great to have part of the beach delivered to my door. Now all I need is a ticket to Sanibel. Hope to be down there soon. Thanks again.
Joy, I’m so happy to hear that you won one of the grab bags! Fun! Thanks for letting us know. :)
PAM; CAN YOU HELP I KEEP GETTING YOUR EMAILS WITH THEM THRU KIRBYRAMBO.CO, I NEVER SEE THAT NAME ON THE REPLIES. SAME APRIL 2012 THRU JAN. 2012. HATE TO JUST EMAIL THEM IN CASE IT IS A VIRUS.
JANET IN AZ
Hi Janet, no worries… that is the correct email delivery system for the “new post” to be delivered to your email in box.
Hope you don’t mind if I share your Mermaid photo on Facebook. Will credit your blog. If not, let me know and i’ll take it down.
Thank you for asking, Terry! Please share it and yes, I would love for you to credit iLoveShelling.com. You are so thoughtful to ask about credit! :) <3
Hi, do you know where I can buy one of those aluminum rakes online? I saw the link for the plastic one, but I prefer a larger metal one. Thanks.
Call or email YOLO to see if they will ship you one of the metal rakes. http://yolowatersports.com/.