Low tide Sunday morning shelling at Blind Pass ….ahhhhhhh. Hawg heaven!
Even if there wasn’t a shell in site, I would have been a happy girl just to walk on the beach, breath the salty air, feel the waves touch my toes and hear birds singing their sea songs. But I did have a bonus… Shells!
While I was finding my mermaid loot, I met Lisa and Stan (Tampa) with their 2 kids Josh and Allison finding their own treasures from the sea.
Stan was snorkeling about chest high to find some CONCHS, OLIVES and an ALPHABET CONE that he pulled out of his pockets to show me…
But that wasn’t it! They had a big bucket filled with CORAL, PEN SHELLS, a few BANDED TULIPS, an APPLE MUREX and a nice SUNRAY VENUS.
I walked over to the Sanibel side of the pass and met Holly from Sanford, Florida who found an awesome orange HORSE CONCH.
I love this mid size HORSE CONCH! There are some BARNACLES around the lip and spire but I suggested waiting to get home before trying to get them off. When those barnacles are anywhere near that fragile lip, I suggest being very delicate picking around that lip by inserting a dental tool in the middle of the barnacle to work inside out first…being very easy. I’m sure it will clean up beautifully if you take your time… its worth it- that’s a fantastic find!
I even stopped by Gulfside City Park (mid island Sanibel) for a few minutes today too just long enough to find another tiny SAND DOLLAR. Sweet!
Okay, I can’t wait to show you a closer view of my other finds today. I was very happy to find a double ATLANTIC WING OYSTER . I know it’s not so pretty on the outside…
But goodness… look at that special inside. It’s pearlescent!
My fave find of the day is an ALBINO FIGHTING CONCH!
It looks a little yellow because it has the PERIOSTRACUM (the skin) still on it but if I cleaned it completely off, it would be stark white…. ALBINO! Okay- this is funny…. When I told Clark I found an ALBINO, he first congratulated me then looked at my photo of it since I left the shells in the sink in the garage. He said “That’s not an ALBINO, Pam!” (Ha! He thinks he’s the ALBINO expert since… well, I’ll have to give it to him… he does have a knack for finding them). So I sashayed to my shell stash and brought him my shell. “Hmmmm….Oh, okay.” He said. HAHAHA
I haven’t decided yet if I want all of the PERIOSTRACUM off yet so I’m going to be like Scarlett Ohara so… “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.”
PS- Did you see “land” snail in my bucket too? I found a ROSY WOLF SNAIL (bottom left about 7 o’clock) on the path back to my car. It’s still “rosy”.
**** Calling all shellers! We are having a SHELLATHON in January CLICK HERE for details! ****
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LOVE the mid-size Horse Conch…not too many that size that I’ve seen…usually little itty bitty ones or the giganic ones! Sweet! : )
I think you had mentioned that size horse conch on a post a couple of years ago, right? I thought of that today when I saw this one. :)
Nice shells I especially like the oyster, just beautiful pearlescent!
Love the Albino fighting conch and that is a beautiful horse conch…great finds.
Glad you’re back out there enjoying the salty air and finding great shells. Love the horse conch. ;-)
Yay! Glad to see you are hitting the beaches again!!!
Glad you’re back feeding the soul with your beach excursions…love the finds and I’m so jealous of Holly’s Horse conch…all of mine are smaller than an inch in size!
Such beauties:)
Glad you had a great day for shelling. Love the atlantic wing oyster and the rosy wolf snail. Good thoughts for you.
Pat
I KNEW we should have gone to Blind Pass this morning!!!! Missed seeing you again! We sold our house, tho’ and will be down permanently last part of Nov…..Yeah!!!!!
Oh just looking at these pictures makes me ever SOOO jealous! We left there mid Aug and every day I wish I was still there! The only hope is hopefully we’ll be back and as my kids say..”.it would be a nice place for you and daddy to live all the time one day! “. , I hope they’re right! Well, I am only now just getting into cleaning the shells we brought home- that whole school thing keeps us busy! Lol! It’s so nice looking at them all again. Of all the shells….and there is a lot, w didn’t find a Horse Conch…maybe next time!
I was cleaning some of my shells from Shellabaloo 3 last night and made me think of all the great people we met and what a fun time we had! Didn’t think I would ever get the shell fever from my Sis, Marie, but I did and I do! Thanks Pam and hope to see you again in the not too distant future.
Pam, your blog is all that keeps me sane most days! At 62 all I do is dream of the day I will live close enough to drive to the Sanibel beaches any time I take a notion!
Your quote from Scarlett O’Hara is hilarious because I crack my friends and family up all the time quoting Scarlett that there’s always tomorrow to worry about the small stuff!
I believe we’ll be great friends cause “great minds think alike”!!
Janice from GA
Really nice wing oyster! They are so delicate that finding a hinged pair washed up like that is quite rare.
And I like the periostracum on the albino fighting conch, but that’s just me… :)
I just got back from my 2nd trip to Sanibel and how different this trip was compared to last year! I went the same time both years. Last year I could fill a bucket up in about 1 hour and I had tons of shells, all different kinds, I brought back home!!! This year I hardly found any shells on the beach at all. I didn’t quite know what to do. Then one evening I went out after the usual afternoon rain storm and went into the water where the waves “crash” and there was a line of small shells. It looked like just broken shells so I never really paid attention to it. I scooped up a handful and was AMAZED at all the mini’s!!! Every kind I could think of! Whelks, olive’s, horsey’s, tulip’s, murex, nutmeg’s, auger’s, jingle’s, wenteltrap, wormies, shark’s eye, kitten paw’s and some I don’t know!!! I looked for the mini’s for 2 1/2 hours that day and 2 evenings afterwards. It was so much fun!! The point for this is everyday….every vacation is so unique and a complete surprise! I love it there and can’t wait for the next time!
Deborah, what a nice story of your trip! Isn’t it amazing how it changes? That’s what keeps me going back too. :) Which beach did you find all of your minis?
I stayed at Song of the Sea both years. And that’s where I found the mini’s. I just went straight to the beach from the boardwalk and went to the water. I just separated them all today and I’m still amazed at how beautiful they are.
Pam were you able to get the barnacles off your atlantic wing oyster? I tried dental tools, but I couldn’t get it all off. I didn’t want to try bleach
Pat
Pat, yes, I got the barnacles of …easily! I was lucky, they must not have been then on there too long. I didnt even have to use the pick- they popped off with my thumb nail! weeeee!