There are many different approaches to finding shells on Sanibel. Shellers like Clark love to walk the water’s edge to scoop up shells with a shelling backhoe… I love to explore all of the wrack lines on the beach by walking in a zig zag formation. Some shellers snorkel for their shells. Some shellers love to find a pile of shells on the surface of the dry beach then sit and sift. Eldon from Indiana likes to find an area with shells half buried in the wet sand then start digging a hole.
As I walked up to Eldon at Sanibel Lighthouse Beach with a smile on my face watching his clever work, he reached in that hole and pulled out this gem of a shell… a perfect bright red TRUE TULIP.
And that wasn’t his only treasure that was unearthed from that hole… WHELKS, CONCHS, OLIVES, NUTMEGS, MUREXES and so much more…
Of course as always at low tide, I saw live MOLLUSKS as well. Live LETTERED OLIVES were making their tracks throughout the damp sand (check out olives spelling out letters on my post Olive i Love Shelling) making fun curly Qs and letters of the alphabet…… OMG! Oh Wait! Holy Cowrie! That’s a GOLDEN OLIVE! a L-I-V-E GOLDEN OLIVE!
Oh. How. Beautiful. As much as I wanted to pick this fella up and examine the whole shell, I left him exactly like this so I wouldn’t disturb his mission. Since GOLDEN OLIVES are just a color form of the LETTERED OLIVE, I’m really not sure if they will pass on the color form in the breeding process or not. Hmmm. Not sure if the color is in the DNA or from the eating habit or environmental factors. I didn’t have time to research it but in any case, I didn’t want to change anything in his environment by picking him up… if there is even a slight chance that this color can be passed on in breeding, I didn’t want to be responsible for upsetting him in any way. I know my theory is probably silly (MOLLUSKS get displaced all of the time- its nature!) but I sure felt better about watching and not touching.
I finally got my video downloaded from my day at Gulfside City Park on November 3! I just said how much I love to explore the wrack lines in “Z” formation, but I’m fickle about shelling… I always change it up and I also loooove to shell in the tidal pools at low tide. So I invite you to virtually take a walk with me by watching this video of my low tide shell collecting day at sunrise…
Nice pic of the Golden Olive! I always do the “Z” walk, too!
can you explain the Z walk?
Thanks, Gigi
Gigi, hmmmm might be hard to explain but …. I try to read the beach by looking at all of the wrack lines… Picking a line to explore… Then if I don’t see any clues to finding things that r interesting, I walk towards the water crossing a few other shell lines to see if I see shells rolling in the surf, if I don’t see anything, I zig up to one of the other shells lines… So this pathway over and over again is a “z” on the beach. Up to the high wrack line then down to the water until I see something that stops me in my tracks (like the line of shells in this video) and then I stick with that line. So even with this low tide, did u see how far away I was from the water? If I hadnt done the z and stuck to just looking at the lowest tide line, I would have never seen this beautiful line of shell strung along the tidal pool.
Pam,
Thanks for sharing your many strategies for finding those
INCONSPICUOUS SHELLS, hidden well, like EASTER EGGS
by the tides…. for shellers to discover !!
Those very illusive gems you so generously teach us about, in wrack lines, and barely visible under the sand will remind me to be extra “shellert” and slow it down on the beach. :)
Shellotte
Beautiful pictures and shells…Love the Red tulip and Golden olive.
So many shells are buried right now…wish I had xray vision sand glasses.
.just returned to Vermont from Sanibel last night after a glorious week but found shelling to be challenging. Very few shells, only a couple welks (in one piece) a couple of conch. I walked every beach from Captiva down to Light House point and Ft Myers. Disappointed. Year before I was in heaven. Guess I have to come back next year!
Pam can you please tell me how to read the tide charts on this site? Is low tide at 0.2 good? How do you figure out when to be there for low tide? Should you be there an hour before, hour during and hour after low tide? A group of us want to come from Venice but we never know how to determine a good time to be there.
Cheryl,
You have it correct… 0.2 is a good low tide. Anything around a 0.0 is a really nice low tide. And yes, again, you are correct…. an hour before during and an hour after will give you the best chance you will be there for the lowest. But remember- nothing is a guarantee with finding the shells you are looking for…. as with the tides. It’s a PREDICTED low tide. The winds and weather alter the tides just as much as they alter the location where shells will pile up. We love shelling the lowest tides but its not the only time we find shells but its probably the best time to see the live mollusks- they are so cool. Look at the charts around the low tide but the most important thing is to make sure all of your girlfriends can get together at one time to have a treasure hunt (getting schedules together is waaaay harder than finding shells on Sanibel! LOL) and enjoy the whole experience. Have a great time!!!!
Wow…You were up very early… great sunrise, got sanddollars at Algiers today. Great low tides !!!
Thank you for sharing a Sanibel sunrise! That was beautiful and the shells were amazing! I wanna go!
Loved the video, Pam. It was almost like being there! Gorgeous shells and a beautiful sunrise to start my day. Thanks for bringing the beach to Tucson.
Lol.–holy cowrie
Love that! Holy cowrie!
I am a hole digger for sure, unless the water is warm enough. Then I am a diver! I always have trouble with snorkels, plus I prefer deep water for alphabet cones and such-like. I love how you are always categorizing, Pam! It brings a smile to my face!
WOW! A live golden olive. Only seen a few over the years found by my friends but never a live one. In 37 years of shelling on Sanibel, I’ve never found one.
The video was beautiful! Thank you for it!
I truly hope their will be a shelling beach in Heaven. That would make me a happy girl.
We had a wonderful morning shelling at Blind Pass on the sand bar. Found my first ever wentletrap! Looking firward to meeting you Pam on the shelling cruise tomorrow!
A live golden olive! Very cool.
I watched the most excellent video. You’re killing me! We had terrible shelling in mid-October… the worst I’ve ever had, except I found the milk conch, so I’m trying not to whine too much about it! I would have loved to have had just one hour with shelling like in this video. *sniff*
Loved the video! I would have trouble getting up before sunrise. You found some great shells. The only golden olive shells I’ve seen were in the shell stores. Hope you have a great cruise tomorrow. Pat
Wowie zowie! I love Eldon’s little red tulip, your gorgeous large and colorful murex, the live golden olive (that was so very sweet of you not to disturb it). And a fantastic sunrise!!! What could be better? Your blog is really very nearly as nice as actually being on Sanibel! :)
You know you are shelling at low tide when…you have to look around to find a pool of water to rinse off your finds.
Great video – will have to that low tide shelling on our next Sanibel visit!
Another great video…a vicarious adventure for me up north! I also love the tidal pools. Never tried the “dig a hole” method…will have to try after that red tulip…WOW!
Last January I found an olive that was about an inch long, and was half common lettered coloring, and half golden, long-wise. The newer part of the shell was golden. From a scientific perspective I can’t guess why that would be. Maybe he was an optimist and “golden” was a life choice? I did also find a larger golden so I had something to compare the little guy to. See ya again in January at low tide. Also, the Shelloship of the String is spreading out across the Big Island, and my sistah says “send more bracelets”!
Thank you for the video, Pam! When I was there in June, I found lots of shells by digging down in the sand. It was crazy how I could just dig in one spot for a long time and keep pulling up beautiful, perfect shells. I can’t wait to come back!
Thank you Pam for the video. i love how you get excited about finding shells even though you live there. Will be down for 3 weeks in January, perhaps I’ll see you on the beach.
The video was just awesome, Pam! I love your long videos like that. I would have loved it even more if it had been a half hour! :) it’s like being right there with you! I start wanting to pick up the ones you pass by! Lol. The golden olive is a beauty & the sunset was gorgeous! I even started looking for the dolphins that always come out there at that time! Wish I was there sooo badly!
Sherri from MN
Hi Pam! I loved walking with you in the tide pools!! I really felt in my heart that I was right beside you!! I became emotional as I soaked in all in!! The sunrise reminded me to thank God for all of the beauty of the beach. Thank you for sharing it with me!! Happy Thanksgiving to you and Clark!!!
Ohhhhhh, Thank you for the video beach walk and shelling and sunrise when I can’t be there. Happy Thanksgiving.