It’s fun to visit all Southwest Florida beaches to see what different treasures are washing up. Since we haven’t taken our boat out in lawd knows how long, it was time to dust the Shellfish off and get out on the water.
With the holiday hustle and bustle in high gear, Clark and I wanted a day to relax, float about and shell to our hearts content without a schedule.
It was an exshellent day for boating and beach combing at Lovers Key.
Here’s a closer look at the sweet shells we found. I’m always so happy when we find ROSE PETAL TELLINS! They are just …. well… pink and happy but we don’t find them as often on the beaches of Sanibel. And you know it’s a good day when we find WORMIES… oh yaya. So of course these are all my faves but the SHARKS EYE is a standout as well as that very bright yellowish PEAR WHELK on the top. You may have noticed that the SHARK’S EYE is nesting in a BUTTERCUP LUCINE, but did you notice the bivalve that the ROSE PETAL TELLINS are nesting in? It’s a CHALKY BUTTERCUP LUCINE. It’s a little hard to tell how much bigger it is than the “regular” BUTTERCUP LUCINE but you can see how much bigger it is if you look back at the first photo. It’s always fun to find shells we dont see that often on Sanibel… even if its a not-so-collectable bivalve like the beautiful ANGEL WINGS.
On our boat ride back to the marina, we spotted two DOLPHINS jumping out of the water in the wake of a pretty big boat. Weeeeee! I can’t believe I got a picture of them!
Sending sunshine and seashells to you all. Errrr… well, Carolina Girl Karen… that would be “Cyber sunshine and virtual seashells”. LOL
Join us for a Shelling Adventure!
Great photo of the dolphins Pam! And love the shell haul! One week from today I touch down, a few days on Marco, then Shellabaloo!!! So excited!
What a great day you had!!! So lucky to see the joy of the jumping dolphins, in addition to the bounty of shells! And I love the way you displayed them! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome shot Pam!!! …and I Love Love Love the rose tellins and have very few!!!! Happy New Year!!!
Ah Lovers Key our other favorite beach! Oh how I miss it…..
Great shot of the dolphins!
Keep the seashells coming. Winter has hit with a vengeance here in Nova Scotia so enjoying your posts till we can return to SW Florida!
Love the dolphin picture. Great collection of shells. Have’nt found chalky buttercups or rose tellins yet(besides junonias etc.). Hope you and Clark have a Happy New Year and a good shelling weekend. Pat
Wow – just wow!!!! Only thing I picked up on Lover’s Key today was a bunch of jingle shells….but it was fun visiting. Still getting acquainted with where the “good” areas are.
Looks like you two had a great time! SUPER shot of the dolphins!
Do you have to be on the islands just off the main beach of Lover’s Key to find the rose tellins, or do you think I could find them on the beach? I LOVE those shells.
Hi Kathy, we find them on the lovers key island on the south tip and on some the the neighboring islands. I’ve also always found them on fort Myers beach down near Point Estero and Gullwing beaches too. If you click on the highlighted bolded words “rose petal tellins” in this post, it will take u to all of the other posts where we have found them. You should be able to find them on one of those beaches for sure. Good luck! :)
Thanks for the info!
Wonderful shots Pam! I hope you and Clark enjoyed your day relaxing. I have also found the rose tellins (lots of them) when I was on Tigertail Beach on Marco Island. Will be down your way sometime next week. You should see the load of snow they dumped on us yesterday, jeez…can’t wait to shovel the car out and head South, lol.
Mmm, what an amazing dark shark’s eye. :) I personally I love the chalky buttercups; I did not find one on West Gulf Drive this year, but I did find two rose tellins and a bunch of other cool stuff.
A week ago, when Ed and I went to Coney Island (on that day when it was 70 degrees in NYC) I found a nice large sharks eye. Even Coney Island can deliver some good shells sometimes! (They just did beach re-nourishment there.)
Hey Pam & Clark,
That one word cyber changes everything! We will have to add Lover’s Key to our list. Next time we shell together in March you will be shelling with a GRANDMA! That’s right Jenn had her baby girl Kenzie Rae at 1:01 a.m. 0n 12/28. I bought her a shelling bucket on our last trip to Sanibel so as soon as possible we are getting her out on the beach:) Happy New Year to you both:)
Carolina Grandma Karen
Karen Congrats on becoming a grandma. I think the fact that you bought Kenzie Rae ( adorable name) her shelling bucket already is so cute. I don’t have any granchildren yet so I have focused on two of my friends who do and bring shells back for them with books about shelling and we even made a shell frame for their grandmas for Christmas. We have to keep the future generations a shellin….Loree
SO HAPPY FOR YALL KAREN!!!!! Congratulations on your new addition to your family. Kenzie is a lucky little girl to have YOU as a gramma….. and to have the whole Carolina Girl clan as her extended family. It’s going to be a good 2014. Xoxo
What a perfect name for the Rambo’s sport boat !! SHELLFISH :)
And, I’m “tellin” ya’….. those ROSE PETAL TELLINS really have me feeling in the pink… they really look pretty with my ROSEATE SPOONBILL feather collec tion…
Thank you and Carolyn (Manitoba) for sharing the beach locations where you’ve hit the tellin shelling jackpots…. that’s the selfless spirit of ILS shelling sistahs !!
HAPPY NEW YEAR :-)
Shellotte
Oh Pam, you are truly blessed to be living in Paradise! I dream of being able to be there year round. I am all bundled up, even wearing a scarf (in the house) and have wood going in the furnace. It is -26C (-14.8) out there and mounds of snow.
Your shelling adventures keep me sane. I am really hoping to meet you next year and thank you in person for all these ‘Happy Thoughts’ to get me through the long Canadian winters.
Muriel
Dolphin picture a must for next year’s calendar!!!
Your amazing girl.
Love the Dolphin Photos. After many years of attempting to get “good” dolphin pix, I finally got some in May on the Dolphin cruise out of South Seas Plantation. So I know how hard it is to get good shots. Yours are truly amazing!
Have a very Happy and Healthy New Year, hope to see you on the Sanibel beaches in October for my Retirement Celebration!
Wow! I am so jealous of your dolphin photo. I’ve never gotten one close to that good. What camera did you use and what setting?
i have panasonic lumix point n shoot cameras that i keep on auto. the models change since i go through lots of them (sand, salt, water- ugh) but they all take great photos.
Enjoyed meeting you and “Super Sheller Clark” Christmas AM at Blind Pass. I was there with my brother Greg who is from San Diego. One of the ladies from Texas that you pictured on the blog found a really wild shell at Blind Pass a couple days after Christmas. I had never seen anything like it before…it looked sort of like a large Wentletrap with rows of ridges close together, but with a long “tail” like a horse conch. Kind of a tan color. Wish you could have seen it. Anyway, Happy New Year! and hope to see you again sometime. DT
I love my home state of Massachusetts but boy do I get jealous when I see these pictures!
What islands did you go to. Can you show us,please.