The only thing cloudy about our Captiva Cruises iLoveShelling trip to Cayo Costa were the live CLOUDY PERIWINKLES hiding in clusters on the tree roots at the south tip of the island.
It’s been such a month on the islands of spotting great wildlife. Everywhere I look, I am still seeing wonderful signs of healthy life… like these STRIPED FALSE LIMPETS and BARNACLES on those same tree roots with the PERIWINKLES.
Melissa, Juliana, Becky and Garrett from Colorado walked around those tree roots to find some nice empty shells as well.
They found a bag full of double SUNRAY VENUS CLAMS…
Sisters Teresa and Elaine from Pensacola, FL found some keepers on the Gulf side of the island.
Elaine collected oodles of different color JINGLES to use for a picture frame craft project.
D.J. from Avon Park, Florida found empty LETTERED OLIVES and an ANGEL WING wading knee high in the water.
Oh but wait… How could I forget? I have to tell you about the boat ride over to the island. We had a pod of DOLPHINS come over to say “Hi” to everybody on our boat.
When they swam closer to the boat, we could see there were 3 mother DOLPHINS… each with babies! If you look closely at this next photo, you can see the baby hugging up to the mother. So cute!
And the DOLPHINS weren’t the only wildlife coming up to say “Hi” to us… meet Casper The Friendly GHOST CRAB.
I have never seen a GHOST CRAB act so friendly! Seriously, “Casper” was not at all afraid of us and actually followed us on the beach. See? He got right in-between Sandy’s feet and hung out there for a few minutes.
He even ran into a shelling net like he wanted to play. hahaha What a character!
Even though the wildlife was exceptional, it was a wonderful day to meet exceptional people like Vicki and Bill from Arizona.
… And Melinda, Katelyn and Justin from Indiana. I especially loved meeting Katelyn since she knew all of the names of her shells but also loved all the wildlife she saw. Casper The Friendly GHOST CRAB didn’t want there to leave.
… And it was exceptional to see Marie’s beautiful family- Emily, Madison, Steve, Sandy and Ryan from Ohio. But… they were missing one Morgan, they all wanted me to tell you…. you’re next!
… And to see Bill, Michelle, Alyson and Anthony from Illinois.
I had met Michelle at Blind Pass Captiva last week when I stopped at the beach to see what the conditions were on the Captiva side by the jetty rocks. As I dug through the “picked over” shell pile, we got to talking and she told me she hadn’t found too many keeper shells but was just happy to be on the island enjoying everything else about the beach. That’s when I uncovered a beautiful FLAT SCALLOP with a tiny hole in the top. I handed it to Michelle and told her it was meant for her. I was soooo touched to see that she was on the cruise with her family AND that she made that FLAT SCALLOP into a gorgeous necklace with a little SEAHORSE charm. OMG I love that she made it into a special treasure to remember a special day we happened to meet. Shellers rock!
Lindsay had told me about an awesome HORSE CONCH she had found on Sanibel last week so when we got back to the dock at McCarthy’s Marina, she showed it to us. Wow! Lindsay, I’m so happy you showed it to us. That IS awesome and will clean up beautifully with a little elbow grease.
Even though the beach wasn’t piled up with mounds of shells this time, we were treated to a DOLPHIN show with babies, lots of friendly wildlife and most of all – a perfect day in paradise with a boat ride on calm waters full of happy people meeting an amazing community of likeminded shellers.
You won’t want to miss the upcoming shelling cruises! Check out the new dates CLICK HERE
Pam, do you ever release your photos to anyone in larger size? I am SO IN LOVE with the first photo in this post, the shells nestled in the crannies of the wood, and would absolutely love to have it as my desktop background…
Hi Sara. Thank you for “loving” my photos!!!! It means a great deal to me that you are enjoying them. Since I am an artist, I love to take photographs and share them on my blog along with learning about shells and wildlife on the island. So I have also been working on an online gallery since Ive had so many folks want some of my photos. Check it out! http://twenty20.com/iloveshelling
Again, THANK YOU! pam
Looks like it was a fantastic day! Awesome. Keeps me dreaming of our month long trip this coming December!
Sara all you need to do is right click on the photo and save, then go to your pictures and when you find it right click again and there will be an option to use on your desktop. I just did it myself! Have fun Sara!
Gorgeous pictures again Pam – maybe next time I’m down I’ll be able to join one of your excursions :)
Hi Pam, we’re all back in PA & Fargo ND, and so happy to see your shell pix! Thanks, October can’t get here soon enough. lol
Hi Pam! We’re back home in Illinois and wanted to say thanks again for an awesome day on the cruise and of course shelling with you at Blind Pass! We’ll be back in the fall and hopefully meet again!
Yay!! Thank you so much for a magical day – definitely a highlight of our trip! The fellowship and your wisdom make this a not-to-be-missed experience for any Sanibel sheller. My mom was right, this is such a calling for you, and we feel incredibly grateful we got to share your energy. It guided us to some wonderful finds that are being prepared for display even as I write this. :) Peace, blessings and happy shelling!
That first photo is really great! I don’t think I’ve ever found a cloudy periwinkle. That was a nice necklace that Michelle made wi th the flat scallop. Love the ghost crab. Looks like everyone had a great time. Pat
Great to see the live periwinkles and false limpets, and the mom and baby dolphin pairs.
But never in my life have a seen friendly ghost crab — they usually won’t let you get anywhere near them! They run away like crazy! But Caspar looks like he has lived to a ripe old age, so maybe he has learned that nobody is a threat on Cayo Costa and there are no dogs to chase him…
CAYO COSTA….
The perfect “Shell~ter”… according to my dictionary,
a shelter can be a quiet secluded place, a retreat from that which
threatens one’s peace….
I JUST LOVED MY SHELLING CRUISE TO CAYO !!
AND I ENJOY REVISITING THROUGH EACH NEW POST :)
Shellotte
Pam,
Thanks again for the wonderful trip. We got home today she wasted no time sorting, cleaning and now polishing her shells. I’ll post pictures of them to facebook in a day or so.
Katelyn (as well as ourselves) had a great time! She loved meeting the ghost crab and playing with him. We also found some great shells the next day in front of our resort including a larger lightning whelk, and some very friendly people we meet there shared 3 Sand dollars with us that they found on the sandbar.
Sanibel is truly an amazing place – everyone we met on both visits was so friendly. It warms our hearts to see so many like minded people who enjoy the treasure hunt but still want to share the best of it with everyone.
Pam, we are really enjoying the beautiful sea life pictures and videos you’ve been sharing over the past few weeks. Learning about new things that we hope to see our next trip down.
Those periwinkles are lovely!
This is an especially fun post. Thank you so much, Pam.
The Perwinkles never looked more beautiful. They reminded me of your Land Snails and those Fabulous Photos you took after they were cleaned up. Still an all time favorite for me.
Making such a beautiful necklace from the Flat Scallop inspires me with thoughts and ideas. Such a nice momento in so many ways.
Thanks always.
Love the periwinkles. Do you have many of their shells in your collection? (From dead ones, of course.) Would love to find some of them!
We don’t find the empty shells that often… and when we do they are never as bright and colorful as they are when they are alive and wet. its like the apple snails- after a while they dull if they are near ANY light source- live and learn. but they are GORGEOUS when they are alive and well- healthy color!
Those gorgeous turquoise blue and greenish-yellow colors are from microscopic algae that are living on the shells of the live periwinkles. The true color of the outside of the shell of the cloudy periwinkle is just pale beige or grey, with dark brown markings, more or less like this one:
http://shellmuseum.org/shells/shelldetails.cfm?id=21
Susan, that’s so interesting to know. Thanks for all the info that you share with us, too.
Very interesting! Thanks for your reply.
Pam –
Even though the shelling wasn’t spectacular this weekend, my husband and I had a wonderful time. We found and threw back a live fighting conch and a few olives. We also got a couple of olives to keep, and found several large colorful cockles out in the sandbar. Many were barnacle-encrusted but are cleaning up nicely.
I definitely want to do this again! The weather was beautiful, the wildlife up close, and we met some great people on the tour.
Hello,
Just found this blog and loving it!!! I do a lot of art projet with shells and i have few question for you guys…
1/ i have a lot of yellow and oranges jingles shells and they all have this white cercle inside them any idea how to get rid of it ? Is there a way to clean it off ?
2/ is there any beaches like Sanibel near Miami ?
3/ is there a place to buy jingles shells by the pound ?
If any has some answers pleass share
Thanks a million in advance ,
Valerie.