Remember last summer’s Time For An Island vacation giveaway for four people to stay on Sanibel? Well meet the lucky winners Shawna, Jennifer, Ashleigh and Dotti enjoying their time on the beach!
They each placed a shell on a Sanibel Shell Tree to hopefully make even more wishes come true…
They also found some of those beautiful and colorful CALICO SCALLOPS similar to the ones I collected from my last post.
The whole island has been a little sleepy when it comes to finding huge new shell piles in the past week but of course these lucky gals had a great attitude. Along with CALICO SCALLOPS, they were collecting lots of the KITTEN PAWS, COCKLES, AUGERS and JINGLES…
“Y” not enjoy the common shells? There are thousands of them to sift through!
In the highest wrack line, there were still lots of dried HORSE CONCH EGG CASINGS as well as this LIGHTNING WHELK EGG CASING that still has some of the itty bitty dried WHELK shells in some of the capsules.
So cute! They look just like this…
As I walked off the beach, I turned back towards the beach to see how pretty the BEACH DAISIES were against the path with the backdrop of the water and sky… so stunning. And Oh! There’s Shawna shelling in the dunes. Whatcha doing?
She came racing over to show us all the shells she found just off the path. She found lots of CUBAN LAND SNAILS (Zachrysia provisory). They are Sanibel’s most common land snail. But… Since I forgot the name of this snail, I looked it up in a great local book Living Sanibel: A Nature Guide to Sanibel & Captiva Islands
Then they all said “There are shells everywhere here! We even found them in the flower beds and the parking lot”. They had cups filled with FOSSIL SHELLS probably from the FOSSIL pits up near Sarasota.
And they collected more FOSSIL shells. i Love these girls!
In the past week since returning from our shelling trip to  Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the weather has been hot and still without loads of shells on any of the beaches I have been. The good news is, we have had western winds the last 2 days so there are a few more waves to churn up some of those shells that have been out in the water… and hopeful bring them up to the shore soon.
There are always shells on our beaches on Sanibel but Mother Nature has control of which ones she wants to throw up on the beach for her to share. I don’t know what Shawna, Jennifer, Ashleigh and Dotti wished for on the Shell Tree, but my wish on the Shell Tree was to never take our shell strewn beaches for granted so that I can’t see the beauty in each and every one of the treasures that wash up on our shores.
how can you tell if there are any shells in those casings? I’ve dug through some and it looked like it might have some tiny ones but it turns out to be nothing but goo.
If you shake the casing it will rattle. Those are itty bittty shells in there. So amazing. I found several on Sanibel Island. A must see if you love the sea and SHELLS!
Great fun Pam! Great images too! By the way, those land snails are actually Zachrysia provisoria, a species from Cuba that has been introduced to South Florida.
When the animal is alive the shell has a brownish periostracum. If you poke around some plantings where it is damp you can probably find some live ones — there are quite a lot at Blue Dolphin for example! These snails can be a real nuisance if you try to grow vegetables.
Ah! You and Steve said the same thing… Thanks for the info, Susan. I’ll get it changed and find a link.
You’re welcome Pam. As far as the common name goes, some people call these critters the “Cuban land snail”, “Cuban brown snail”, or the “Garden Zachrysia”.
I am not much of a land snail person but I think the “Helix pomatia” are in fact Zachrysia provisoria, a, Cuban/West Indian snail that is now all over S. Florida.
I don’t know if it has a “common name”.
Helix pomatia is another introduced “exotic” that has moved all around the world courtesy of human intervention, but it looks different.
When the Zachrysia are alive and fresh they are a sort of brownsh color.
Huh! I’ll have to research it. I have these guys all over my yard too- they just show up out of no where… And yeah, they are brown when they are alive…. Whatever these “common” land snails are. Thanks Steve!
I stayed at Island Inn last year in April. It was an amazing experience. I did not find ‘special shells” at first but just enjoyed the beautiful beach and accomodations. After a few days, things changed and always found some gift to appreciate. The most awesome was one afternoon when a dolphin came close to “play”in th waves. He was there for hours and was so entertaining. He almost came onto the beach but would just flip back into the deeper water at the last minute, I had never experienced this before and it made my day.
There is always something to see that is amazing on the beaches of Sanibel!
Sweet story, thanks for sharing!
I love the way you tell all of your stories, always makes me smile to read your posts. I’ve never walked on a beach and NOT found something! :)
Thanks Pam! We are here for two weeks and though shells have Benn sparse we hope the tides will shift. But it doesn’t matter … We’ve been coming here for 30 years (thankfully mom and dad bought a place at blind pass condos!) And it is always beautiful. See you at the beach!
we have been here this week and shelling has been sparse but in waist deep water there have been lots of live starfish on east gulf drive. we have not encountered this before.
Pam,
My son and I, along with 4 grandchildren (ages 5-11) were in Sanibel last week. We looked the beaches for you hoping to show you our treasures. We found 7 large shells – 2 beautiful horse conchs and 5 whelks – all were empty. Shellzam!!!!
My son had never been shelling before but believe me, after last week, he is hooked. He had been at Blind Pass for less than 10 minutes and walked out into the water and stepped on what he described as a football – beautiful horse conch. At every beach we visited, he would walk the water about waist deep. He managed to find 3 large whelks. My 9 year old grandson, which is super competitive, joined in on the walking and he found a horse conch and 2 whelks.
Since we returned home Saturday, I’ve been working to clean the horse conchs and they are cleaning up nicely. One of them is extremely large and the tip seems to be softer tissue than the bottom part of the shell. I’m a little nervous about trying to clean the top. There is no brown on the top part.
Wish we could have seen you, but I’m happy to hear that you were celebrating Super Sheller’s bday.
Can’t wait to we return at Christmas,
Debby Reynolds
Omigosh! Thats incredishell! oh yes, that calls for a Shellzam! LOL So happy to hear that y’all found some real treasures. ;)
I found some of the cuban land snails in Feb. near Island Inn. Now I know the name. Recently I had trouble with facebook, but last week it cleared up-there were some improvements. Now I’m having trouble seeing your pictures on your website. When I sign on, there are no pictures. I have to tap the picture to see it and sometimes it shows the wrong picture. So I don’t know if it is my Nook or your website. I hope the shells show up. Pat
Oh No! Is anybody else out there having trouble with my images loading? Please let me know asap?
Hi Pam – I tried tapping on all the pictures also and the “y” shell photo comes up again when you tap on the “egg casing” photo. Also tried viewing a close up of the calico with the tie-dye shirt in the background (they match!) and the previous photo comes up.
geeez. Im sure this is still residual probs left over from all that work I had to do “under the hood” with the photos switching places. Oh lawd. but I still don’t know why Pat is having troubles not showing up at all. Pat, what browser do you use on your nook (I’m not familiar with a nook)? explorer? firefox?
oh and thank you Bonnie and Pat for letting me know you are having problems!!!!
You fixed it, Pam! I went back on and got to view both photos enlarged. I love that someone signed one of the shells hanging on the tree in the last photo. I do that when we have visitors from up North and we collect shells on the beach. I write the date and names of the visitors and hang it on an old fishnet we have hanging on our lanai. It’s a great reminder of fun times on the beach.
Oh good- it worked for u! …. But I wonder if it worked for pat. Love ur lanai idea!
Thanks Pam. The pictures are lined up, but I’m still not getting the pictures when I sign on-even your banner of shells ,weather, moon etc. I think my Nook uses explorer. Nook is the BN version of Kindle. It has internet, e-mail etc. It might be a problem with the Nook. I’ll let you know. Pat
PS
It looks like it might be my Nook. I can get the pictures on my computer. I just like to use my Nook while I’m watching TV-multitasking. I guess I need to go to my local BN to see if they can fix it. Pat
Hi Pam, Where exactly is the shell tree? Is it on the beach by Island Inn? Is there one on Cayo Costa too? Trying to map out my game plan for my visit in a few weeks to see some things I haven’t in the past. Since there are no planned cruises the first week of Sept. when I am there, just going to do it alone and hopefully get some good treasures :) Hugs from NY
Yes, there is one at Island Inn if you walk on the beach to the right. And yes, there is one at the south tip of Cayo Costa (as of the last time I was there) where Captiva Cruises 3hour trip drops you off. Have fun and may all your wishes come true! :)