A mountain of shells washed in with the tide over the weekend at Blind Pass Captiva!
Picking up shells in my first fifteen minutes produced these awesome shells and bling…
Todd and his sister-in-law Amy from New York were there early Sunday morning to pick through the pile.
Theses are just a few of their faves- Shelltastic!
Loretta from Cape Coral was lucky enough to be there too…
She was looking for the other half of this JUNONIA piece…
I had no idea this pile at Blind Pass Captiva had formed on Saturday morning until I met Todd and his wife at sunset Saturday night. They told me they were there to witness the beach at Blind Pass go from only sand to that mound of shells in just a few hours…. and I missed it. Dang! But it was so much fun to talk to hear them talk about how it was just like one of my videos- heehee. It’s really hard to imagine until you see it for your very own eyes because it doesn’t happen very often. At least I was able to be there Sunday morning and to see them again on the shell mound.
While Todd and his family were at Blind Pass on Saturday, Clark and I scoped out Lighthouse Beach and Gulfside City Park.
We still had a great time meeting Nora from Cape Coral who found a bag full of great shells but her fave was this perfect ALPHABET CONE.
We found plenty of empty FIGHTING CONCHS, WHELKS and BANDED TULIPS but my fave finds were the smallest ones… a gorgeous TRUE TULIP and the prettiest little GULF OYSTER DRILL I’ve ever seen.
Well, wait a minute. My fave finds just may have been meeting Carter from Wyoming and his parents Dawn and Jason. They love shelling too!
Hopefully the Gulf Of Mexico will continue to deliver treasures to our shore in Southwest Florida this week…
But Mother Nature has a way of taking these big shell mounds back out to sea just a quickly as she washed them up.
Join us for an iLoveShelling Shelling Adventure CLICK HERE – more dates for summer shelling coming soon.
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How to I get to Blind Pass? I planned to go there yesterday afternoon but by the time I got there it was so crowded and no parking. I plan to get out early on Easter to go shelling and new Blind Pass was one area to go but I am unsure of which side of the road I have to go to for the shelling.
Here is the link to a map for parking at Blind Pass… http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/parking/ . If you don’t find anything on one side, go to the other side- it changes constantly! Have fun!
Spotted a nice piece of a lions paw in the last photo…I keep hoping since my first trip seeing them at the Island Inn display in the late 60’s.
Wow what a glorious place to live!!! What brings in so many shells at one time? There wasn’t a storm was there?
I LOVE that piece of coral you picked up! And the markings on Amy and Todd’s fighting conch are unbelievable!
wow what a catch for all that were there very nice shells I love it and more than that I love shelling as always r.g.stein
Now THAT’s the kind of mountain I am always ready to climb! Great!
There’s nowhere like Sanibel!
Gorgeous cones in that 5th picture down! I am hoping Mother Nature will dish up an order of that big pile of shells in May! I am coming and bringing my sister!
Love all the pictures of shells-esp the orange shells. I would be afraid of walking on the pile-I might break some rare shell! It looks like everyone was having a great time. Sigh. Pat
That pile is delivering some great finds…wish I could take a “shell day” off work.
I love them all, the cute little bittersweet and those flats just so cute. I can’t resist an olive. Does anyone have any ideas for a craft using olives? I need some ideas because I can’t bring another one home unless I use some of the ones I already have.
Wow, great finds! I would have taken each of all the shells but right now the Alphabt Cones are my favorites. :-)
Sarah, every time I tried parking at Blind Pass the small parking lot was full. I really think about parking at Bowman’s Beach and then walk the beach up until Blind Pass. :-)
Beautiful! I’m hoping the same thing as I’m heading there from Naples THIS MORNING!! I’ll be on the cruise with you tomorrow, Pam! I can’t wait! Lots of shells or no, I’ll make the most of it!
Pam,
How awesome to see another shell pile! Thank-you so much for sharing it with us! I would love it if you could give us a quick post as soon as you hear about a shell pile so those of us who are within driving distance could go check it out. I’m dying to see one of those huge shell piles!
We were on Cayo Costa this past weekend, and I was excited to find angel wings, purplish semeles which were actually orange, egg cockles, and a flame box crab shell among our other treasures. We also found a badly injured cormorant, so I called the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, and they said to wrap the bird in a towel and deliver it to Captiva Island where it could be rushed to the clinic. Unfortunately, the bird died after the volunteers picked her up and were headed to the clinic, but at least we tried to help her!
I agree with Lisa – the markings on the fighting conch of Todd and Amy’s is incredible- I’ve never seen one like it.