Last night’s mango sky brought out a mango tinted HORSESHOE CRAB along with several different mango colored seashells as well. Check out this BEAUTIFUL CRASSATELLA (9 o’clock) Clark found last night at Bowman’s beach.
Near the east end of Sanibel the night before, I found lots of sweet mini shells. WENTLETRAPS filled the inside of a mango colored COCKLE SHELL and BUTTON SHELLS, BUBBLES, mango tinted MUREXES, DRILLS and CONCHS filled the cup of a DOSINIA. I can’t even believe I saw the tiniest of 2 DOVE shells, a RICE OLIVE and a new find for me…. a BROWN-TIP MANGELIA (Kurtziella atrostyla).
I looked through my loose change to take a photo of a coin to show just how tiny this shell was and I found a wheat penny- perfect! How in the world did I ever see this little magnificent shell? So happy I did! And yes, it has little “mango” accents (instead of boring brown) on it too.
Okay… what is all this mango stuff about, you ask? I’ve been sorta obsessed with our MANGO TREE this year. It has loads of juicy delicious mangoes hanging from every branch but we try to wait until they are fairly ripe before we pick them. But…. every morning we find half eaten mangoes on the ground. Grrrrr. Some critter was making a mess of our luscious fruit and I wanted to know exactly what critter was feasting on them. I had an idea the animal but I bought I critter cam to see for sure. hahaha I know- a little crazy but it worked! In this next photo, you can see in the far left that this evil cute little RACCOON was up on his hind legs about to pick that mango. Shooooo!
Then his little RACCOON bff joined in on a little tango for the mango madness smorgasbord.
And then…. O.M.G. I caught a COYOTE in my backyard this morning on camera! Wow! There have been COYOTE sightings on Sanibel since 2011 and we’ve seen a few around the islands but I’ve never gotten a photo of them and I sure didn’t know they were roaming around in my backyard at 4:15am. I’ve never heard of a local COYOTE hurting a human but I’m just very happy that my little DustBall and PuppyCat kitties are safe inside and NEVER go outside.
Of course I wanted to name it (not sure if it’s a girl or boy), but I still haven’t come up with a name yet… Wildie Coyote? Tootie Fruitie Coyote? Mango Rambo? LOL Whaddaya think?
Life on Sanibel… day and night, there’s always something “wild” happening.
Join me on an iLoveShelling Adventure! For more info CLICK HERE (I’m working on new dates for season- I should have those up soon!)
PS- I’m hoping its running much smoother now with most of the kinks worked out for the new site design. I’m not done reorganizing the categories menu yet either, but I’d love feed back if you think the dropdown menu is easier to look through too now. It was a mess- eeeeek- sorry!
Do you think the coyote is after the mango fatten raccoon?
Probably, Beanie ;), I also see bunnies back there too so there are lots of things that are appetizing for that coyote.
I love your new site. Enjoy reading all you put out for us. Keep it coming. Curt
You will have to determine if your coyote is a girl or a boy!! Good luck with that. So if you have a girl you can call her, “Coshelette” and if it is a boy, “Coshelby” I have not had my margarita yet but if it encourages a bit more creativity I will let you know!! :)
Shellote Coyote!! Love your new site. It is soooo much cleaner and more user friendly. Thanks for the amazing output you continue to deliver to those of us who are mere landlocked beach lovers! Your photos speak volumes and they brighten my day. 🌞🌴😎
Hi Pam, love the updated site. It’s so much easier to view on my phone. Looking forward to our visit in October. Thanks for giving me my shelling fixes in the meantime :0).
Holy Coyote! That’s a big dog. I would call him Tango to rhyme with Mango.
New Website is AWESOME PAM !!! I just LOVE all the posting and sharing that you do for all of us !!! It is always so COOL and INTERESTING and makes me feel like I am there with you enjoying BEAUTIFUL SANIBEL ISLAND !!! The Raccoon and Coyote were cool but hope they go visit someone else s fruit trees and leave yours alone. Always a bit scary knowing you have a Coyote in your backyard while you are sleeping. Keep up the GREAT WORK and THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THAT YOU DO !!!! Pam D. from Cape Cod
Who ever heard of an orange horseshoe crab???
And I LOVE the beautiful crassatella. I hope I find one of those one day, but I guess they are really uncommon.
And I also love the results of your critter cam!!!!
Thanks Pam
I love your blog, thank you so much for all of the time you spend ! hoping for one of your shelling cruises in oct is on 13 -15th :):) ( hint Hint ) I’ve got my iloveshelling shell identification card and learning the diff shells! Can’t wait to see what mother nature has planned! Thanks again for all of the wonderful pics
I really like your sunset photo, so beautiful. And, you sure have the eye for the mini’s. You definitely have young eyes (not old like mine). hehe
The critter cam is so cool. Not that I want to see what may be roaming around my back yard, but it is so interesting to see what is in yours. Never would have thougth it was a coyote though. Maybe you can get a net to go around your tree until you pick the fruit. I’ve seen some here up north for keeping squirrels and birds away, maybe it would work for raccoons and coyotes???
One other thing on the new site – previously when I clicked on the comments to open them up, my name and email were already pre-loaded in the Leave a Comment section and now they are not. No big deal to type it in each time, but maybe it is an easy thing to fix??
Thanks for everything Pam.
That was “thought” not “thougth” – sorry for the typo.
I know new is better sometimes. But do not like like the new vertical look, I know it’s better for iphone etc but viewing on a horizontal screen (PC)is not so good. I also liked the menu a couple of days ago when it was horizontal
Hi Richard, Yeah I hear you but its not just that I wanted it to be “new”…. my old one was broken and this is the only way I could continue to blog into the future without having to change it again in 2 years. I hope you get used to it and don’t hold it against me- fingers crossed! :)
great finds as usual and I think mango Rambo has a little persona that catches the two of you at the same time and remember I love shelling so keep some of those shells for me i’ll be there soon r.g.stein
Pam,
Love the new shell! The site looks fantastic.
I just noticed that the shell sifter link goes to a page that says “Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)”
I know how hard it is to redo a site….trust me!
WAY TO GO, PAM!!! :)
Peggy
Oh and Pam I wanted to say… Watch out for those micros!!!
They will lure you in with their beauty!
Hey Pam,
It’s like Wild Kindom in your backyard!
How interesting about your backyard wildlife, Pam. I have a similar story about a raccoon. When we first moved into our house we put a heavy, concrete birdbath in our backyard that had mature trees in it. That first summer for several mornings, I would wake up and the birdbath would be tipped over and there would be broken eggs on the ground next to it. We didn’t have a wildlife camera but it was pretty easy to guess that it was a raccoon invading birds’ nests and then washing them in the birdbath. The raccoon must’ve been so big that it tipped over that heavy birdbath!