Let me show you some more shells that I found on my first afternoon on Sanibel!

Look at this nice Speckled Slipper Shells. I never really liked the plain slipper shells, but this different species of slipper shell really won my heart!

I found an adult Florida Fighting Conch! Although many on Sanibel consider these to be common, I'm always happy to find them.

This Gulf Oyster Frill was one the bigger minis that I found. 

A baby Horse Conch- lucky me! And on my first day too :) If someone forced me to choose my favorite shell it would be the Horse Conch. I really want to find a big empty Horse Conch to take home, but that wish hasn't come true...yet.

Look at the blue of the sky and the blue of the gulf- blue is everywhere. No wonder that it's my favorite color.

This Lightning Whelk was minuscule- probably less than half an inch

Some cyber shelling for you guys!!! See all the best Bubble Shells?

A Whelk egg casing.

The shells come in with the tide...

 

Connect the dots- three Pelicans in a row!

Seashell Transformation Tuesday!!!!!!!!!

The good thing about Tuesday, is that it isn't Monday! Another good thing is that now because of Instagram we have this thing called #transformationtuesday. I've been wanting to do this for a while and today I had some time, so here is how seashells grow and transform!!!!!!

Now we all know that seashells come from egg casings that look like.....

 

..THIS! (Fig shell egg casing)

Or like this! (Horse Conch egg casing)

Or like this! (Whelk egg casing)

Then after the mini shells hatch out, this is what they look like!

These are Whelk babies. So teensy and cute, right? As you can see that mollusks already have their shells. The shells are made out of calcium carbonate.

And now, here is how big a whelk shell can grow! This is a Knobbed Whelk. They are right-handed mollusks and are found usually further north than the similar looking Lightning Whelk that is found more south. Also, the lightning Whelk is a left-handed shell. For my post on left-handed vs. right-handed shells click here

 

And here is the "transformation" part. From just-hatched baby whelk to this nice, 8-inch Knobbed Whelk. I found it on Assateague Island, by the way. :D

 

And now, I took some more "transformation" pictures of my other shells.

 

The Lettered Olive. This shell is pretty abundant and it lives most of its life buried in the sand, with only its siphon stretched out above, over-ground.

The Colorful Moon Snail or Gaudy Natica or Colorful Atlantic Natica. I found the bigger shell at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island!

The Lightning Whelk. If you compare this shell to the Knobbed Whelk above, you will see how they open up to different sides. The Lightning Whelk is one of the very few left-handed shells.

These are my beloved Horse Conchs. The baby one is just super tiny! But the juvie one isn't much larger- no more than 4 inches long, when these shells have been known to grow up to 20 inches in length! I am still searching for my grown, adult Horse Conch.

And lastly, the Turkey Wing! They can be found from North Carolina down to Bermuda and Brazil!

 

And I will end our seashell transformation Tuesday on that note!

See ya,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

First Time Shells and Other Matters

 

 

HELLLOOO!

So I'm being a good girl, and writing another post today. This one will be a little bit of a throwback to my trip to Sanibel that was this April 2014.

I want to show you guys some of the shells that I had found for the first time EVER this year.

 

 

First is the Nutmeg! As you can see, the shell on the left is pretty beat up and "incomplete". That was the one I found on Sanibel two years ago in March of 2013. I was happy to have a Nutmeg but now I wanted a perfect one. So, this year I was lucky and found FIVE perfect Nutmegs!!!! The one on the right is one of them. :D

 

Next, is this Chestnut Turban. Now I've found lots of Chestnut Turbans before, but never an ORANGE one. So this was a first for me!

I caught it with my butterfly net on the Captiva side of Blindpass, under the bridge at low tide. I was wading in the water and the tide was rushing out and shells were hurling through the water. Thank goodness I had my net! I caught lots of Florida Fighting Conchs that time and this Orange beauty.

So here's my advice to you: outgoing low tide at Blindpass is wonderful!. Go under the bridge with a net and watch the shells roll by you!

 

Moving on to this perfect Florida Cone. I don't quite remember if this was my first, but I'm pretty sure that it was. I caught this one in the surf at Bowman's Beach during the afternoon low tide.

 

 

 

Now, the Horse Conch has been on my bucket list for FOREVER! I've been wanting to find it for ages and ages; in fact, it might even be my favorite shell.

But until that trip, I had only found bits and pieces like the ones above.

 

Then, as I was walking along the shore, going from East Gulf Drive to the Lighthouse, I stumbled on this tiny beauties, rolling in the surf! I was psyched!!!!!!! So happy! :D

But as you know, now that I had a baby Horse Conch, I wanted a big one, a huge one, a MONSTER one!!! So I kept searching and hoping.

 

And I found one! I was on Gulfside City Park at high tide and the surf and breakers ( waves at the very shore) were pretty rough. But I had my net and I could see the hundreds of shells being tossed by the surf. I saw what I though was a Florida Fighting Conch and caught it. I took it out of the net and then saw, that I had this Horse Conch in the net too!!!!!

I had caught it by pure luck!!! It's only about 4 inches long, so not enormous. But, still!!!...

And now my next goal? Find a big one! Yep... :D

 

 

Also, I found some full True Tulips on that trip. Like with the Horse Conch, I kept on finding bits and pieces, until the very last day, when I found these two babies at Gulfside City Park at high tide (Boy, do I love that beach!)

And again, being the enthusiastic sheller that I am, my next goal is an adult True Tulip.

Well, there's my Sanibel Spring Break trip next April to look forwards to, huh?

 

 

The Sunray Venus. Both these shells I found on my first trip to Sanibel in March 2013. I didn't find any this trip, and was a little disappointed. But, I'll find more, never fear!!!!!! ;)

 

 

And now a little educational post. I have these two tiny Trivia shells (above) in my collection and was I trying to figure out what exact species they were.

 

 

Now for the longest time ever, I thought that they were Four-spotted Trivias like the ones above, that I found in my Shell ID book. (Sorry for the sideways picture, but he computer is being stubborn).

 

But they're not...

(Dun dun dun!!!)

 

They are in fact Coffeebean Trivias!!!!!!!! As you can see, I did some research, compared them to the photos in the book and reached my conclusion.

And now, some differences between the two species.

 

The Coffebean Trivias are larger than other Trivia species- they can reach 3/4 inches in length (huge, right? :D ). The Four-spotted Trivia, though, is just 3/8 of an inch long. Next, the color is obviously different. While the Coffeebean Trivia is light purple, with six roughly symmetrical  spots, the Four-spotted Trivia is pinkish white with 1-4 darker spots.

Finally, the two mollusks have slightly different habitat ranges. Coffeebean Trivias range from North Carolina down to Brazil and can also be found on the SW coast of Florida. But, the Four-spotted Trivia can only be found on the SE coast of Florida.

Both my Coffeebean Trivias were found around Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the East Coast. As for the Four-spotted Trivia, it's still on my shelling bucket list!!!!

 

Well, that's it for today, and hopefully I'll see you again soon!!!!!!

Good luck on all your shelling adventures!

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

My Walk to the Lighthouse ( Sanibel #3)

 

On my first morning (second day on Sanibel, on Monday), I decided to walk all the way to the Lighthouse which was some 1.8 miles down the beach from where I was staying.

 

But first, I'll show you some stuff which I had found that early morning at low tide.

 

I found lots of goodies before even setting off toward the Lighthouse: a Sea Urchin, Coquina, Worm Rocks (clusters of Variable Worm Shells), a tiny Ponderous Ark and some Corrugated Jewel Boxes.

 

Here are all the Skate Eggs that I found in the high tide wrack line.

 

 

Also, a sponge (I don't know what kind it is, sorry). I thought this looked awesome ;D

 

Then I set out to the beach.

 

I came across several shell lines, all full of minis and hit a jack pot!!!!!!

 

                                              

I found a baby Horse Conch!!!!!! Oh my gosh, I was so ECSTATIC!!!!!!!!!! And after that I went on to find two or three more babies Horse Conchs, but I didn't take pictures of them because I was too busy shelling! :)

Can you see the Fly-specked Cerith here?

A little cybershelling, not the best, but it's kind of my first try, so please excuse it. ;)

Another one of my shellcesses was this wonderful Angulate Wentletrap.

Although these little guys are pretty strong and sturdy, Wentletraps have always struck me as something delicate.

And here's a better picture of the shell line.

Cybershell away, I wish you luck!!!!!!!!

The was cloudy but warm, the waves were calm.

 

And I just walked on and on.... looking for shells....

 

See ya soon,

Yaroshelllava :D

 

P.S. Please excuse my finger in some of the pictures, that guy sure likes photobombing my pics. ;)