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!

Whelk Wednesday A Day Late

I have been wanting to do Whelk Wednesday for a week now, which for me is a very long time! ;) But, I didn't have time yesterday and I have time today (because we have a snow day here), so here is Whelk Wednesday, a day late!

There are several species of whelk that live on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the US. I have specimens of four species in my collection

From left to right: Channeled Whelk, Knobbed Whelk, Pear Whelk and Lightning Whelk. Notice how the Lightning Whelk (the one on the very right) opens to the left instead of to the right as all the other shells do. This makes the Lightning Whelk a left-handed shell and all the others- right-handed shells.

This is the Lightning Whelk- if you hold it like shown in the right photo, with the aperture (opening) towards yourself and the spire (the top) pointing up, you will see that the aperture is on the left side of the shell. The Lightning Whelk is, I think, the only left-handed shell on this coast of the States. I found most of my Lightning Whelks on Sanibel Island, but they can be found as far North as North Carolina.

Now here is the Channeled Whelk, it is a right-handed shell because the aperture is on the right. I found this guy on Assateague Island, VA. It is common in shallow bays in southern England and was at one point used as food.

And here is a Knobbed Whelk. I found it on the same trip to Assateague Island that I found the Channeled Whelk above. These mollusks are also pretty common, and although they live in the north (New England and Mid-Atlantic) they can be found further down south in North Carolina and Florida because the long-shore currents tumble them down there

Lastly is the Pear Whelk. I have found all of my specimens of this shell on Sanibel Island. It can also  be known as the Fig Whelk. This species has been divided into 3 subspecies but I am not sure how to identify and separate them. So, just a fun fact.

All the whelk shells above are about the same size- 1.5 to 2.5 inches. However, the Lightning Whelk can grow to 15 inches, the Channeled Whelk to 7 in., the Knobbed Whelk to 8 in. and the Pear Whelk to 5 inches.

Lastly, here is a photo of all of my shell ID books. They are all helpful, but I use 'Florida Seashells: A Beachcomber's Guide" (top row, second from right) and "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashells" (middle of the bottom row) the most. :D

Have a wonderful day,

Yaroshelllava!!!!!

Seashells in the Snow

Happy 2015 everyone! This is my first post of the year and I decided to do something winter-related... with seashells of course.

Luckily, last week, we had a nice snow fall in Maryland and a snow day at school!!!!!

 

So I decided to take some shells out to play in the snow.

 

 

Here are some of my shells; they are sitting on some handmade toadstools of mine. From front to back: a Lettered Olive, a Banded Tulip, a Florida Fighting Conch, and a Lightning Whelk.

 

Here's a close-up. The Lettered Olive is a shell that I commonly find in North Carolina (click here for my post on Oak Island, NC) and of course, on Sanibel. These mollusks prey on Coquinas in the surf zone, where the waves roll up on the sand. However, Lettered Olives will also scavenge if they get the chance.

 

Moving on....

 

Did you know that shells grow on trees??? Well they do, at least in my backyard, that's the case. :D

 

Here is my beautiful Lightning Whelk. I found it in Fort Lauderdale three years ago. I simply love the yellow-orange colors of this guy- it's a treat to photograph, and even more so, to own!

And here's another photo of my Lightning Whelk in the snow. Lightning Whelks live in the sandy shallows, pretty close to shore.

 

More shells in the trees! Florida Fighting Conch in the front and a Banded Tulip farther back. Banded Tulips sometimes fall prey to their larger relative, the True Tulip. I've found lots of these shells on Sanibel!

 

And here are some more shells in the snow. Florida Fighting Conchs get their name from occasional fights that burst out between rival males. However, they don't all fight in between themselves: if you pick one up, be ready for the mollusk to come out and start trying to hit you with its foot and pointy operculum (it happened to me :D). 

 

I hope that your mood has been lifted by my shells in the snow!

 

Have fun,

Yaroshelllava :D

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

Lots of Adorableness and Shell Babies: Thursday Throwbacks

So since its Thursday, I decided to go straight to the "Throwbacks". No need to switch it up like I did on Tuesday. :D

More photos of wonderful Florida....

Some egg capsule on a Pen Shell. I'm guessing that they are Horse Conch egg casings, but now really sure.

 

 

 Now here are two shell Egg Casings: the one on the left are definitely from a  Lightning Whelk and the one on the right are, for sure, those of a Horse Conch. 

A cute Sea Squirt.

 

 An even more adorable Sea Star, probably a baby Nine-Armed Sea Star.

You can see the nine arms.

 

Well, that's some of the cuteness that I saw on my trip last year.

 

See ya later,

Lava of Ocean Dawn or Yaroshellava (Yaro"shell"lava)

 

P.S. Yaroshelllava- a name I came up with today to demonstrate my love for shells.

And now a challenge: come up with your own shell name, don't be shy. :D

 



Tuesday Throwbacks

Hi guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so sorry that I haven't written for the last coupe of weeks!!!!!!!!!!
Really sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!
What with school and extracurricular activities, I just haven't had the time.
But here's a nice post to (sort of) make up for it.

So for today, I decided to switch things up a bit and make it "Throwback Tuesday" instead of "Thursday".
And I'm going to show you more photos from March of last year at Sanibel, FL

 

 

This is a skate egg. Skates are related to sharks, they are both from the class Chondrichthys and are related to other fish with skeletons of cartilage, like themselves. 

Skate eggs are also called "mermaids purses" which I always thought was a cute name. :D

 

 A Lettered Olive!!!!!!!!!! I love these shells. This one, as you can see, was alive so I just left it to go on its own merry way.
Over the years I have found quite a few of these shell, but have given them away to friends and family. I found this out, because a few days ago, I was going over my shell collection and realized that I had maybe only two or three Lettered Olives!!!
OH NO!!!! I'm definitely gonna be on the look out for these when I next go to the beach.

                                             A Sand Dollar. Not sure what species though.

                                                                     
                                                         This here, a Lightning Whelk.
                                                              And how can you tell?
                               That's right! By the fact that the shells opening is to the left side.
             I hope that you remember, from one of my previous posts, what right-handed and left-                                                               handed shells are. :D

A Lightning Whelk shell with a Hermit Crab inside.

 

 And finally, a Lined Sea Star. Sea Stars have many, many tiny tube feet on their undersides that help them move. The tube feet are helped by the star's water-vascular system that provides hydraulic pressure. On the picture here, you can see the several tracks that the sea star left on the sand.
There were lots and lots of these cute Echinoderms on the beaches at low tide.

 

Well, as you mighta guessed, I gotta go ( again)! :D

 

See ya soon,

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D

Fantasizing about Florida.

Last year, March 2013, my family and I went to Sanibel Island, FL for a week of vacation.
Sanibel Island is the #1 spot for shelling in the US! Now you can see why I desperately wanted to go there.
So, after several years of trying to persuade my parents to take us there, they agreed.
That week in March was heavenly!
I loved the island, the beaches, the biking trails and most importantly....
THE SHELLS!!!!!
Here's a glimpse of some of the shells that I collected:

You can see the HUGE Saw-toothed Pen Shell, the Atlantic Giant Cockles, the Whelks and the Banded Tulips.

The rest of the shells I just kind of heaped there because I'm not really neat... ;D

Anyway, this was my second time in Florida because in November 2012 we had gone to Fort Lauderdale.

And now!!!!!! We're going to Sanibel AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Yep, in a little over a month I'll be on the darling island again.

I can't wait!

But in the mean time, I want to show you guys some of my pictures from last year....

 

This guy here is a live Florida Fighting Conch. The reason for their name is their pretty aggressive personality. When I was holding this guy he kept hitting me with his foot and claw-like operculum (trap-door, you can see it at the bottom of the picture). But I managed to get this cute photo of him before returning him to the water. :D

 

Now this guy here is burrowing into the sand, but I don't think he ever got any further. Out of the hundreds of live Florida Fighting Conchs that were strewn on the beach at low tide, lots of them were in the position that you see here.

 

Next is the Florida Horse Conch. This, here shell is the largest gastropod in North America and the second largest ( after the Australian Trumpet) in the world. This shell has been on my "To Find" list ever since I first saw it in a shell book, but I only got to find one last year.

But it was alive, so I put it back in the water.

On Sanibel Island it's illegal to take home any live shell, sea urchin, sand dollar or sea star. But even if it was legal, I would have never taken this guy home.

I 'd much rather it stay alive.

So this year I'm hoping for a nice big empty Horse Conch to take home.

 

 

                                             This is another picture of the same shell. Right after I took this photo, the Conch spit water at my camera. Thankfully, the camera was fine. Horse Conchs hunt on other large gastropods such as Tulip Shells and Lightning Whelks. They get their prey by grabbing the other mollusks operculum and holding it tightly while eating.

 

Well that's it for today. I gotta go now.

But don't be sad, there will definitely be more posts on Sanibel Island in the next few days.

 

See ya soon!

Lava of Ocean Dawn :D