A Trip by Water
I wrote a post about our trip down to this island on a previous post, “A Beach All Our Own”.
Now I want to share some photos of the shells we found on this deserted beach.
The water was very clear right near shore. The darker part is where the grass is growing.
The Island Beach
We, my son, daughter and me, visited this Spoil Island in October, after Hurricane Ian, which hit our area the end of September. It is likely that many of the shells we saw had been uncovered by the waves. The beach erosion, and tree in the water, was most likely from that storm.
Shells We Found
I’ve never found so many knobbed whelks in one place. In fact, I rarely find knobbed whelks on our normal boating trips. But this island had many. None were in perfect condition, but they were also empty, so I collected a few.
There were hermit crabs on this island. The crown conch and tulip shell (pictured below) both contained hermits, so I got photos and left them alone. A hermit crab would need to be quite large to live in, and carry, a heavy knobbed whelk shell.
The angel wing shell is encrusted with hard sand that doesn’t come off. Quite a few of the shells and pieces are a pretty pink-orange color, and a few were yellow.
The two gray scallop shells are very interesting as they differ in appearance.
Finding the Creepy Face
My daughter was beach combing at the front of the islands on the rocks, and called me over. As she went to hand the shell (face) to me, it fell on the ground. Because she dropped it, we thought it didn’t want to come with us. I brought it home anyway and it’s in my garden. I was going to sneak it into her suitcase to creep her out when she got home and unpacked. But I like it too much and wanted to keep it. The Face is now watching over my raised bed garden.
Thanks for reading!
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Pass it on
What a nice comment! I’m happy you enjoyed the blog. Lucky you to have lived on Sanibel! I’m sure it’s changed a lot. Thanks for reading ~ Pam
I stumbled across your blog while reading about alphabet cones. I have really enjoyed reading your shelling posts in particular. My family lived on Sanibel for the first 10 years of my life and haven’t spent much time in the area since I was a teen. Seeing some of these shells (and beaches) felt like running into an old friend unexpectedly.
Thank you for sharing!
Wow? That’s looks to be an idilic place to visit. I would have left the creepy face shell behind! Lol.
One day I may attempt to draw a shell or two! Right now I put them into bowls and display them around the house. The bigger broken shells go into the gardens as decor. My collection has become quite large so I try to control myself and take photos mostly. Thanks so much for the comment Fab Four of Cley.
Dear Pam
Great collection. We find similar shells on the beach behind our house in East Anglia. Do you do something with your shells? We just blogged about a wold famous shell artist living next to us. May be that gives you some ideas what one can do with shells.
All the best
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I bet that Cuba collection is full of pretty shells. Beaches are always changing, and that makes exploring such fun, even when I go to the same places over and over.
I love beachcombing the beaches and the rocky shores we come across. I have recently put together all shells I gathered from our recent trip in Cuba. My best collection so far LOL, but I don’t really know them by name🙂