An Evening at the Beach

I felt I had better get to the beach today. Who knows how many more days we will have to walk our beautiful beaches. I rarely check the high and low tides so was very pleasantly surprised when I found that it was reeeaaaalllyyy low tide! I looked up and down the beach to see which way to go. I usually like to go where it is less crowded.I decided to go East or toward the lighthouse. Less people that way. Who knows, probably less shells too. Oh well.

This gal was digging for something. I don't know what but I hope she found what she was looking for.
These gals had the right idea. They dragged their chairs out on the sandbar. I was hoping I could grab a picture without them knowing but it looks like the caught me.
Ok, so everyone who lives on Sanibel or visits here should know that there is a leash law! Believe it or not, this dog was on a leash. He just didn't have a human attached to the other end.
His owner thought it was really cute to throw shells and the dog would chase after them. He thought it was even funnier to toss those shells near people so the dog would run towards those people. One guy finally screamed at him and told him to get the dog on a leash or he was going to call the cops. So the guy complied.He complied until he got down the beach a ways then let go of it again and started the whole thing all over again. Jerk!!!

The water was so calm and clear that I was able to take some great pictures of shells. Most of what I found though was live. Live Whelks, live Tulips, live Murexes, live huge Giant Cockles, live Clams, live Juvenile Fighting Conchs. It was pretty amazing. I overheard a guy say that when he walked beyond the sandbar, he couldn't take a step without stepping on Sand Dollars. One thing that made me crazy was a teenager who decided to take a live cockle and break it open to see what was inside! Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of the live ones.

Believe it or not I even found a live Wentletrap!! And yes, I put it back.

My friend says that if you are supposed to find a shell, you will. I had to put back all of those live shells but look what I found without critters inside!
Oh, and Tink, look what else I found. Operculum. Two of them. I put the Wentletrap in there to show the size. In case you don't know what an operculum is, it is the trapdoor of a live shell such as a Horse Conch.

Anyway, it was a wonderful couple of hours on the beach. The water was like bathwater and clear as a bell. I just hope and pray that our beaches stay as beautiful as they were tonight!

Beach Pictures

It's been awhile since I blogged. I've been busy with critters and genealogy. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!! Anyway, we took a walk on the beach this morning and I had my trusty, dusty camera with me so took some pictures. Mr. Snowbird couldn't quite understand why I was taking so many pictures but I knew what I was taking them for--for my blog--so here they are!

The first view of the beach always reminds me of how lucky I am.

Lots of creativity on the beach. Great to look at but not so great for sea turtles attempting to nest.

Lots of sea critters out there today.

I guess these people were staking their claim on their section of the beach. Not that it was all that crowded!We enjoyed the 2 mile walk but were kind of happy to get back to our boardwalk. It was HOT out there this morning!
So, there you have it. My trip to the beach. I saw lots of gorgeous flowers on the drive to and from the beach so plan to get out and take pictures of some of those soon!

My Trips to the Beach

So, yesterday was a beach day for me---finally. I find now that I'm a resident with other things to do, I don't get to the beach nearly enough. Yesterday morning, Mr. Snowbird and I went for a 2 mile jaunt down the beach. We walked from Nerita St. to the Summer of 42 cottage. You must understand, Mr. Snowbird is NOT a sheller in any way, shape or form. And it drives me crazy sometimes. Yesterday, we went at high tide. There were lots of Pin Shells washed up on the beach and what might have been some other interesting shells had I had a chance to look. So when we got home, I decided I was going to head back to the beach. Since the Nerita beach is still pretty crowded, I went to Access 5 on West Gulf. As you can see, it was gorgeous and relaxing. But there were NO shells. Absolutely nothing rolling in.
Sooo, I decided to go back to the east end. I went to the Fulgar St. parking lot which isn't too far from Nerita. By now, the tide was starting to go out and there were some more shells to be had.

Still nothing spectacular but I came away with a few keepers. Unfortunately I came away with as much trash as I did shells. Why do people think it's ok to just leave their trash behind for others to pick up? A lot of this probably came off of boats.

Since it is full moon and low tide was around 7:00, I decided to take yet another trip to the beach. I went around 5:00 and could have stayed forever! OMG, I haven't seen this many shells all winter. Full moon means really low tide. That coupled with a storm the other day made for amazing shelling. I picked up a ton of shells. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. I already have more than enough sitting around the house but I couldn't resist. Could you??

Guess what?? I'm going back this evening and pick up more shells I have no idea what I will do with.

The Beach

I actually went to the beach twice today. This morning we went to the Nerita St. beach to go for a walk. Despite having to walk into a heavy breeze going east, we made it to Summer of 42 which is about a mile. And of course it's another mile back. :) The Monsoon we had yesterday played some real havoc with the beach. Lots of little ditches dug into the beach from the wave action. One of the ditches was pretty big though and was about 5 to 6 feet across and at least a foot deep.When we got home I decided to head down to one of the West Gulf beaches to see how the shelling was after the storm. It's always such a pretty walk from the parking area to the beach.

The beach was relatively empty. Season is definitely over. There were lots of birds on the beach--probably enjoying the uncrowded beaches like I was.

And--there were several sting rays scaring the heck out of the minnows and kept coming right up on the beach with the waves. They were so fast I couldn't get a decent picture. The shelling wasn't all that great but it was so nice on the beach I didn't really care. Lots and lots of ghost crab holes. I saw one but by the time I got close enough to take a picture, he saw me and went down into his hidey hole.So, I had another dog encounter today! This time it was a puppy and was on a leash but when these people passed by me, I just had a feeling. So I turned around and was ready to take pictures. Remember all the bird pictures I took? Well, I walked up on the beach and around the birds knowing full well that they were resting. I always have and always will do this. Why do others feel that they own the beach and the birds should get out of the way??? Anyway, This couple with their leashed puppy proceeded to walk towards the birds which meant the birds had to high tail it up on the beach. At which point, the puppy pulled at it's leash to chase the birds. AND---the gal let the leash out to it's full length so the puppy could go after the birds making them all fly away. WHAT IS WITH PEOPLE ANYWAY?????Interesting--there were no ditches on the beach like there was at the East end. One thing I like about the West Gulf beaches are the flowers growing on the dunes.As I was leaving the beach, nature presented me with one other beautiful sight--nice big puffy white clouds.