A Sanibel Beachy Afternoon

It's been perfect weather here.  Sure doesn't seem like it's getting near the holiday season.  But everywhere you go, there are signs of Thanksgiving and Christmas appearing.  Yesterday we went to Bailey's Hardware and I enjoyed looking at all of the tropical ornaments they have hanging on their Christmas trees to sell.  They are really cute! :)

After that, we went to the beach for a while.

Puffin thought it was a perfect time for bird watching again.

Also a little shelling.

After walking a little while, his tongue was hanging out and he was ready to go home.

We enjoyed the sunshine and the warm breeze!

Sanibel & Seashells

The high temperature today was 63, which suits me just fine.  In the sun it feels plenty warm.  Out in the NNW wind,  by the water, it was a little cool, but not bad at all.

You'll notice that the island folks have on sweatshirts and jeans, but one lady walked past me in a bikini and a man in swim trunks.  I'm thinking they must be from the frozen north.



There has been quite a bit of beach

erosion in this area.

 There was an area between access 4 and 5 with a good amount of shells.  There were people out in the water looking and digging.  I asked one man if they were having any luck and he said it wasn't great shelling but they were finding something now and then to keep them going.  I noticed that none of them had many in their shell bags.  But the area sure looked promising!  I picked up a handful, but the nicest thing I had was a big Lace Murex.

Sanibel No-see-um Alert :)

This evening we went to a beach access on the east end of the island.  The temperature was just right, at that time, around 74.  Seemed to be a nice time for a beach walk.

There were LOTS of tiny shells!  My favorites!  YAY!!!

Just after I took a couple pictures, I bent over to look closer at the shells. I was instantly attacked by swarming no-see-ums. After that, I couldn't even slow down long enough to get the camera to focus. After swatting at them a few times, we ran back to the access path to get away.  So, that turned out to be a 5 minute stay and couldn't even look at shells, let alone pick up any.  Grrr!

It was a no-see-um alert; TRUE STORY!

I turned to take one last pic when I reached the access path.

Note to self:  Don't wait until evening to go for a walk!  Or...pray for wind!

Sanibel Below Bright Blue

First things first:  The little treasure I picked out of that area of shells yesterday, was the big bubble.  Most of you saw it.  As for all the others you saw in that particular photo, I either didn't take them for some reason or just plain didn't see them. :)  I may have to quit asking! LOL

Today the temperature ranged from 74 to 87 with 79% humidity and this island was covered by a bright blue sky. It was a nice evening for the beach. We went to resident access 5 on West Gulf Drive. There were shells to look through again, but I only picked out a few. I know there were plenty of shells of value if the time was taken to look further, and if more time was spent on the beach. There was really no one around, except for an umbrella up the beach a little way, so there may have been someone behind it, but that was all. It was breezy and cool enough to be very comfortable. The temperature is heading in the right direction, for me. :)

A Florida prickly cockle, Keyhole limpet,

and an Eastern auger



That's me in my Sanibel squat position. :)

Sanibel Seashell Search

It seemed as though we had a lot of rain today.  It started this morning and rained off and on until mid-afternoon.  But, the  report from this end of the island shows only 0.01" which is hard to believe, since we had water standing in the swale all day.  Another indication of excess rain, was that the newspaper was soaked all the way through and the plastic bag it was in when they tossed it in the driveway was also full of water.  Not a good sign. :)  The temperature was fairly pleasant today, going from 74 to 85 with 90% humidity.

I went to resident access 1 on West Gulf Drive late this afternoon.  First thing I noticed as I walked out onto the beach was the cool wind.  That was very pleasant!  The next thing I noticed

was a small rainbow. 

There were not many shells coming in.  But there were scattered shells left along the high tide line.  There were no foot prints along there, so I searched for a while and found a pocket full of small shells and I was happy with that.  Although, when I think about it, a couple of years ago, I never went to the beach without a shellbag in my pocket.  I usually went home with it full everytime.  It was just a very pleasant time to be out.  I only saw one family that walked past while I was there.

This is where I searched for shells.

There is a treasure here, can you find it?