Post Tropical Storm Isaac Shell Search

On Tuesday evening, the 28th, I took a quick look at the Pointe Santo beach.  There were a scattering of shells there, at the high tide line, but not any near the water.  

 We had plans to meet a friend at West Gulf Resident Access 6.  We were hoping to find a lot of shells again at low tide.

There were a lot of shells that had been left at the high tide line, and it didn't look like they had been searched though much at all.  So, we did some searching through them.  As soon as we got there, I found a cute, little Horse Conch.    

There were not many shells coming in.  Hopefully Tropical Storm Isaac churned them up, as he passed through the Gulf and they are still working their way into shore with each wave.

 I carried home the amount of shells that would probably fit in two hands.  I intended to take a picture of them when I got home.  After cleaning them, I had already dumped them into a container of other shells when I thought of it.  Sorry, I'll try to do better next time. :)

Our friend found a shell bag nearly full of nice shells at the Lighthouse Beach before she met up with us.  She found most of those shells in a tidal pool and with some intense searching in the water.

Turtle Walk Thursday

It was the 16th time we hit the beach before sunrise, this sea turtle nesting season.  I just love walking out the boardwalk to see a different view each time.  Yesterday when we were subs for another turtle walker, there was a strong, cooling breeze.  This morning there was a slight breeze, but the humidity was stifling. 

It seems like the nesting could be nearing the end, now it's just waiting and watching for the hatches. 

I guess there are still turtles nesting! 

We found one!

??

Italian noodle?

Found this beside, what seemed to be,

a UFO landing site. :)

Beach excavation?

Crab trap.

The one that got away?

Nesting Stats:

As of August 12, 2011:

Sanibel East-35 nests, 84 false crawls, 11 hatches
Sanibel West- 239 nests, 359 false crawls, 87 hatches
Captiva- 76 nests, 54 false crawls, 39 hatches

As of August 12, 2010:

Sanibel East- 20 nests, 65 false crawls, 3 hatches
Sanibel West- 136 nests, 242 false crawls, 49 hatches
Captiva- 63 nests, 117 false crawls, 26 hatches

As of August 12, 2009:

Sanibel East- 27 nests, 57 false crawls, 8 hatches
Sanibel West- 155 nests, 177 false crawls, 83 hatches
Captiva- 80 nests, 67 false crawls, 37 hatches

Info from:  Amanda Bryant, Biologist, Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation

Clouds, Rainbows and Turtles

We have our last group of family here visiting before school starts again, a daughter, grand daughter and her friend.  They've encountered a few days of rain showers off and on.    But of course that always brings rainbows. :)

The beautiful clouds brought a little wind with them, which made the wind surfers happy, I'm sure.

One afternoon we were driving on CasaYbel and spotted a Gopher Tortoise.  The girls had not seen one before.

During the past week, we have driven to Ft Myers and back several times.  The clouds have been amazing to look at.

On this day, we could see rain coming down in the area where we were going.

Unfortunately for our guests, rain also fell on the island at times.  But, I'm not complaining, we need the rain.

Even with the rain showers, there seemed to be time for play, in between.

We were asked to sub for another turtle walker this morning, so we hit the beach at our usual time, to walk zone 5, which is just east of our usual walk.  We started from the same place, at Gulfside City Park and walked east to Sundial Windows on the Water.

Flipper!

Several random photos for your cyber shelling pleasure.

Windows on the Water Restaurant

at Sundial Resort

Turtle egg?  Nope!

Yes, you guessed it, a 'Cruncher'!  I could hear him coming and looked to see what the noise was.  Ugh, he was walking right on the strip of shells.  If I were the shelling police, I'd give him a ticket! :) Go figure.....was there no where else to walk?  Duh!

There had been no turtle activity. Oh well, there's always tomorrow......