I live in Maine. I love watching shelling videos. Tiny shells are my favorite. They take up less space in my home. I also collect small colorful stones. Small drift wood and sea glass. Thank you for sharing your videos.
Keewaydin is a great place to find alphabet cones, horse conchs and murexes. Just a side note- the shells you called prickly cockles are really Atlantic giant cockles. The “hoof” shell you found is a slippersnail. Welcome to my side of Florida!
Wow, what a beautiful trip! Such a beautiful Island. LOVE ALL the Alphabet Cones you found-the chocolate ones were yummy! Such fun finds. That albino nutmeg was great!. Happy shelling-I love your hands!! ( 2:26, 12:46 & 21:40 “The Atlantic Giant Cockle” Dinocardium robustum)
Nice video. But, both male and female whelks have left handed apertures and only abnormal whelks are right handed and a rare find. Large Whelks are female and the males die at half she mature size. Cant believe you had the place to yourselves. Beautiful location!
My favorites are the lightening welks, tulips, sand dollars and moonsnails. I went to Keewaydin also but a different tour company. But the island is amazing with all the shells. I actually had to send a box of shells home ahead of my flight. lol
Not a hoof or a hoof shell. They are called Slipper shells (they kinda resemble a house slipper) and also sometimes called a boat because they will float on top of the water like a little kayak. The large ones are the females and the smaller ones are the males and the males will attach on top of the females which attach to other shells, and if the female dies, the males can change into females. I think you were confusing two different things about the Lighting Whelks and whether they are male or female. All lightning whelks are sinistral (left-handed or left facing opening) but the very large ones are always female because they have to grow big to be able to have enough energy to lay eggs but the males stay relatively small in comparison. Not necessarily that they don’t live as long, but they just don’t keep growing and growing the way the females do. I think the females of the slippers are bigger for the same reason, to lay eggs, but I don’t think that the male Lightning Whelks can just decide ok, well I guess I have to be the mom now. 😂 The main whelks you will find in SWF that are right facing are going to be Pear Whelks, but up in the Carolinas you can also find Channel Whelks occasionally and Keiner Whelks (which are a species of Knobbed Whelks) are the most common in the Carolinas. Knobbed Whelks look a lot like a mirrored version of the Lightning Whelks but the stripes are no where near as prominent.
