Exploring a Florida island. Kayaking to an island and beachcombing.

hello Beach friends the island on this particular day now I know we go to the beach every week but today it's going to be so beautiful just the right time of day the right Island the right Birds the right clouds everything was so beautiful so we are going a little bit of an echo tour it is a kayak tour over to the North End of kiwadin so this is going to be a little bit different than what we normally do now you know me anytime you get me near a beach I'm going to be looking for seashells so even though this is an echo tour we will be looking and finding seashells and stick with me to the end because we're going to clean up some pretty slimy crown conks that we're going to find it is going to be an absolutely picture-perfect day and we're going to explore the island and see what kind of fun things are out there now I will be identifying all the things that we find on the beach and I'm going to tell you exactly how I got here so if you wanted to have this kind of tour you can do that too so if you ready to see what's out there for us today let's go to the beach [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] I've already had a lovely paddle over here and I'm excited to start doing some exploring see what kind of goodies are out there for us today now there's a couple other people with us but for all intent and purposes we kind of have the place to ourselves would you look at that well that is a thick leucine but that's a juvenile version the adults have a really bubbly Underside and hopefully we're going to get to see one of those so that is a thick leucine the weirdo Arc shell that is a Mossy Arc and they just look weird they just look misshapen that's the way they're supposed to look that is a Mossy Park right amongst all the other seashells here we have a mirix this is an apple mirax it's causing the lace mirix kind of looks like it a little bit more stretched out though oh boy all right so there is seashells here and I'm kind of scurrying because the some of the other people wanted to head north and I figured ah let me just kind of do a quick run and you know kind of quickly see what's on the beach so I can kind of have the first crack at everything there's a shark eye and you know what I discovered I don't like going really quick so I gave up I did I was gonna try to you know beat people to the north under Island ah to heck with it let's go in the water let's see what's here now it is a little cloudy so a lot of times this kind of shelling can be just an exercise in frustration but I do very much like being in the water and just the way my head works I kind of think oh I'm gonna get first crack at it as if it hadn't been on the beach at any point all right cool a piece of a fighting oh there we go that is an entire Fighting Conch that's more what I'm kind of looking for that beautiful big seashell a Florida Fighting Conch and another all right that one's a little more broken up on the bottom I don't know what I'm gonna find today so I'm not going to be particularly picky when I kind of first start out because I just don't know what all is going to be here okay here is another one of those thick loose scenes yup cool that Underside just kind of weird and bubbly right and if we compare that to the little one the first shell we found it's a little much more smooth so just just interesting I'm a shell nerd I like these things that is a thick leucine oh another Arc now we picked up the weirdo this is a turkey wing and for me I kind of look at the bottom first to see if it's broken it's easier for me to tell if I look at the bottom because they're just kind of a free form kind of shell so that is a turkey wing this is a turkey wing too so there we go looking at the bottom all right looks like it's got all its parts gorgeous nice ribs beautiful color and a lightning welcome nice size too but it's broken and I know I'm gonna be a little picky so we're gonna leave that one here but the prickly cockle no I'm nothing wrong with that I'm gonna hold not so much on a lightning Welk yes on the prickly cockle yes on this Mossy Arc oh I do like sing all the little intricate intricacies of those shells all right that one's a little pitted all right it's still kind of cool three Mossy arcs and an oyster I don't typically spend too much time oh I do like these shells so some of those shells can get discolored so this seashell was buried in sand that had low oxygen and it kind of just it is a chemical reaction that happens within the shell and it makes them black so we're gonna go exploring oh wait what's that orange thing oh okay it is literally a piece of orange excellent for your inquiring minds all right here is another one of those kind of dyed shells nature based diet oh that's a rough scallop so cool I wish it was a little blacker not gonna complain though that's really neat so it can make these shelves just abnormal so that is not the normal color of the shell now some of the things I'm going to pick up like the jingles yep that's supposed to be dark that's fine they do come in black and gray but some of these shells oh that is neat that's a Calico scallop that has that this really dark discoloration really cool and here's another here's a base scallop that has that dark kind of color going on so that can happen to any particular shell kind of neat oh and here now we're just looking at them side by side so they're both Calico scallops but that one on the top has been buried for a while and it's kind of absorbed or it's actually changed that color of the shell kind of cool so I am going to relocate I'm gonna walk up the beach for a minute I'm going to be quiet and allow you to have some beautiful beach time okay we got ourselves a juvenile fighting Cog a little bit of beach stuff we are not gonna worry about the beach stuff awesome oh and another rough scallop so we picked up one that was like really dark that's a gorgeous like peach color oh man that's pretty yep a couple more seashells all right here is another Calico scallop and I guess hierarchy of things that are important to me from a seashell perspective is I would prefer it to be whole I would prefer it to not be broken that's like the first thing I kind of look for that is a lightning Welk that is not broken so I'm gonna probably hold on to that now that is a worm snail and I've talked about these before and for whatever reason I'm like you know what I know that there's three different worm snails so let me just quickly it's not the Florida worms now is that the Fargo or is that the West Indian so I get my book and this is the best resource book I use it all the time I'll put a link in the description box below so I go to my shell Bible and I see the West Indian worms now and I see okay the Latin name so I'm gonna kind of cross check with the Latin name because some of these shells have more than one name I go over to the Shell Museum I look for the worms now and look at all right now it's the same Latin name different common names so this whole time I thought there was three different kind of worm snails and meanwhile there's only been two so you have this one the let's go with Fargo worms now and then you have your Florida worms now huh I thought there was three but this one has two names not surprising and it took me this long to figure it out it happens look at that beautiful Calico scallop the tiny nugget of beach stuff on it no problem and this was kind of fun I'm walking down the beach there's nobody else here and then I see this pile of shells now what in the why there's like I said there's nobody else here why is there a mini little pile of shells here a little pile of fighting I do not know maybe a boat came earlier and they found them and just left them huh they did not end up here you know naturally but you know wow that is pretty so I'm gonna go ahead yeah I'm gonna check these out we'll go ahead and keep one of them what about this one is it gonna be two oh you know I know there's a lot of beach stuff going on there but I think that might be a keeper as well let's let's see let's rinse those off oh so pretty mm-hmm and luckily I'm not finding so many shelves so I'm gonna hold on to those kind of heavier fighting conchs early in my shell trip and that is a juvenile fighting COG I love the zigzags on those they are so fun there's so many different varieties and that is another Calico scallop that today nice varieties on that what else we got oh another oh another couple of yep I had to rinse them off and take a peek awesome a couple of awesome seashells now I did find a little bit of garbage so I threw it in my shell bag as well kind of go along so I'm picking up the good and the bad and the pretty like this pretty Calico scallop now it has been a long time since I needed to even consider the weather other than freezing my buns off because it basically doesn't rain here in the winter and I didn't know that but it literally it just doesn't rain for months and then summer comes then it rains every single day but only for a little while oh there's that worms Now call it Fargo or West Indian you get to choose so it did there was a little bit of threatening weather and it did rain just a tiny little bit and that's just fine Calico clam because it is warm enough that you know what a little bit of rain might feel a little good oh yellow yeah you know I'm gonna go for that one yep the yellow prickly goggle and more of those kind of dyed shells so there's definitely an you know a good variety here 's an apple mirax it's a lot the arcs there's some surf clams some cockles now I can see a little bit better on the beach meaning like they might look okay but they could be pitted or faded so I'm kind of skipping those shells and just looking for a little bit better condition yep so this is what I do at least once a week I just wander around silently looking for seashells I have a dialogue in my head the whole time like I'm going oh man look at this zigzag so yeah I'm thinking it I'm just just keep them a trap shut when I'm on the beach awesome a couple more beautiful seashells awesome all right so now we're going to start doing the whole exploring part so I did hear that if I walked South that there was going to be a part where I might be able to find the king crowns and so I did find this little path I had to refer to my Google Maps and I kind of found this little path so I went back here in hopes of honestly finding the crown I'm looking for a lumpy muddy slimy kind of triangle and I found one now I did assume that this Critter was alive because most of the time when I see them in this condition they're alive and then I turn it over and I'm shocked it's empty I get to keep it woohoo all right so I know it is just the grodiest slimy furry muddy looking show and frankly it stunk a little a little bit it was a little bit stinky but they clean up so great so I'm gonna hunt around for some slimy Mucky muddy stinky shells you guys see another yep there's another empty Crown conch and I'll try to climb oh there you go so you can kind of start seeing the actual the shell looks like underneath it awesome and so I'm in the back there is another boat here so a boat was able to pull up I'm not showing you in the video just to kind of make it seem like it's only me and the island but there was another boat here but it is so pretty I can certainly see why someone would pull up and just park here man it's gorgeous and I'm super interested in the slimy mud because I'm looking for those muddy lumpy furry you know bits of shells so that's what I'm doing hunting in the mud oh there's a little snowy egret he's hunting as well luckily we are looking for different things I have no interest in finding fish I'm way more interested in the seashells or in this case the actual snail so this Critter is alive and holy cow the ecosystem growing on the back of this shell so I'm gonna try to pick it up and I was thinking like I would be nice to it if I scooped up a little bit of mud with it ultimately I don't know that it really mattered but we do have a live Crown conch here the body is that black and white piece and then the mudish is the mud I picked up they can tolerate being out of the water for a little while but I just like pretending I'm being kind and kind of dipping it in and you will see it's so curriculum now once I turn my hand around you will see the animal's operculum which is kind of neat they will retract all the way into their shell if they feel threatened there it is right there and that is the covering that will help the animal protect itself while it's inside its shell so yay I do have a empty shell and we did get to say hi to one of the live Critters all right we'll just leave that little friend alone and I'll keep hunting okay oh yeah the beach will be there we're gonna stick in the mud for a little while here's another one yep and it's re it's hard to tell I mean if I just see a little bit of color frankly it doesn't matter I'm going to bring it home and clean it up and then I'm gonna decide so I don't really decide what's going on when I'm on the beach it's going to come home with me regardless unless it's broken then that might be a game changer for me but since these are all whole yeah I'm gonna assume that they're gorgeous and then we'll come home and they will get scrubbed and we'll talk about that I'll show you at the end of the video what I do to get these beautiful shells all cleaned up well actually I should say these very slimy shells all cleaned up but trust me they are beautiful once they're actually de-slimed so lots of fun finding these algae ridden Crown conch shells woohoo yeah I'm going super fun another yeah and empty too so happy happy finding these slimy Crown cogs and then I've cut myself on my hands oh that one has a lot of beach stuff on it so I don't really use my thumb to kind of like push dirt off of it I'll try not to I'll try to get what I can off but I don't want to cut myself because that's really annoying all right some more yay furry slimy oh oh look at see the color mm-hmm yep those are gonna be pretty there's another one excellent the slimier the better actually it just it doesn't matter maybe this slime actually protects the shell um but I see some nice dark color there and now is that furry I guess it is and so that's what I'm doing I'm gonna see in something if it's a little furry or just looks a little unusual I'll just kind of poke at it and see if it's going to be one of those shells or not so we have another the mud they like that mud another awesome Crown conch yeah and another some oh yeah that color is really nice awesome anything else that's blurry all right so it's just kind of furry so all right so that was not a shell but that's what I was kind of doing I just kind of see something just kind of pushing it out and that's what the area looked like I'm just gonna hunting in this mud and wow that was a lot of fun I got a lot of those great shells might as well head back to the beach and see what is on the Gulf side so if you were talking about the Gulf side and the Bay Side of an island we were just kind of on the Bay Side and now we're going back to the Gulf side and there's that weather and like I said it did rain just barely but yeah I'm gonna have to start referring to my lightning app keep that it did not go off so I was not concerned about lightning just a little bit of rain so I'm still headed toward the south end of the island because I saw out in the distance there I did see that kind of like a sand bar and I was wondering if I was going to be able to go down and maybe just kind of explore the SandBar a little bit um might be good to find sand dollars see what other else might be out there but as I got closer and closer it kind of was obvious to me that it's not really a sandbar that the island was actually cut I don't know if the cut was here before or after Hurricane Ian but it is definitely here and so at this point then the bay and the gulf are kind of talking to each other the water is Flowing freely between the two lots of seashells to be more of your common stuff or believe me I'd be bending down picking up all sorts of stuff and it does not look very safe I don't think I'm going to be able to go explore that little Sand Bar there once I got closer the water and water tide is going out and it's yeah a little too deep I can't see and I'm like oh well I am not going to explore that oh look how pretty so I was immediately entertained by this beautiful view any good seashells I'm just gonna oh look I saw something moving this little crab not sure what kind I think I saw like a square back crab I don't know cute little thing if I saw something moving another it does seem to be like a bigger concentration of shells here let's see is this garbage or sea glass I think that that's questionable it's so pretty so once it kind of got back there and the sun's going down so that's the Gulf side and then look how green the mangroves are nature's definitely coming back it's so pretty it's like a oh it's like a painting it's just beautiful and we look this is what I came to look for more Crown now this is a critter so we're just gonna leave that one along we already said hi to one earlier okay what about this we got a planter meat oh bummer nope so I will keep a big you you guys have actually kind of taught me that sometimes those big shells can make great Planters so I might have kept that but there's too big of a hole in it see if I spy any other of those Crown cons oh here's one wow it's like racing along all right there's one this is really fun I like what you can kind of like hunt and time this is not a tide pool but when the water is kind of shallow and the critters are out you can really kind of see what's going on so you can see it's white and black body Cruise along now they'll eat kind of anything they'll eat live stuff dead stuff algae you know worms they'll eat whatever so probably an opportunistic Hunter see it again looking for something to snack on oh my gosh look at all the stuff on that shell a couple of barnacles and another I wonder if that's the same one but so it was really kind of fun kind of like being in a giant touch tank so real muddy and so this will I mean the tide comes in and out and in and out so this this area sees the water recede and come back multiple times look at how pretty with the sun coming through the clouds it was just beautiful yep just me and my shell bag and I'm so happy oh friend did you get stranded I kind of got sucked out of the water there or out of the sand all right buddy now these animals are they are very used to being in and out of the tides it probably would be fine but I'm going to put it I'll just feel a little bit better knowing there you go just feel a little bit better okay so I am silicon I didn't have much luck finding the empty ones over here only a couple of those live Crown conks but holy cow is it pretty so you're looking for nope I am definitely glad that I kind of came over here because it is just spectacular that's just so pretty all right another piece of glass what about this one oh oh that is legit that is legitimate sea glass it's frosted on the sides even all right that happens oh maybe three times a year not often so pretty lucky got a piece of sea glass and a littered Olive give the old shine test it's my thumb looks like it looks okay it's not broken I want another lettered Olive terrific a couple more shells so I'm just having so much fun and if you like this kind of thing if you want to come explore a beautiful island you know kayak and just have the place to yourself go on over to swfl Shell guide Ally knows her stuff again this particular tour was not a shelter but you will be brought to a beautiful island and kind of DIY do-it-yourself explore at your leisure I had a great time if you like to do something kind of like this I will put a link to her website in the description box below oh guess what yup number two legit sea glass I found two pieces of legitimate seed glass awesome now this is something super duper cool but I did not find it Kevin found this and this is just like a fossil it's like a big rock looks just like a big lion's paw if you ask me I thought that was super cool so I didn't find that one of the other guests did so lots of other things out there than the things that I'm finding I am rather drawn to both color and texture and maybe that's why the prickly cockle does it for me great texture on the outside beautiful color on the inside and Fighting Conch yeah oh it's so shiny oh absolutely beautiful now something else that I really really like is safety and anchor Works provides that so I kayak that to this island and I brought this with me super light super easy to set up all you have to do is dig yourself a hole with the provided shovel stick that Bell kind of shaped thing in the middle of it pack it down with some sand and for all intent and purposes you're pretty much ready to go at that point now they do give you another little piece which is going to act like a little table so convenient and then you put the umbrella in it and you're ready to go now what is the point the point is is that this umbrella is going to stay right where I put it it is not going to blow over down the beach and injure people the wind right now is about Southwest eight miles an hour so it's not super strong but that anchor is going to keep my umbrella exactly where I left it and for me it's really important to have a save time at the beach I don't have to worry if I get up to go showing that my umbrella is not going to be where I left it now you can use the anchor work system with the umbrella you already have or you can purchase the umbrella of the entire system together now head on over to shop anchorworks.com ref slash 13 and you can use code swf28 for 28 off so thank you anchorworks for being one of my sponsors and keeping the beach safe this happens to be super duper cool because it's one of those dyed shells that's a crossbarred Venus clam I know it's super common but I just really liked that it was a very common shell that's not so common of a color so the time has finally come to get back into the kayak and tear myself away from that unbelievably beautiful Island and you know what though there's still a couple more pretty things to see we did spy a Cormorant airing its wings out and some of these red mangroves I started taking my Florida master naturalist classes so I'll be peppering you with information that I've been learning along the way and check this out we have a heron up in this tree but watch the moon behind it it just passed right there I thought that was so cool so I had such a great time again check the description box below for your anchor works for your shell tour information and I did pick up a little bit of garbage I did not weigh it just we'll just assume it was a couple ounces of garbage now let's talk about those Crown so that's all the other stuff I found which actually looks really pretty kind of a colored colored leg that in my little calendar so the crown conch so the first thing I do is I start scrubbing them so with a brush that looks like that I scrub them I get in the water I scrub them get in the water and I do that quite a few times to try to get as much of that green and all the mud off as I can once I'm done with that this is the result that I'm left with so I can tell some of those especially those smaller ones the color oh they look great and the other ones you know we're gonna have to kind of see we're just gonna have to kind of see how they turn out so once I'm done with that they go into the bleach all that green goes away and then any of the Barnacles so I do use bleach to also really kind of loosen up beach stuff that might get on the shelves so this particular one I don't know if you remember but it had a lot of those Barnacles and that beach stuff on it so what I do is I take a dental pick I get it underneath the edges of that stuff and I just kind of pick it off so that particular shell will probably need another round I think I'd probably go with acid on that and I am working on that video that will be my next little special project coming out but that's all the goodies and for a tour that wasn't a shell tour I had so much fun so we have ponderous arcs we have those thick loose scenes the Fargo and or West Indian worm snails however you like to call it a bunch of those discolored shells the base scallops the Calico scallops and that rough scallop we did get one of those augers I do see some jingles in there so here's some regularly colored Calico scallops a couple turkey wings Mossy arcs Calico clams some sea glass apple mirroric shark eyes Olive lightning World prickly coggles the Florida Fighting conks and the crown so they came out pretty good the next of I've already bleached them again next up is acid so stay tuned for that we're gonna see what they look like once we get them into that acid so patreons everyone who comes along with me every week thank you so so very much you're always on my mind when I'm out there and I just want to thank you so much for supporting me I love going out and sharing our time together so thank you so very much next week can I tell you I broke my shell bag I picked up so many seashells it finally happened I broke my my shell back so we'll talk about that next week super duper fun I hope you have a great week and I will see you again next Sunday