​​Virtual Shelling Southwest Florida locals beach. Bunche Beach has tons of critters!

Hello beach friends. Today we're going to stay local and we're going for a walk at Bunch Beach because I really wanted to find some crowned conchs. Now usually I just kind of go out and see what I can find but today I'm on a mission. I really want to get a couple more crowned conchs. I love their colors and their spikes and I was also hoping to see some rose petal talons and maybe a wensel trap or two. There's always critters here so we're going to say hi to a few living creatures as we look for beachy goodness here at Bunch Beach. So here we are over at Bunch Beach with an absolutely beautiful backdrop with those big white puffy clouds. So that's that's the scenery as I'm poking around the water here. Looks like the first thing I find is a sun ray venus clam which I am not surprised. That was one of the things I was expecting to see when I came here but this is what I'm looking for those crowned conchs. Not that one but I know they're here. Beautiful morning. The water is super calm. The tide is going out and we'll see that actually it's quite pronounced toward toward the end of the video. Here's another crowned conch although it is devoid of almost all the color. I don't know what it is about Bunch but the shells tend to kind of turn this like tan color which is fine. I mean that one was intact so I'm gonna go ahead and keep that. Oh look at this. That is also a crowned conch. Oh man it's broken. It's discolored but it's a whopper. Those grow up to about five inches so that's a pretty substantially sized shell. I'm just really bummed you know from a quality standpoint. It's not really up there. Nice calm morning. Can't wait to find some critters. This beach is alive. Always something going on here and it's probably a good idea to wear your shoes when you're in the water and you're kind of walking around with all those shells and rocks and pieces. It's probably a good idea to protect those tootsies. Water is nice and clear so we're just going to poke around see what kind of stuff we can find. All right another crowned conch. Not a keeper. It's got that beige color. It's broken. I will leave that where we found it and as I just mentioned a little bit earlier, tons of oysters here. Tons and tons of oysters. Now Bunch isn't necessarily a beach I would recommend to go shelling at but because I'm here specifically for crowned conchs, there's a little coquina. I decided to come to Bunch because Bunch always does have the crowned conchs. Now if any luck we'll see a live critter while we're at it. Another little coquina and Bunch is also really good for tiny shells so we're going to kind of get down there and look for tinies. Again I was hoping to maybe repeat my success here with finding a wentel trap. We'll just have to see. Now there's an oyster. If you're in the market for those kind of shells, Bunch Beach is the place to go. So we are going to creep along this whole beach. We're going to kind of actually zigzag. We're going to be in the water and on the beach. Oh I see something moving there. Yep that's what I'm trying to get. There we go. It's a little hermit crab in a little crowned conch shell. Good choice buddy. All right I don't think this one is going to come out so just peek at that shell. That's all we get to see is its little feet. All right he was a feisty. Look there he goes or she. Quick little thing. I guess they were ready to get back to whatever it was doing before I disturbed them. All right we know what this is. This is a serif. Oh dear it's broken. So that is a broken serif. There we go. That's what I came for. A crown conch. Excellent. There's no critter in there whether it be the live snail or a hermit crab. Cool. It's got a little bit of color. That's what I'm talking about. Not quite as spiky as I'd like but nice color. I'm gonna go ahead and hold on to that one. Yeah. Oh no. That one's okay. Nice size. Nice spikes. Doesn't have terrific color but there's a little bit there. I'm definitely gonna say that that is a keeper as well. Look at this. All right that is a Florida fighting conch. It is not an albino. It at some point did have its orange kind of brown color on it but as some shells here a bunch happen to do they has lost its color. So I think that's kind cool. I'm gonna keep that. Okay cool. Another crown conch. Yeah at this point I'm just trying to decide am I gonna keep it or not. And consensus is keep. Now here we have a crown conch but this is alive. See that's the critter there. It's kind of a mess. You kind of see the there's the and there's the body of it and a bunch of sand. I was trying to be kind when I kind of picked it up. I'm just trying to kind of balance it. Kind of show you as I rinse off some of that sand. And that shell has got all sorts of layers of stuff on there. But that's where I couldn't keep it anyway is currently inhabited. So I'll just put that little critter back where I found it. All right up on the beach. Okay a little crown conch. Now I can't quite tell if that's something that might clean up with an acid dip real quick. So I'm gonna go ahead and keep it and find out. Oh see what I mean about the color the way bunch kind of makes the shells all that like tan color. There's a pear whelk with just about zero color and it's broken. So check it out leave it where I found it. Yeah another crown conch all busted up in green. Yeah I'm not going to try to save or do anything with that one. What about this one? Okay I vote we keep that. I know it is a little on the beige color or on the beige side the way the bunch does that. A little bit of green but that's okay. It is intact. It's spiky. Got a little bit of color. And another pear whelk. Looks like it's been hanging around a while but I do see color on the reverse side. So I'm going to put that in some bleach and we're going to see what happens. And rose petal talon. Now this was something I did come here for. I was hoping I'd find this particular one is broken. Bummer. That's okay they are here amongst all the other green things and living things and all sorts of stuff. What do we got? Oh just a piece of a rose petal talon. A piece of a jingle. Not terribly exciting. And we got an oyster. All right I wasn't quite sure what that was. We'll check it out. Another piece of a king crown. So that's okay. We'll just keep checking out. Now whoa! Look at that weird oyster shell. Look how long that is. Very strange. Interesting. Oh there's another crown. Well not guaranteed to find a keeper every time but that's okay. Keep on looking. And a shark eye. Again weird. Almost no color. This one's almost white and I think it's weird so I kind of like it. I'm going to keep it. Yeah just a piece. Oh darn it. I love those. Look at how spiky that little spike is. Oh well. And another pear whelk and this actually has a little bit of color. Okay cool. We'll go ahead and keep that. That's a bonus. Was not expecting to find pear whelks today. Oh dear. Yeah that's a crown conch with a head of green hair. It's been deteriorating for a while. And yet another but that one's a little more intact. I know I'm that green doesn't frighten me at all. I'm going to go ahead and keep that. And at the end of the video I'm going to clean up some of these and we'll take a look and see what happens. Okay here is another shark eye but I want to talk about drill holes. So that drill hole on the back there. Check that out. Now the shark eyes leave a countersunk circular borehole right there that has an outer diameter twice the inner diameter. So with that particular borehole, that drill hole, you can tell that that was done by another shark eye. Kind of cool. Oh there's a critter. That's another crown conch but this guy is alive again. You can see the operculum there and there's his body. They're so pretty. They're this black and white color. So when you find those shells, there used to be a critter in there. Oh it's a pretty shell too. So that is an alive crown conch and that little piece sticking out the end there, that is the critter's proboscis. Kind of like a trunk. Kind of sticks out of the front of the snail and helps it find food and smells and all sorts of good stuff. It's not its head. It's actually more like a trunk and we're gonna pay a visit to a pair whelk and you'll kind of hopefully see its little eye stalks. But this little crown conch was quite happy hanging out with me but uh we had places to be and things to see, shells to find. So I gently scooped him off my hand back into the sand. Just in case you were wondering, yes it is still absolutely lovely out. The water is still clear and I found something we should check out. Looks like another sunray venus clam. It is hinged which is kind of cool. I mean you see the one side is broken but I'm gonna go ahead and keep the side that is intact. Oh here's another one. Another sunray. Oh that's weird. It is hinged and that other side is also broken. Hmm what do we got here? Another one and this is also hinged but not broken. So these are sunray venus clams, the lightning whelk which I tend to find here alive all the time. They like to eat clams so I'm wondering if that's where those shells came from. Here we have another crown conch with another one of those long-wristed hermit crabs in there that is either sleeping, chilling, I don't know what he or she is doing but not gonna come out and say hi. So that is just fine. Put them back where I found them. Another one. All right this is a different crown conch. Looks to be a favorite of the hermit crabs too. Fine choice fellas. Oh pretty shell. I bet you that would have cleaned up but critter is not coming out. Once again put it back where we found it. Hello fish. And what's this? All right another crown conch and hermit crab is in there. Let's see if these they're gonna come out. You can kind of get a little bit of a look at them. Like I said that is a long-wristed hermit crab. You can really kind of tell because one of the pinchers is a little bit bigger than the other one. Just kind of the shape and oh hello friend. So that is what little hermit crab looks like when he comes almost out of the shell and they don't come out unless they're changing shells. So I certainly wouldn't want them to come out but maybe you know it'd be nice just to say hi. And another one. All right looks like this one has decided to get a shark eye. A feisty little thing. So that again is a long-wristed hermit crab. Pushing me off. Get away. Oh don't worry buddy. We just wanted to say hi and I'll put you back. There you go. Oh and another crab. I am not going to try to pick that one up but it was it's kind of like pointing its pincers at me. Like come on. Like it was ready for a fight. I guess it decided I was probably just a little bit too big to take on. Is it a piece? Is it a whole? It's just a piece. Another piece of a crown conch. That's okay. We'll keep looking. Oh another live one. That is a live crown conch there. You see it's proboscis kind of sticking out the front there. I thought this might be a good opportunity to see what we can see underwater in its natural environment which apparently has all sorts of stuff in it. But you see his proboscis kind of sticking out there. So he's smelling. He or she is smelling looking for food. Get a little bit of a different angle. Try to get a little bit better of a look. I know the water's a little murky which is actually kind of perplexing to me because it looks so clear from on top. But once you get down here not quite so much. And look at how much the current is moving. And this is not deep water my friends. And yet there's still a whole bunch of current. That little snail is just kind of not really slithering I guess. Just kind of cruising along. All right so we got to see the critter from above. We got to see the critter from below. And that's what they're doing just kind of cruising along. All right let's go see what else we can encounter. All right another broken crown conch. Not very exciting. Oh look another live one. And there you can really see his little trunk sticking out there. Very cool. All right back on the beach and looks like I got myself a coffee melampus. At first I thought that was a bubble but that is not. That is a coffee melampus. Very fancy name. And here we have a little auger. All right going into the tiny section now. There are some ridiculously tiny shells. Here we just have a nasa. And that looks like a Indian false serif. Lots of pieces. But last time I was doing this I managed to get a wentel trap so I'm kind of hoping. Oh there's a huge one. There is another one of those serif shells. A little coquina. Lots of broken oysters. Lots and lots of broken all sorts of broken stuff. Here we have a morton's egg cockle complete with a drill hole or what I think was a drill hole. Oh and here we have a piece of a oh yeah that's all it is. Literally a piece of a sunray venus clam. Oh now this is an apple murix and I almost never find them here. So it's curious that this is here. Of course it's just in a crazy crazy beige color. Kind of devoid. Really beat up. And that's okay. I kind of just pick it up and say oh bummer. Wish it was wish it was pristine but it's not. So I'll just console myself with the view. Nice bright color. And another. Now I was wondering as I was picking these up as if the lightning welks because they tend to use the the edge of their shell to kind of jam it in those clams. And I'm wondering if the lightning welk is what broke all those shells. Now off in the distance I kind of see some weather brewing. So I'm going to concentrate and keep positive thoughts on what's going on over there instead. And so I mean the water is nice and clear. You can absolutely see right through it. I guess once you kind of get in there there is all sorts of other stuff going on. And another. Okay not broken. Another hinged sunray venus clam. Cool. Although I'm really kind of looking for a crown conch. Oh that's another pear welk. And that one is alive. All right let's go underwater and take a look. See the critter moving around. There it is. Now you can really kind of see in the front there the proboscis. And then you do see its little eye stalks a little bit further back. And I know it's funny because it feels like counterintuitive. But the critter comes out of the small part of the shell. And the pretty part is the end. Oh it's going off road. Going into a big old gully. Get a better view. There we go. Oh it's so neat. Now pear welks eat oysters, clams, and other marine bivalves. So that would you know the coquinas. Oh you can really see its eye stalks there. Coquinas. Any other little clams. So those critters better be on the lookout because there are some hunters out there looking for a snack. Now that is part of a bivalve. Oh completely discolored southern quahog. Super pronounced ridges. I wonder if you can just see that because of the color. But that's just a quahog. Still pretty over there. I'm getting a little concerned about what's going on over there. I'm gonna make sure I keep an eye on that. But for now we're still rooting around for shells and whatnot. Another sunray venus clam. All right cool. And it's hinged. Bonus. Oh it's another critter. That's another live crown conch. We've seen a couple today. Shell is in spongy shape. Yeah there's a couple layers of slime on that one. I wonder if that helps hinders. I don't know. But I'm gonna put them back where we found them. So I there have been some incidences of people getting struck by lightning down here. So you know I kind of go on and on about it. But I'm definitely uh I really want to be out here and you know cruising around and whatnot. But I also really want to not get hit by lightning. So it's not the rain so much. It's just that lightning. So keeping an eye about what's going on behind me. Now that is a laceration waiting to happen. Be really careful if you ever find something like this because that tin can really slice you or aluminum. So I got that out of the water and safely recycled. There's one of our snowy egrets and some birds enjoying the low tide to see the tide is going out. But I'm kind of looking about what's going on behind them. So I check my weather and yeah there's something brewing. So I'm just gonna kind of keep an eye on it. There's no lightning in the area so the only thing I'm worried about is just the lightning. So we'll just continue to pick up pieces of broken crumb gunk. So I had mentioned earlier the tide had gone out and it created this cool little tide pool. Birds were loving it. Not so much for us. Wasn't all that all that many exciting things going on in here. So I figured I'd walk back out a little bit see what else. I was really surprised that I I couldn't find a live lightning welk. I really looked and I can see rain at this point. You're kind of looking back over there and those white stripes there that is rain. But it's weird because you can see really far. There's no mountains or anything blocking the view. So that's why I'm always kind of relying on my app just to see how far away that really is. Is there any lightning going on? Because this is what I want to do. Look for these awesome shells. Now I know it looks just really gross but I see some color on that on the underside near the opening aperture. See right there? So I'm gonna bring that home scrub it up bleach it. Let's just see how clean we can get that. And another really slimy shell. Oh yeah that's yeah for me that's just too far gone. That is also a pear welk but that is just a little too much for me to take on. So maybe somebody else would like that as a project. I'll just leave it. Here is another hinged sunray venus and I couldn't quite figure out. It did feel like it was alive. Like I couldn't quite get it apart but once I used two hands I discovered it was not alive. It was indeed just the shell. It's still kind of pretty but we did already pick up a couple of hinged ones so I'm gonna go ahead and leave that for somebody else. Oh more hinged bivalves. That is a broken sunray venus clam. See what I mean with the edges broken off? I wonder if a lightning welk did that. And that is a giant atlantic cockle hinged. It's also yeah it's all sorts of gunky but yeah it didn't clean up too bad so I figured I'd go ahead and take that too. So that is a giant atlantic cockle also known as a heart cockle. And another little okay a little sunray venus clam. I wonder if one of those pear welks got that. Okay we're back in the tinies hoping maybe I'll stumble upon a wentletrap. A little nasa. Oh a bubble shell. Just a little cerith. Yeah not gonna trick me. I know you're not a wentletrap. Check this out. That's a shell. That little tiny thing. I don't know if that is a dwarf olive. I just I can't tell. It is just too tiny. But some of these shells that's it that's as big as they get. Like the size of a piece of rice. But oh a little button snail. They only get to be about one half inch big. So that's it that's as big as it's gonna get. Oh okay yep all right that is an auger. Probably a little ladder horn. Yep there is a ladder horn. You can kind of tell by the the kind of bumps that the shell has and but definitely the end the opening the aperture you can really kind of tell the difference between the ladder horn and the auger. And a little itty bitty rose petal talon complete with a little jewelry hole. Some other snail drilled in there. A little crown conch again complete with a little drill hole. Oh that's cute. Now look at this guy. Oh it's so tiny. Now I'm going to guess because I'm really not sure. I think that is a sparse dove snail and those also only get to be about one half inch big. Very cool. All right yeah there is definitely weather going on over there. So I'm going to make my way back to the entrance just in case I don't know starts dumping rain. I'll have a quicker run to my car. But in the meantime I'm still gonna still gonna kind of look see what we can find because you just never know. Oh another rose petal talon. Okay and look at that. Look at over here. Beautiful. Over there not so much. Hey if you don't like the weather just wait five minutes. It'll change. And another little rose petal talon. Super pink. And now it looks like there's fog involved with that rain. So again walking toward the entrance. I'm still going to poke around for as long as I can. As long as I feel safe to be out there. Definitely please if you're going to be out rooting around just make sure you watch out for that lightning. There's some more trash. Not beach glass. Just junk. Make sure that goes into the recycling bin. And it's oh it's such a bummer because I did you know you look that way it looks great. It's perfect. Stay out there for hours. But over there you know the weather's coming in. So I'm just gonna take a peek at this sunray venus clam. Again with a hole in it. That drill hole. Oh and an oyster catcher. An American oyster. American oyster catcher. Probably I don't know catching some oysters. Whoa. Okay now we definitely have fog involved. I can't even see the causeway bridge anymore. So there is weather rolling in. Bummer. All right while it's still safe I figure I'll pick up this crown conch. Again look on the side. Also got a little drill hole. Oh this one's pretty. Now this is a ladder horn snail. Pretty. All right so I walked a little bit past the entrance and now I'm going back toward the entrance because I definitely hear a rumbling behind me. So there's thunder going on. No lightning yet but but before I leave. Oh man. All right that is the second apple murex. Super beat up. Not a keeper but very strange. Very strange I'd find those apple murex here. And yeah the wind is starting to whip up a little bit. That fog is rolling in so time to go. And just as I was walking to my car it started to rain in earnest. So again I'm not so worried about the rain. It's that dang lightning. So this is what we end up with. I did go for the crown conch. So we did find some of those. I'll get to those in a second. A bunch of those sunray venus clams. We got that cool florida fighting conch. We got the giant linococcal. A couple of pear whelks. Some seraphs. A couple coquinas. And then all of those crown conchs which is what I went for specifically. So that's kind of cool. And the tinies. So I did keep some especially that little crown conch. So shelling is never guaranteed. You never know what you're going to find. I'm so happy with all the things that we found. And I think we should try to see what happens when we clean up a couple of these things. So the grossest ones. The ones that I wanted to clean up. Here they are. And this guy first needs a little bit of scrubbing. I do have a little brush with a nice stiff um like a stiff bristles. This guy. So it's got short little. I think it's actually meant for grout. I don't know what it's for. But I had it laying around. So I scrubbed that crown conch nice and good. Get all that algae and slime off it. And this is what we were left with. All right not too shabby. I do see that color on the other side. So hopefully it will clean up okay. So this is what it looks like before I bleach it. So that's the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take all four of those guys and I'm going to soak it in bleach. Ta-da! So they have been bleached. I soaked them for over a day in 100% straight bleach. Now the bleach definitely helps the green on that shell on the left. But that one the pear walk on the right not so much. And so I'm thinking that might stick because the acid rarely helps with the green. So these guys have been dipped in acid and that's as good as they're going to get. So they've been bleached. They've been put in acid and that's what I'm left with. And then there was a couple of the other ones that I also was curious what would happen. And so they also have been dipped in bleach and cleaned up as good as they're gonna get. So that is what I'm left with. Hey I went for crown conchs and crown conchs I got. You never know what you're gonna find. And speaking of finds, remember this guy? Well you guys kept asking me what it looked like after the bleach. So let's just quickly review. This is what it looked like. It had just ever so slightly like black and dark within those crevices. And after soaking in some bleach water that is completely gone. So that is my big old horse conch completely clean. And look on the inside it still even has that natural shine to it. Usually the shells where the body of the animal is will tend to have that shine. That's why olives are so shiny on the outside because their bodies actually wrap all the way around. So I even got this beautiful shell with a little bit of shine. So guys thank you so very much. A special shout out to my Patreons who financially support me when I go out and do these little adventures. And thank you guys for watching and coming along. It's such a treat to go out and visit these beaches and share all the things I find. So I appreciate you coming along with me. Next week we're going to Lover's Key. So we'll just have to see what we find there. Until then have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday.