Lover’s Key State Park. Discovery Center Update + Beach Walk + Shelling

howdy beach friends today we're going to explore lovers key state park and i'll be driving through fort myers beach to get there if you're a fort myers beach fan you know this bridge and the feeling you get once you get to the top and you can see the beautiful gulf waters over at lovers key we're going to take a quick peek at the new welcome and discovery center because a few of the exhibits have been installed and after that we're going to walk the beach looking for goodies as we take in the beauty of lovers key state park [Music] [Applause] [Music] well here we are on the second story up on the new welcome and discovery center over at lovers key and i can totally see sitting here with a book maybe a yeti full of lemonade the reason we came back over here is because they have installed a couple of the exhibits this one is about the walking and biking and kayak trails as well as it kind of shows you the development of the island and how it's changed over the years the welcome desk is coming along just lovely and this was my jam this is where we always hang out the marine and intertidal zone so this is where all in my opinion all the good stuff happens and you find the beach and the critters and the birds and all that fun stuff so i was really excited about this particular exhibit because it really speaks to me and all the things that i really like to do at the beach and the first step to conservation and having us really protect our environment is really learning about it and the things that we can do so i'm really really excited about all the different things that the center is going to bring to the public and educate us so that we know how important it is that we take care of our environment this is the exhibit that talks about the upper beach talks about the dunes and then this particular installation was a timeline which was really interesting so it goes back 6500 bc all the way through current times and it kind of takes you through you know pirates and fishing camps and it really does have a very cool story so if and when you make it over here you're going to enjoy your time you're learning about not only the environment but the actual history of the island and then across the hallway we have a couple of little bit more things have gone on here we got the smart board put up and some of the furniture and outside this is where those adirondack chairs are so this is definitely going to be a really fun and exciting place to hang out okay now that we've kind of got the business end of things out of the way we're gonna head on over to the beach it is really not a far walk there is a tram if you wanted to take the tram if you're bringing a uh you know an umbrella and a chairs and all that good stuff you might want a little assistance with the tram but i do like walking and all i try to travel late because i do so much walking so we're approaching the beach at this point i love this and here's the upper dunes we talked about that lots of critters and animals live in there but i want to get to the marine and intertidal zone guys there is a guy walking around with a five gallon bucket and i'm afraid he took all the shelves but hopefully he left just a couple for us i don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign hard to say i'm gonna go with good sign and just kind of keep my hopes up and hope that we managed to find lots of good stuff and we'll start off with this little jingle actually it's not so little it's actually kind of a big jingle and he is shiny and awesome and here we have a spiny jewel box i feel like i find these guys every single time i go to the beach however i've only ever seen a live one once this would be kind of cool to find a live one again one of these days looks like we got ourselves a little scallop perhaps a bay scallop i think maybe okay and cross barred venus that side ain't pretty at all but that yellow and purple side that's really kind of cool it looks like we're looking at lots of arcs oh here's the calico scallop the pretty pink and white guy here is a broad ribbed cardina i'm starting to like those guys are really growing on me here's two more broad ribbed carditas all different colors they don't get too big i've never found a hinged one but they are interesting they're kind of cool little shells here we have a prickly cockle there's two prickly cockles down here a yellow prickly cockle and a florida prickly cockle that is the florida prickly cockle and there's a kitten paw looks like it's only got four toes usually they have like five or six and looks like we have a greenish scallop that'll that'll be just fine if you drop it in a little bit of bleach there's another calico scallop all right not much of nothing kind of a little bit of a rock a whole bunch of other stuff again little stuff the guy with the bucket took it all nah we'll find actually we do we totally find good stuff here's a little slipper that's actually not little at all that's a quite big for a slipper there's a slipper snail never seen a live one that would be very cool and you can see that there's definitely other shellers around me we're all kind of trying to find a couple of goodies and here we found a jewel box a spiny jewel box it's relatively spiky and a piece of maker that is the inside of a pen shell that particular pieces although that does occur in other shells pretty in here okay a pink variety of these sun ray venus come usually gray and sometimes pink kind of kind of neat they're different here's a florida fighting nothing really too remarkable about this guy except he is knobless he doesn't have any of those knobs poking out so that is kind of interesting and he's also extremely pointy for a florida fighting and another jewel box i kind of like this guy who's got like that one tooth even though it's really more of a spike yeah they're neat and an oyster just a run-of-the-mill oyster shell and an olive i was kind of hoping that was going to be golden but i just think he's kind of just kind of a washed out lettered olive and here we have a wee little lightning whelk cute little guy or gal and another it's hinged a sun ray venus rut row yeah somebody snacked on him that particular type of drilling is called umbo drilling because the critters that drill the holes they can go on the thinner part which is where it opens and closes but you kind of run the risk of getting snapped by the uh the critter that's inside there so that particular type of drilling is called mo drilling and here is another prickly cockle and i see some worm snails at the top of a cone a piece of a tulip dang it oh no that's not a tool but all that i think is a ribbed cantharis that's the one i keep keep getting confused with other things that's a piece of a broken tulip so it looks like this little crouch only brought us a couple of broken things well let's see what else we got okay now this was weird that is a cross-barred venus and it is not supposed to be that color that is probably rust or something that has discolored that so i don't know where that came from but because it was bright orange caught my eye there is a base scallop he's a tiny bit chipped on top that's right and a lightning walk it looks like he had to run in with a boring sponge yeah he's a little bit worse for wear and what do we got here okay really beat up florida finding complete with a hole in it all right oh man lightning welk just just a piece of what was probably once a really swell shell but so all that's left is a big old chunk not gonna keep it i got too much walking and that is too heavy here's another lightning look there's a hole in it also a little bit worse for wear and a florida fighting conch it's kind of pretty very orange he's got his knobs all right it's kind of neat oh he's a little bit more beat up in that other guy and what do we got i'm chasing another scallop some sea grass oh that's very pretty scallop and a very beat up florida fighting conch and coral all right and i'm pretty sure that is called thin finger coral and then i actually went down this whole rabbit hole of where is coral and we actually have some offshore um cr we've created some coral reefs here uh i don't know 25 miles off the coast of santa bell which i thought was kind of cool and that was the south end of lovers key we're gonna check out a bunch of stuff over because it's so pretty there we have a floor finding so this is the south south end and yeah more of the same some of the stuff that we've pretty much been looking at here's another piece of coral now seems like a good time to mention if you like this kind of video and you'd like to support me please consider doing so over on patreon.com the url is there and i'll also put it in the description box below now i like creeping around this part of the island it's so pretty it's just otherworldly because you have these trees that have died and they just kind of tip over and we usually decorate them with shells and whatnot and they're just they're really pretty the periwinkle snails too i didn't see any today but they tend to hang out in the splash zone but it's just really pretty down at the south all the whole park is pretty but the south end is particularly pretty here i found this giant oyster yum and there's another one of these trees that have toppled over and usually you'll see it speckled with shells and whatnot fanta like great photo opportunities to come down and take pictures of these trees really really pretty all right as i'm still circling around now and it starts looking even more like otherworldly i'm here a couple fishermen made their way over here but that's really there's usually nobody really over here maybe you'll find a couple people fishing and it's a lovely place to just take a little break now something i would like to mention and you're going to want to keep an eye on the tides because it is possible if that tide came up too far like you're you're going to be like you know going through the bushes and stuff to try to get back to the beach so i guess you know always keep an eye on your surroundings and what the tides are going to be so you don't end up getting stuck somewhere there's another one of those tree roots that are just covered with shells because that's how we do it down here it looks like oh lightning well all right decent right it's decent not the best one i've ever found but not terrible and another one another little lightning walk and a sand dollar hey buddy all right this one is totally safe to keep he is dead let's rinse him off and get a peek oh very pretty so that is a five hole keyhole sand dollar and oh disc dostinia complete with a snacking hole it looks like that technique was just going right for the middle and okay so this somebody missed this i kind of had to scooch in and kind of grab this not grabby grabby see there's someone i'll show you or she was right there she passed this so i kind of got in there and grabbed this beautiful gaudy nautica it's going to pick up a little bit better for us okay here's another olive again not a golden olive keep looking there that's a pretty olive not a golden olive but that's real i like the dark one i like the fat ones i like the pointy ones maybe there's not too many olives i don't like check this out look at this beautiful shark eye has that green undertone and what i really liked about this guy is i think that could be considered a paul newman shark eye because there is a version that has that blue in the very center and i'm pretty sure that that one would qualify i thought that was spectacular great find looks like we found ourselves another little lightning whelk and what else we got okay crown conch yep a little beat up crown conk little beat up top snail i'm gonna keep it anyway and more stuff another lightning look they're pretty ubiquitous down here oh a little apple murex hey buddy look how pretty yep fantastic and what okay a junior florida fighting or juvenile rather just a little guy i like sometimes it'll be that size and they have the big spikes on them well maybe not big i'll show you once i once i find that next one whenever it might be i will show you here we have a beat up tulip not even close definitely not keeping that guy what else we got well look at this well hi baby's ear just sitting there upside down luckily i know what it looks like on the other side and clean that up and he's got a little pinhole on that one side but still i love finding these very exciting every time i find one which is not all that often i'd like to add oh hello gorgeous here is a lettered olive pointy and shiny in all its glory yes okay got ourselves a little discolored florida cone what else we got i guess you know if you got down there you probably could comb through and find stuff but i'm really kind of a walker hey here's a little apple mirrors and an olive right on good color good shape both of them another sunrise venus now check this out it's hinged totally different colors look at that on this this the left is kind of like that gray color on the right plunk that pink color y-o-y do not know hello hello lightning welk and hello juvenile florida fighting conch all right do you have yeah see how he's a juvenile but he's kind of got those bigger knobs he's a little bit spiky i like those guys yeah we'll probably check out this florida fighting conch as well oh he's a handsome guy and look at this pretty little shell hi nutmeg she is just lovely kind of like a beaded i like those nutmegs and a paper fig i always when i find these whole i always wonder how on earth they survive because they are very delicate to the just very very delicate shells oh hey little colorful coquina i'll check you out oh so pretty a little olive nah we'll just stick with the cocina all right another juvenile florida fighting and get that in focus there we go oh a tulip all right it's mostly intact it's missing its top it's a little chewed up on the side all right i'll leave it but this guy all right he's he's a little bit more intact once he gets in focus he's got his top once he gets in focus there we go a banded tulip yep we're gonna keep that guy oh what is this lovely orange scallop oh man look at the color but once i washed it off it's a little bit chewed up but don't care the color is so pretty i'm still keeping it and here is another little apple mirrors complete with a hair i don't know where that came from just weird all right here's another spiny jewel box not supposed to be that color just like that one that a crossbard venus we picked up earlier i don't know maybe rust or something maybe they kind of got kicked out of somebody's boat now this is the right color look at this beautiful little sand dollar oh she's so she's like perfect and i gave that one away i tried to find someone who looked like they were from out of town and i gave it away here we have a beat up olive yeah you never know figured check it out and i guess that's the at least the lesson that i always think is that i just don't give up i just keep going and going i realize that that's a little beat up remember the one from last week that giant spiky beautiful i'm still a little bit nutty over that shell but that's okay just show you that is typically the ones that i find they're not all beautiful and spiky and it definitely looks like people have gone through the shell piles you kind of you can definitely another way that you can source your shells you kind of find a pile and get in there and start digging and sometimes you know i'll kick it around a little bit but i really am one a little bit more for walking and since i got on the beach a little bit later than usual i was a lot more people normally i get here early but i had a little tour i had to go check out the discovery center so i figured i'd have to go to the beach you have to get there a little bit later than usual and that is okay so because it's kind of nice nice to see everybody out enjoying the beach i just really prefer shelling by myself so here we are we're leaving lovers key and man it really is such a beautiful park it is absolutely gorgeous and i think i will be filing this walk under pretty walk and couple of goodies in the meantime some sand dollar well one sand dollar i gave the other one away we have some florida fighting kong some lightning locks couple pieces of coral the scallops the sunray venus the olives broad rib carditas the discolored shells which is kooky and then my favorites which was that beautiful green shark eye the gorinorika and then a couple of those apple mirrors now something is missing from here yup the baby's here it got stuck inside of one of the other shells when i did that last shot so i just want to throw that in there we also got a baby's ear thank you so much for watching and a special thank you to my patreon beach friend supporters you all are total rock stars and i so appreciate your support next week we're headed down to marco island for a low tide excursion and we'll meet a live snail critter that is totally awesome we've never met before so have a great week and i'll see you then