Lover's Key State Park; Beach Walk + Shelling and Sneak Peek at Discovery and Welcome Center!

hello beach friends i hope everyone is looking forward to a really great 2021 and i'll be here each week bringing you to the beach today we're headed over to lovers key to see what kind of goodies are on the beach for us but before we do that we're going to get a sneak peek inside the brand new welcome and discovery center the center is not open to the public yet so we're going to get a behind the scenes peek at this new building over at lovers key state park [Music] [Applause] [Music] lovers key state park is an absolutely gorgeous beach and in addition to making videos that i share with you i like to take pictures like these and post them on my social media accounts i caught the attention of someone from the friends of lovers key which is a 501c non-profit organization that supports the mission of lovers key state park and i was invited to take a tour of the new welcomed in discovery center how can i say no this is the first building to be constructed in a florida state park in the last 20 years so this is some pretty exciting stuff under the building there will be outdoor classrooms complete with a touch tank with plenty of room for furniture and the concrete pilings were also designed to serve as seating as well as mimic the roots of our ever-present mangrove trees which i thought was pretty cool there is also going to be a large manatee statue that will be placed prominently on ground level that will be surrounded by the winding entrance stairway upstairs there will be two main areas but let's start with the exhibit hall which will have a reception area designed to look like an old florida fishing shack as well as state-of-the-art exhibit areas representing the ecosystems and areas within lovers key state park education is a huge part of conservation and the more we learn the more we can help the environment and the critters who live there across the hall upstairs is the other main area the community room this was designed to be a flexible area that will act as an exhibition space and meeting room an indoor classroom or host events and lectures the glass doors can open to enlarge the area and it comes complete with a state-of-the-art audio and visual presentation system this new center will be a short walk from the main parking area and it's going to be an amazing addition to an already amazing state park the grand opening of the welcome and discovery center is still a few months away and i'll put a link in the video description box below if you want to follow progress or plan your next trip here to loversky state park after the tour we headed over to the beach to see if there was any shells left for us at this point it's probably around 10 15 in the morning and we usually get started quite a bit earlier but let's go see what we can find now generally speaking as long as it's warm enough the first thing i do is head straight for the water because it just for me anyway kind of gives me an indication on what kind of couple of hours i'm going to have so i do see some things on the beach so we're definitely going to find some things like this see pearl i'm pretty sure what this guy is called it's just some sort of seed kind of neat here we have a juvenile florida fighting conch he's a little worse for wear but still a shell all right this is a lightning whelk egg casing so assuming there was little viable critters in there they were just little teeny tiny welks in there that's also native known as a mermaid's necklace and this is a button snail his color has kind of gone away but his shape is still there he's kind of a neat looking guy so i'm kind of hustling at this point covering as much beach as i can in order to increase my chances of finding as much goodies as i can all right here we have a horseshoe crab i don't know if this is male or female he is deceased he is no longer with us he's a little guy the males are smaller than the females in a general sense but i still don't know i don't know if that's an immature female or if that's a small guy but my husband wanted them so we're going to take them home all right this is something that's kind of neat you find on the beach now and then does that look like any particular shape to you look familiar at all this is that's actually from a saltwater catfish and they call that a crucifix from a crucifix fish it's just a saltwater catfish but it does look like a crucifix maybe we just have a random random coconut sitting on the beach and an olive probably not glossy and pretty but now nonetheless go ahead and keep that guy and a piece of a shark eye womp womp oh well what else we got all right little worm snail those florida warm snails oh here's a shark eye and oh somebody drilled a hole in him which it could have been the moon snails will drill holes in other moon snails and eat them so when you see a little hole and i talk about snacking that's what i'm talking about something drilled a hole into that critter and eat it here's another worm snail i like those guys that's a fargo worm snail because it's more symmetrical but still just kind of neat and another a little more wild on the bottom there it's still kind of a cool cool little shell cool little trinket so this is the beach of lovers key state park and it's pretty awesome i don't know what else to tell you other than it truly is absolutely beautiful because it is a state park you have zero condos zero hotels it is just you and the beauty of florida so i highly recommend you go and sometimes you'll find little stuff like this just a piece of a sand dollar but they are here we got ourselves a little scallop all right he's in pretty decent shape he's kind of cool with those little white spots on him that's definitely a keeper and an uh oh another scallop but he's a little broken i'll leave him for somebody else and another coconut just it's a random coconut number two on this lovely day all right what else we got okay disc docenia he's attached to his other broken half i'm just going to check them out and leave them oh here we go here's some variable worm snail isn't that weird it's kind of like this rock really really hard pieces it's kind of neat there's a bunch of it on the beach on this particular day hopefully we'll keep finding some goodies what do we got um broken lightning milk and more of those worms rock and okay random coconut number three this must have just rolled here from one of the coconut palms so i found a little bit of a shell pile let's see we'll find anything in here mostly mostly bivalves um yeah i mean there's here i'm sure if i got really down there there is stuff to go through and look at but i'm kind of doing a little bit of a drive by here we have a buttercup blue scene in the pretty he's kind of cool and here we have just another shot of lover's key it almost looks like this surf is gonna it's pushing shells up on the beach i guess we shall see but at least it's not completely wiped clean that's kind of a dismal sign huh all right got ourselves another scallop to me like a base scallop oh they're got cool ridges that's a pretty shell and another base scallop he's missing a little bit of his color but he's still a fine shell okay here we have the skeleton of a sea whip sea whips are actually soft coral and they don't need to live where they can reach sunlight so these guys usually live a little bit deeper in the water i thought that was kind of cool and a calico scallop this guy's kind of cool i'm a bummed it's broken but this is a channeled duck clam also known as a sailor's ear i've started paying more attention to those guys i wish it wasn't broken but i'm sure i'll find another one at some point we'll add that to our repertoire here we have a spiny jewel box he's actually pretty spiny so that is definitely a keeper and this is another example of a spiny jewel box but he's just kind of bumpy all his spines have been worn down same shell though drives me crazy you find two shells same thing and they look totally different all right so here we have some beach glass you guys i've been asked many a time about beach glass it's just garbage i never find anything good that's another lightning egg casing but as far as beach glass is just junk that lady brought her bird to the beach for a walk i thought it was awesome that's what was in that little carrying case and then we just have a piece of coral he's a pretty good hunk i thought that was kind of cool and scallop little calico scallop now this big old hunk is also coral just like that other piece i found and just because it was just kind of this big hunk of coral i decided yep i definitely got to keep that so good thing i didn't find a whole bunch of florida fighting conks at this point because they're heavy so that guy went in my bag um broken banded tulip oh well i got this little guy doesn't look like a bittersweet it's not scallop it kind of look like one of those clams another little calico scallop oh he's pretty and another broken tulip mop but we'll take a peek at this florida fighting con keys a little chewed up a little beat up so we'll leave them because they're heavy they are it's worth it for a pretty one but like this guy he's just a juvenile but he's pretty keep that fine shell all right what do i see rolling around looks like i got myself an olive checking to see if it's glossy or not and what did i get i didn't see it i guess i didn't get it okay another olive i checked just to make sure it could be a golden one never know all right what else we got look i scored myself an alphabet cone all right he's not pristine he's chipped a little looks like he had to repair himself a little bit but he's still a cone all right i'm going for the grab method got myself a broken lightning walk ah but i got this fabulous lettered olive with a shell jammed in it so that's a twofer and here's a giant atlantic cockle but he's just a little guy still he's not quite giant yet and he is alive so we'll just take a peek put him back to become giant and oh man half a lightning walk all right here's a little beat up apple mirrex all right he's a little bit more than beat up but it's still an apple muric some today like today i'm going to keep it and look at this florida cone it's got a little bit of color that's a pretty good find and a juvenile florida fighting conch and another one that's kind of beat up i'm too bad that wasn't albino i'm still looking for that albino florida fighting but not yet so here's another little peek at the beach also a good time for me to remind you if you hadn't haven't subscribed yet i do recommend you do it because i bring it to the beach every week i don't get to show you a cool tour like today every week but i will get you to the beach here we have a little nutmeg it's a sweet little guy here we have a sunray venus and a scallop based gallop but he's got a big old chip in it we'll leave him but well look at this guy all right he's kind of neat because he's got that pinkish and like tan color going on it's relatively clean i'm gonna keep that guy the water was really clear it's too bad there was not more shells in it ah okay here is a broad ribbed cardinal they are also very hardy shells you don't usually see these guys broken you will see them with their color washed out but usually not broken they're pretty hardy here we have another calico scallop of the purple variety it's kind of cool what else we got a little another broad rib cardita see how he's the color's gone but he was still intact what else are we gonna find another spiny jewel box i'm gonna go with no well we found it but we're just not gonna keep it look what yep i didn't want to shot with that black thing in it look at this flat how awesome is that i was so happy it's not broken it's intact isn't that beautiful yay and followed up by this cone that has been beaten up has been eaten but it looks like a boring worm or a sponge or something got at that and then i spied something else i figured i'd come take a look and it's another distasting yeah it looks like i'm going to keep about half because that other piece is broken oh these guys i really like all right it's just a southern quahog but we had talked about this i don't remember if it was last week or the week before when these shells are buried in sand that doesn't have a lot of oxygen the iron that's in the shell turns into iron sulfide and makes it blue and makes them pretty so that makes them special to me and i'm definitely keeping that guy got my own little collection of those blue dyed shells going here we are we've made it all the way up to the end and here's another pass and it looked like there was a tugboat pushing along at a barge i don't quiz me on my ship knowledge because it is quite lacking compared to my shell knowledge but i just thought it was kind of cool seeing this little boat really kind of huffing it to get that other big thing through the channel and here we have a florida fighting conch that looks like it probably encountered a boring sponge at some point the boring sponges create holes they're less than a quarter of an inch in diameter in limestone oysters and shells of mollusks the sponges help recycle calcium for other critters to use so yay sponges here we have another beat up lettered olive oil my husband may put this little collection together for us here's some shark eyes which is kind of cool and some worm snails a piece of an apple muric's and a lace mirex and we got some other got an apple mirex couple worm snails a jingle a couple olives a broken tulip yeah i couldn't find a whole tulip too and one of those little nutmeg so i thought that was kind of a lovely little display and this is what that tree looked like it's really pretty i know it's dead but what the water and the wind does to it just makes it so pretty so if you get there this is all the way on the south end of the island and i mentioned in the past i've been here it wasn't quite this choppy but the water was this ridiculous turquoise color and i said i was gonna go snorkeling well now that i've been here a little while in uh florida uh snorkeling in some sort of channel is probably not the safest thing to do so i'm gonna retract that snorkeling statement i'm gonna go ahead and snorkel somewhere a little bit safer but this is what the south end of the island looked like today a little choppy a little windy probably would be pretty tough to kayak out there it is an active ocean day and here i was trying to get a shot at the periwinkles now in the middle see that that yellow some kind of fuzzy i couldn't get it in focus but i was hoping to see them i found them but they were like buried i couldn't really get a good shot of them to show you guys and i've never found one of these the shells either yet so hopefully one day you find this lightning walk yeah he's got a big old chunk missing and a hole so we were tricked i'll just go ahead and leave it to trick somebody else i guess all right now this i was like what the heck is this because it doesn't look like the variable worm snails it's all straight but it's hard as a rock it's the same color so i didn't know what was going on with this chunk and a broken olive which is too bad because he had this point oh well and okay another one of those worm snails good warm snail day he's got a little bit of color at least kind of cool looks like an elf's hat it's that time of year and yeah barely half of a moon snail oh well a shark eye want womp all right what else we see more of that snail rock a whole bunch of it actually and yeah little lightning milk oh he's pretty he's kind of got that yellow hue going on a pretty little guy and another it's a lightning walk because it's open on the left so you know it's a lightning walk but these are really beat up i'm just gonna leave it and another one okay i think that's a little bit more viable though found a couple things and juvenile florida fighting kong another juvenile flooring fighting and another and that is a lightning look but he is just tiny and not quite intact and a cone all right really beat up though so i'm gonna leave that guy he got a little little scallop and okay yeah there's another base scallop it looks like he's kind of been ovaled off i don't know how else to describe that but i'll leave them this guy i tried to figure out what it was i couldn't i looked in both my shell books i don't know the name of it so i can't look it up on this sanibel museum website so if anybody knows what that guy is if you'd let me know drop me a comment i'd appreciate it because i thought it was kind of cool here we have another scallop that at least know what it is it's a base scallop i think maybe it's calico i'm gonna go with bae and another button snail most of it anyway well about half half of a buttons now okay so then after all this worm snail rock i was finding i found this what which had both the straight and the curly guys i'm like okay what i had found before was the variable worm snail which is kind of cool and they let their surroundings dictate their worm-like structure so that explains why they're different shapes sometimes and here is a lightning walk another beat up shark eye oh well i wonder what got at that guy all the stories they could tell we have another base scallop that's too bad he's a little chipped a little beat up we'll just leave him for somebody else i took one last you sure yeah i'm gonna leave it all right here we have a crown conch and an apple mirex these guys have probably been buried because they look like they're all devoid of that color and this guy kind of looks cool on the inside that's what they look like it's kind of neat don't find them over here all that often and then this guy i didn't keep him and for the first time ever you're going to hear me talk on the beach oh he's so stinky oh yes he smelled bad the first time that's ever happened but i was not taking that home hello birds we have some turns i think those oh the skimmers i've been dying to get a shot of the skimmers actually skimming the water i will i will get there one of these days hi guys and then that is the tram that will take you to and fro the parking lot so if you didn't feel like walking it's not a long walk but if you didn't feel like walking you don't have to you can take a little tram and then back in the distance there you can rent your umbrellas and your chairs so this park has it all it really does it's got beach it's got bike trails it's got walking trails you can rent kayaks i'm going to tell you about that in a minute but it has it all i it's thoroughly worth a visit all right so we're making our way off the beach and here we are we're passing that tram that will conveniently drop you off a little bit closer we usually don't take the trams we usually walk so i couldn't tell you much about the tram experience but it's a lot quicker than walking and if you happen to be here thinking wow wouldn't it be cool to rent a kayak well you're in luck because they do have kayak rentals here actually they have a whole bunch of stuff there isn't all that much i mean like you can rent a bike you can rent a kayak and it kind of here it goes through all the different prices um for half a day one person two people and then it also gives you the prices for the chairs and the umbrellas so everything you need was there including all these fabulous little goodies we got to find today the worm snail the horseshoe crab that honka coral all that variable worm snails which were kind of cool a couple of the scallops jewel box couple nutmegs couple olives and of course the cones and the flat all right that flap probably won so i had so much fun checking out the building going shelling just hanging out on lover's key it's not to be missed truly truly awesome place thank you as always for watching thank you for your support leave me a comment let me know what you thought and guys i'll see you again next sunday