Hunting tiny shells. Tiny package, big thrill!

Hello beach friends. It's low tide and we're headed on over to the iconic Santael Lighthouse on Santael Island. Yes, there it is still standing after 141 years of being in service. Granted, she took some time off after Hurricane Ian, but this beach has many special memories for a lot of people. And I'd like to dedicate this video to caregivers. anyone taking care of a loved one, whether it's a spouse, a partner, a parent, a sister, aunt, uncle, or neighbor. It's hard going through an illness. And it's hard physically as well as emotionally taking care of someone who is ill. So, I'd like to dedicate this video to all you caregivers wherever you may be. Now, this little striate bubble is bringing me a lot of joy because frankly, I'm not supposed to be at the beach. I'm not even supposed to be in Florida right now, but here we are. At least I'm going to get to take advantage of this low tide. And these are conditions, well, frankly, Lighthouse Beach, I just think winel trap. And it's looking pretty win trappy out there. So, that is good. Fingers crossed that we'll find a few. Now, if you're down here anywhere between May and October and you're in the water that's not too deep, but yeah, I don't know, about knee deep or so, you're going to want to shuffle. We do have stingrays down here. And that shuffling is going to alert them to your presence. It just keeps everybody happy and safe. Now, we're going to spend a lot of time looking at this kind of like grit kind of on the beach. This is a dwarf olive, which absolutely delights me. They're not terribly uncommon. I just think it's really fun that there's an olive. There's a sea shell that is so tiny. This you I can't even see. I had to go back and look at the footage. That is a dove snail or dove little dove shell. So, yeah, it's so tiny. The color is what's given that one away. So, we have a little dwarf olive and a little dove shell. And we'll see what else is going to pop up here. Now, there was kind of this fluff. I I don't know what it is. I've seen it before. It's this white stuff. I I I don't know what it is, but it was kind of impeding me looking for the white shells. You have this white fluff and then you have white shells and that the wental traps, which I'll be looking for, are white. Oh, another bubble. So, the bubbles tend to hang out with the wental traps. And I'm like, okay, cool. They got to be here somewhere. Or well, I hope they're here somewhere. And Lighthouse Beach does typically mean smaller shells, and it's summer, so we will be finding a lot of those smaller shells. But people, it was went trap pal lossa. There was one particular little pocket that was so so good to me. So this is going to be a fun fun afternoon. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Okay. So, I haven't actually found a win trap yet. So, I'm still I'm hunting. Here we have little drill. That is a Gulf oyster drill. I know it's not, you know, it's kind of hard to tell. There's a little brown line in there that those drills have. And you know what's funny is like this does kind of look like Bunch Beach, which is close. That's a coina. But on Bunch Beach, I would find coffee malampus, the um ladder horn snails. There's another coina. as well as the what are those little yellow ones? The marginellas. But I don't tend to find those here. And it's just so funny cuz these those beaches are very very close to each other. Then there is a little bit of a scarpment there. When that beach kind of drops down, that's when the wind and the surf kind of act in a certain way and it just kind of makes the beach erode as such. Luckily, not, you know, we it's only it's a small one, not like some of the big big ones you can get on the east coast of Florida. So that is a fighting conchk. I know it doesn't really look like it should be a fighting conchk, right? But yep, that's how they start out. A little bit more delicate than the adult versions of them. That is an apple mir. Almost looks like a rose murix at that size. That's about the right size for a rose mir. But that is an apple mir. Oh, there we go. Oh, look. And there's a little dwarf follow there, too. I was actually looking at a a shell that was kind of buried. I thought it might have been a horse conchk. It still might I can't tell. It's yellow. Oh, well. I haven't seen it till now. But anyway, back to Wental Trap. Oh, is it another one? Yes. Yep. Okay. Woot woot. And that's that's even a little uh dwarf olive, too. Yeah, the Wel traps are tiny teeny tiny little shells. All right, that's a button snail. Oh, just Yeah, the waves. I just wish I could hit pause. There's another one. Awesome. Now, the onelps, they have like little blades on them. That's what I kind of call it. Very sharp, distinct little blades. I don't know what else to call them. A fabulous little lentil trap. Now, if I start doing this, yep, it means there's probably a dolphin out there. And there was indeed. This is likely a male adult. There it is. Yeah, the mommies and the babies tend to hang out together and then once the males get too big and rambunctious, they kind of get booted out of the out of the pod. So, this fella is probably out there looking for a little sushi. Now, the males will typically get larger than the females. The males can grow anywhere between 8 to 13 feet. And they can weigh up to 1,400 lb. They reach sexual maturity between 8 to 13 years, but that really can vary based on its environment and what it's eating at the time. Now, male dolphins do use signature whistles, which are kind of like names, and they recognize and remember the unique whistles of their alliance partners. I don't think this one's made in alliance partners. Sometimes the males will kind of partner up with another male and they're buddies and they will be buddies for life. But this buddy hasn't found one yet. It'll go on the dolphin version of Tinder. Or actually buddy, it would be more of like a friend finder kind of thing. Oh, that is beautiful. So that's another trap. That one had really nice blades. This was a great little honey hole. Yep, there's another one. You see it? Yeah. Now, what had happened was there is a clump of seaweed that's kind of keeping the water very stable for me. So, the seaweed at this point is working in my favor. Oh, yes. Yes. Cuz those are not easy to find anyway. And when the water is moving around, it it makes it that much harder. Still in the same spot now. I definitely missed some. I've I've seen in different shots that I do miss some. Didn't miss that one. But I will tell you, I come back to this exact spot. So hopefully I do kind of eventually pick up all the ones that I missed. There's another one. Super tiny. Oh, this is great. And I did kind of hear other people lamenting that there there's no shells here. And I guess it all depends on what you're looking for cuz I got news for you. There's plenty. Oh, a little out of focus. Sorry about that. Oh yes, that is fantastic. Now, lighthouse beach wasn't always productive for me. Okay, so that is a fly spec Serith or what I like to call an impostor. So that is not a winal trap. Fly specif. And Lighthouse Beach didn't always give me up give me the win traps. I'd always heard that they were here, those in the baby's ears, but never actually found them. But today, that is not the case. Fantastic. Well, there's a lot of them. So, as it turns out, today was the day I had found the most wanted traps ever in one day. So, that kind of worked out. Wonder if you Yeah, I I saw some. I missed some. Well, I found a lot, actually. There's another one. Fantastic. Now, some of them there's a lot of different um species of winel traps that you can find down here. And I yeah, I'm just not that good at it yet. Maybe once I I mean, on a day like today, at least I have a lot of examples. I can see that one seems shorter. It doesn't seem as tall and lanky as some of the other ones. It just kind of And so, yeah, this is that seaweed spot. The spot where the seaweed was helping me out. Go seaweed. Because otherwise, forget about if this, you know, if the tide was kind of pushing this stuff around. Yeah. Be a lot harder to find them. Oh, here's another one, man. Yeah, they're really small. Another fantastic little white treasure. Yeah. And I did check under the seaweed. I mean, people do tell me to do that. And there was really not much there. Oh, I see it. You see it? There it is. And so imagine these little white things with more white fluff kind of around. So I was trying to stay away from the fluff. Just it's just going to be an exercise in frustration. There's so many here. Yay. This is awesome. Oh, I see one. And I think actually I see a second one that I missed. So this one I did get. There was a little tiny tiny one down and to the left, not real far that I think I miss. Oh, who knows? Maybe when I come back, I get it. Yep, I see the aperture there. Yep, totally. Look, they are small. All right, I guess I thought I had found everything there, but I I didn't. That's okay. I'm going to revisit that spot. Yeah. See, like this this is like expert level. Like I trying to find something that is so tiny moving around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what not easy. Like look, sometimes you can snag it. All right. There's a little button shell. Cute little thing. Do you like me a good button shell? They're very pretty. But yeah, by the time you actually see the wentel trap and your brain has recognized it and it's told your arm to move, it's it's it's gone. This is another golf oyster drill. There's just a little piece of shell or something in there. It is empty. Safe to keep. Another golf oyster drill. All right. Little tiny thing. And another Wow. Another went trap. Got traps on the brain. That is fantastic. So fun. So, yep. And we will that is another one. And at the very end, I will let you know exactly how many went traps I ended up finding today. On a really good day, I'll find like five, six maybe. But today blew that completely out of the water. I think by this point, I've already found like a dozen. And it it was really fun. It was. Yeah. So, all the shells that I like can fit in the palm of my hand at this point. And I don't care. I'm still really happy about that. I was hoping that that brown patch was going to be something. All right. This is looking very trappy. H. It's a little bit too much of a, you know, a tide push. Did I get it? No. All right. What about now? Oh, there you go. Yep. Yep. Ah, it's a lentil trap. It's broken. I can So, not out of them, all of them were pristine. Let's see. And another. You know, I was thinking, you know, always in retrospect, not when I was at the beach, as I was editing this, I thought, you know, if I had had like a sifter, it would have been okay to like scoop things up, put it in the sifter, and kind of sift through it. So maybe I'll throw one in my car so if I happen to go rental trap hunting again. Not that I've really needed that much assistance. It was it was a pretty good day for rental traps at Lighthouse Beach. And it's just interesting because the last time I was here, I did find a couple, but it was all baby's ears. I don't know if you watched that episode, I don't know, six weeks ago. I don't know when it was, but there was just tons and tons of babies ears. All right. Did the seaweed. Yeah, it's just not my thing. I mean, sometimes I kick go over like one or two pieces. I'm like, ah, I kind of Yep. go right back to the one trappy looking the coffee grounds. Okay, so I've wrapped around and I'm on the other side of this is where they all of I used to find all of the wel traps in this particular area, but I guess just with the renourishment things have kind of moved around and I'm finding them more in the gulf facing part of the beach. Go figure. Now the tide is going out and will continue to go out. Oh, it's only 83. Lovely. So tide will and that's why I'm here. I really typically only go shelling at low tide. maker. I have a whole new appreciation for this stuff. I figured out how to make some necklaces with that. And if you would like to buy one, I will put a link in the description box below. But that naker is just so beautiful. I'm really happy that I managed to figure out a way to use it. Now, lighthouse beat for summer. Anyway, it was pretty busy here. I'll show you another shot, but there were a lot of people here. All right. There is a little sinister fulgar sinestrm or the lightning welk. Fabulous. Of you know, yeah, we're gonna find tinies. I mean, I've heard people finding big things here. I myself have never ever ever found anything very big here. Oh, a centura hunteria or banded tulip. I'm going to leave that for somebody else. There really were a lot of other people that probably would appreciate that tulip. I'll leave that for them. I'll just stick to the rental traps and anything. What do we got? Speaking of went traps. Oh, there were so many here. I had really good luck. Yep. So, we have another one of those beautiful little white treasures. And another. Okay. Now, not like I'd mentioned earlier, not all of them are intact. Some of them aren't kind of missing their tops. Maybe they're just the blades aren't as um Oh, look at how big this one is. This one's huge. So all different kind of conditions. That one was absolutely massive compared to the other ones. Like you can really see that one. It's just beautiful. It the aperture is broken. And they do get a little bigger. There's a bunch of different like I had mentioned a bunch of different kinds of lentil traps. And just for comparison, so that's the one I just found on the left. And then the smallest one I found that the entire day on the right. So, just to show you just the size comparison, that one I picked up really was massive. Okay, we got a sharkey moon snail. Yep, that is a true sharky moon snail. Lovely. All right, we have another species. What about I suspect the next shell is going to be a wentel trap. Yeah, that's got nice blades on it. And I just kind of ground in a piece of Yeah, it's not a hole. That is just a little piece of that coffee ground material. Yeah, like no way. Yeah, I'm not finding a trap in that. Mm- But I did find this little mystery shell. Don't know what that is. I just I can't tell. Not quite. It's kind sometimes the little ones, there's a lot of them that really look kind of the same. That's a ribbed canththerus. Looks a lot like a either a mauvemouth drill or a um golf oyster drill, but that is a ribbed canththerus. Uh white fluff. Okay. That's probably where all of the remaining wins are. I'll try the dark. Yeah, I'd rather stick to the dark area. You can at least see what you're hunting for. H, let's see. I did see a little dwarf olive. Yeah, the wet traps are here. They're just like even harder to find. Yep. Yep. That one's a little bit broken, too. Yeah. I don't know what that stuff is. Fluff. Beach fluff. All right. A coina. Some buttonshells. All right. That's a coina. That's the other one. A little fighting conchk maybe. Yeah. All right. So, there are, you know, a couple of little shells here. It is slim, though. And that's just the way it is in the summer. As a matter of fact, I've heard everybody from a shelling perspective, it's pretty slow down here right now. That's an Atlantic giant cockal. It's a little a little tiny little thing, but if it were to get big, that would turn into a beach bowl. The Atlantic giant cockal. Oh, that's a banded tulip. Can't really see its bands, but that is what it is. The Centura Hunteria, which it gets its name from I'm not sure about the Centura Hunteria is because that's who found it. Person named Hunter. Now, I do think part of the reason I'm also being so successful is that there really isn't much else here. So, I'm really kind of laser focused on something that's fun to find. And these went traps are fitting the bill. Oh, here's a little welk. This is a little pear welk. It does look like a chneled welk, but we don't get those down here. Those are more in the Carolinas. So, that is a little pear welk. Ah, that is a lace mir. I would have had a very hard time figuring out what that was if I didn't see the reverse side. Kind of looks like an apple, but that is a little lace murix. Okay, another shark eye. Moon snail. Many many kinds of moon snails. I only really find the colorful moon snails and the shark eyes. Every now and then there'll be another random moon snail. I might be able to find milkon snail. I was I say it's got there's no way it's going to be something. It's got to be bigger like a baby's ear. Oh, it's cracked. So, not Yeah, it is definitely cracked. H, for now, I'm going to hang on to it. I can always bring it back to the beach another time. Oh, a sailor's ear. Hey, at least it's another seashell. Also called a channeled duck clam. I They do appear kind of thin. They do feel kind of thin, but they're not quite as hardy as some of the other shells. Now, the chestnut turban, that is a very hardy shell. Not that you can't. They do come broken, but little beaded thing. That's a chestnut turban. I always do say Cabbell has the best scallops, but like I said, today is a little little slim in the shell department. We'll save that for somebody else. So, yeah, there was a lot I mean, all right, it's not necessarily crowded. I could get parking and all, but there were a lot of people out and about, I guess, trying their luck at this whole beachcombing thing. in. I'll tell you what, practice definitely helps. Definitely. All right, that is a yellow prickly cockal. It does have some of that dark discoloration um from being buried. So, I'm going to leave that. Plenty of other people here who might want to appreciate that yellow prickly cockle, but yeah, that's what summer's like here. Hot and kind of slow in the shell department. And that's okay. Look how beautiful this is. I'm going to be quiet and I'm going to let you enjoy some beach time. Heat. Heat. [Music] Another [Music] scallop. Yeah. So, the calico scallops, I do love them here on Santael. They just they're so pretty. Unfortunately, this one has a hole in it. Is it a deal breaker? Ah, I have so many. And there's a lot of people here. So, I'm also going to leave that for somebody else. All right. It there's just not a whole lot here except for wental traps. So, I do think I'm going to go back and see if I can find some more. Oh, okay. Here is a buttercup lucine. Anything with that color angles, spikes. Beautiful. Beautiful. Okay, there's another yellow prickly cockal. Oh, it's nice and yellow, too, with no discoloration. All right, I'm probably going to hold on to that. Swell little cockle. Delightful. All right, I'm going to snag that garbage. And I'm also going to snag this propagule. Now, propagule isn't really just a fancy seed. It's actually a fully developed miniature plant. See the roots there? So, this is from a red mangrove. And so they have prop roots and they have these little arms that come down and they grow those seeds. Now that seed is doing what it's supposed to do. It detaches from the tree into the water or into the soft mud and then it floats horizontally for days or weeks allowing for long distance dispersal and hopefully it'll kind of get stuck. It'll find some suitable conditions to grow. Shallow calm water. You go little mangrove. All right. This is still look, you know, I mean, the conditions look right. They just look extremely difficult. Little bit. And I know the tide is still going out. Yeah, we got a little bit too much of a Oh, another baby's ear. Little bit too much wave action for winal trap for me anyway. A So, the baby's ear is kind of broken. That's okay because when you hold it like so, it's perfect. Hold on to that. Okay. kind of heading back to where I had so much good luck with those lentil traps. I'm glad that I hung out in that little honey hole for a while because there really hasn't been I haven't been very lucky with much else. A couple little things. Yeah, that's summer for you. It's just the way it is. You not And you look, we already know. Hey, I'm doing a heck of a lot better than I did last week over on the east coast. Oh, another little wel trap. Woohoo. Hopefully that's one of the ones I saw earlier. and mist. Cool. There's got to be more here. Yep. Yep. There is. All right. It's broken. It's still fun though. You know what I mean? Like having them is fabulous, but it's the hunt. The hunt is so fun. Look at that little You are tiny. Yeah. Teeny tiny. Yeah, it's a bental trap. That one's again, I'm going to hold on to it anyway for now. That is the beauty of finding these seashells. Anything I want to bring back to the beach, I can just recycle them back here. So, we have another rental trap. It's not pristine. It looks like the top is kind of missing. All right. Right. Now it's just a piece probably of a fly specif that wasn't even wasn't even a wel trap. Just kind of looking at this would be really if it was like noon. Oh man, this would be tough to Oh, two. Oh, dropped one. There it is. So, not just one, two. Many many went. It was a really fabulous win trappy kind of day. Oh, that's terrific. Getting some good practice in. Finding a couple of these seashells. Y there. Yeah, that one's broken, though. I can see. Yeah, it's kind of missing its top. That's okay. You never know. I mean, I might find a use for some broken rental traps. Yeah, another one. Oh, man. How fun. And it's funny, this was the same area that I was in earlier. I didn't look hard enough, though. And apparently nobody else found them either. Crazy, right? Another little white beauty. So, this is fun. Oh, I see the bottom. See the bottom? There it is. Oh man, look at the blades on that. Beautiful. Yeah, it's got a little of that coffee ground stuff in it. That's okay. Soak it in water. They typic that, you know, all it really needs is a good soak in water and most of that stuff kind of comes out. So, at this point, I am starting to lose my light, and I was lucky enough to find a whole handful of those little white beauties. So, my time here at Lighthouse Beach is coming to an end. I was quite delighted. There was at least something there to lift my spirits with all those little treasures. I was trying to feel a little better about a trip I had to cancel to take care of a family member. So caretakers, I really do know the struggle is real. Look at this. So I'm leaving. This is on the Santael Causeway. And I just kind of look look over to my left and I see the sun kind of setting behind the clouds. H I love it here. So I didn't pick up that much garbage, which is nice. It didn't even register. And that's fine because frankly I just want to get the garbage off the beach. And there was a bunch of little treasures. Let's start with there was some button snails. There was channelneled duck clams, bubbles, giant Atlantic cockals. There was a yellow prickly cockal, a buttercup lucine. There were some of those coinas. There was a little mystery shell, banded tulip, lightning welks, pear welks, rice olives or dwarf olives. There's a chestnut turban, a dusky cone, some fighting conchs, that little dove snail. There were some murixs on top, some drills, baby's ear, ribbanththeras, that piece of ner, the shark eyes. Looks like there's a slipper. And then the went traps. There were 40 four zeros. So those three I kind of separated were mostly broken. And then there's just a myriad of other different types. I will try to kind of type them. I will group them into the kind of species I think they are to try to start identifying them because I figure they're so fun to find. I might as well kind of try to tease out and figure out what it is exactly I'm finding. So, caretakers, everybody who watches, and especially my Patreons, thank you so very much. Every week, your support keeps this beach adventure going strong. And whether I'm combing the shore for seashells, chasing that tide, it really does mean the world to me to have you walking alongside me virtually. Anyway, so thank you for keeping the SWF Beach Life channel afloat. Now, I'm not exactly sure. I'm pretty sure we're going to Bodage next week. The weather has been spicy, so I'm really trying to figure out where to go and keep myself safe. So, we'll just have to see. I will do my very best to make it entertaining. And until then, I hope you have a great week, and I will see you again next Sunday.