Come shelling with me and I'll identify everything I find! Keewaydin Island, Florida.

One of the things I love most about shelling is the surprise of it all. You never really know what you're going to find out there. Maybe something simple or maybe something truly incredible hiding just beneath the surface. It actually reminds me of this muddy adventure I went on not too long ago. I found this really muddy shell, but it transformed into this glorious crown And today does remind me a little bit of that experience. Now, I'm going to preface by saying a slow shelling day is better than not shelling at all. But I promise I'm going to show you a real showstopper of a shell. Now, we're on our way to Key Wade right now. And see those blue and pink bands? You all have informed me that those are called kpuscular rays. So, the sun is kind of coming up and light is kind of dancing off different things and you see these kpuscular rays. Oh, that was pretty. So, I had mentioned we are on our way to Kiwaden. I'm on an unguided tour with SWFL Shellg Guide. I will tell you about that in a little while. And because we are now getting into the fall winter time really, the low tides are in the morning now. So, it kind of switches in the summer, the low tides are in the evening, and now we're kind of switching into the morning. So, I may be getting a little less beauty sleep than usual, but that's a okay. No, on this particular day, we are the first ones here on the island. That doesn't always happen, but we on this boat have first crack at Key Wade. The moon is still out. The birds, if I interviewed them, I'm quite sure they would tell me they are happy. And it looks like our first seashell has arrived. This is an angel wing. The larger versions of angel wings are pretty hardy. The smaller ones, I'm going to put that small one in my delicates container. The light is still a little low. My camera is struggling just a little bit. So, there's all my other friends from the boat. Now, here is the shell pile that typically I'm not going to spend a lot of time here. These shells are going to be here. So, I'm going to go off and kind of try to take advantage of the low tide as much as I can. And today, we're going to find so many fun things. There's going to be a bunch of critters. I hope you like the critters. And then, of course, there will be the seashells. And I'll do my hardest to find really fun, fantastic shells. We'll talk about freak shells. We're going to talk about a show that I don't get to keep and a showstopper once we get that cleaned up. So, if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Now, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If you are looking for the bigger shells, they are typically in deeper water. That's not necessarily what I'm doing. There are some islands I'm kind of trying to get to. This does kind of illustrate my point. The bigger shells, well, clearly they're easier to kind of like pluck off the beach. So, you know, they're probably going to be in the water. So, the tide is going out right now. You can see it's like rushing out and it's not even that warm out. It's 76°. Well, for me, but the tide will switch quickly. Here's a live lettered olive. And the pointy part is the back of the shell. And that's the front, the anterior part. So that's where the critter would come out and we'll see a couple of those. And not surprising again low tide is my favorite when one you can find the shells a little bit easier and sometimes you get those critter experiences. Right here's a fighting conchk. Does happen to be my favorite shell. So even though some people literally don't even pick them up anymore. Yep, there's me. It's my favorite. So that is a fighting conchk. And then look at here. So that's a parel and it has an inhabitant. So that well you're not going to see it. It's a blueeyed hermit crab. So it will come out just briefly. You'll see its little eyeballs. There it is. And I don't think it's very happy that I'm holding it. It's Yeah. Oh, it's gorgeous. I haven't seen one of these hermit crabs in quite a while. And they all seem to do that flipping thing. They kind of come out. Go in. I'm sure it's it's trying to dislodge me. It's probably one of the things that they do to try to get me off a shell. Yeah, probably a good idea for me to I'm going to switch the way I'm holding the shell. And here we go. To ensure I don't get a little pinch from this gorgeous creature. So, I had mentioned I think I'd mentioned that is a parwel. And there's other slipper snails. There's an anemone on the shell. There's some other kind of things going on. Look at that critter. It wouldn't stay still long enough. I did want you to kind of get it. And it's got like little legs all the way back down its body to help it stay inside the shell. Now, there's an anemone right below its front claws there. And what else is there? I do see the eastern slipper snails. There's some a couple of barnacles. So, it has lots of friends. It's like a little apartment and it has some roommates, but he's not, you know. All right. I'm going to stop torturing you. Poor thing. Okay. Thank you so much. We just wanted to say hi. Yep. There's some of those other things hanging out on the shell. Anemone slipper shell. All right, there you go, friend. So, that was a blueeyed hermit crab. That was exciting. I haven't seen one in a very long time. And I know it seems like Look at I'm really far from Key Waden right now, but the water is quite shallow. And Yeah. Yeah. That's where the big shells are typically going to be. It's just one of those things. The bigger one. Not always. I mean, it's not a hard and fast rule. I'm going to say 90% of the time if you're looking for those bigger shells, you're going to have to get out in the water. Every now and then you kind of trip over one by accident and it's happened to me a couple of times. Oh, it's a fighting conchk. Yeah. Alive and well. Do you want to say hi? So that is a live fighting conchk. Technically it's called a West Indian fighting conchk. And it is adult because I can see it's strong boy notch. Didn't really want to come out and play. So I'll just leave it alone. Let's creep around. The goal is shells, but if I happen to see any other critters or anything else, that is always a fun encounter. Now, I had mentioned I'm here with SWFL Shell Guide on the Unguided tour. Now, I don't need a guide anymore. I do love Shelling with Ally, but I can kind of, you know, manage on my own. If you really wanted a little bit of help finding shells, or frankly, I just even on this tour, she emailed everyone and said, "Hey, if you're looking to shells, these are where we're finding them. If you want to snorkel, snorkel over here." So, she does care even about your unguided tours. I can't promise she's always going to give tips like that, but she really tries her hardest, which is why I anytime I show Marco Island down in the 10,000 islands or Q8 and I go out with Ally with SWFL Shell Guide and I will put a link in the description box below. Okay, we see some of those zigzags in the sand. Looking at a live lettered olive. Oh, isn't that fun how quickly the waves just kind of cover them up? So, those are lettered olives. Yep. creeping along. What else we got? Sand dollar. So that little circular thing, that is a living sand dollar. And so is that. So here we also have a sand dollar. We'll see those little hairs obviously on its little keyhole. We can see it kind of moving around. And on the very bottom of it too, we can see those little hairs and that helps it kind of move around. They're so cool. Yeah, they're kind of furry almost like they they call almost like a velvety kind of texture to the um to the animal when it's alive. Yeah, I think they're swell. That's a living sand dollar. Those are an urchin. It's a very flat urchin, so they're related. Okay, what else is out here? Oh, another lettered olive. Oh, and it's a little tiny one. Check this out. Come on, little critter. You could see it. Oh, I felt bad. I wanted to put it back in the Yeah, here you go. Very active little lettered olive. And it's just they are f Well, for a snail, they're pretty fast. There it goes. It'll bury itself. And they kind of have like a their body will wrap around its shell. Kind of protects it. There's another olive. There's another olive. Those are fun. Terrible sense of direction those olives. I'll tell you there's like all over the place. There's a sand dollar. Probably got directions from an olive. Come on, bud. I'm sure you're going to be fine. It I' I'm just going to move you anyway. Here you go. All right. So, a little Uber for this little sand dollar and see what else is out here other than birds, sand dollars, and live lettered olives and hermit crabs. I guess this is the critter portion of the video. We'll move to the shell se. Well, I'm trying. I am trying to make this the shell portion of the video. But you know what? A slow day of shelling is still better than not shelling at all. There we go. Now, that is a big lightning. Well, I can see it's alive. Yeah, that is cool. Yeah, that little black that's the animal. So, I am just I'm going to leave it alone. But I'll show you here. Let me stick my hand down. I'll show you how big it is. That is a big female. So the females are the ones that get really big. They need that energy to make the eggs. I guess soon couple months. I mean this I'm shooting this like midocctober. A couple months we'll start seeing some of the egg casings show up. Yep. There's key waiting all the way over there. So over kind of on the sandbar, but yeah. I mean I've come over here and found lots of cones which is really what I was hoping for but not today. It's been like more of the critter experiences. That's okay. Another olive. you going to do anything? It's kind of like poked up. I have this really cool video of this. That's it. Okay. All right. I was hoping Yeah. All right. Fine. I do love, you know, recording kind of seen them move around and stuff. There's another sand dollar. And you're fine. The water's right there. All right. Let's see what else is out there. Okay. Here's another living lightning welk. the sinister fulgar sinestrum. I love when I see his little little rabbit ears, his little antennas. And is that a It looks like a cone, doesn't it? And it Yeah, it's a That's a fighting conchk. You tricked me. H those couple inches of water can sure make anything look pretty. Yep. Yep. That one, too. Fighting conchk. Water tricked me. Hey, you know what, though? I I check out a lot of shells that I don't keep, but you just you just don't know. And you are an Atlantic giant cockle. And you also have some beach stuff, so I'll probably also leave that here. But still lots of shells. You know me, I'm a little picky. But what do we have here? All right. All right. Oh, now we're talking. Now, here's the thing. At the time, I had no idea how it was going to clean up. So, I'm excited about it. I am. Look at the size of that. Isn't that cool? And I see some I mean, I can tell it's like the colors kind of fading there, but the inside is like perfect. So, but I don't know if it's a little bit pitted. I can't tell. But I'm s I'm really really happy with that. Look at the horns on it, too. It's kind of got like spikes on it. So, that's a lightning welk. And I cannot wait to get home and clean that up. Oh. Oh, it's pretty. But I just I don't know what's in store for me. Yeah. So, I'm happy with that lightning walk, but I got news for you. It's going to clean up spectacularly, and I'm going to show you that at the end of the video. What? I'm guessing Apple Mirix. That's exactly what that is. All right. It's got Yep. There's beach stuff on there. That's fine. 100% bleach will for the most part make all that stuff very easy to kind of pick off. All right. Empty. Yeah. And very pointy. Yeah. I like the pointy lettered olives. That's awesome. Right. At least this one's empty. There's no critter in there. Perfectly safe to collect. It's one of those things that just only take empty shells. You only take empty ones. So something like that that's going to have to stay here. Clearly not empty. We got an apartment of sea creatures here. And this So, this is another blue-eyed hermit crab. It's a different one because this is a lightning welk. That first shell we picked up was a parel. Maybe they're friends. They're out scavengering, looking for apartments. I don't know what they're doing, but it does see again that kind of like flipping action. Oh, I just think they're so cool. Now, this seemed pretty determined to uh pinch me or get me off its shell. So, I want to just change up the way I'm holding it real quick. Yeah, I've kind of been pressing my luck, I think, with these guys. I haven't get gotten pinched yet, but thank you. Oh, you're awesome. All right. Thanks, blue-eyed hermit crab. Did you go off to your hermit crab thing? All right, we have an empty seashell. Fantastic. All right, that's a paper fig. I did find a live one only once down off the south beach of Marco only one time. Very beautiful animal. I'd love to find another live one hopefully one of these days. All right, so yep, just wandering around this sandbar. And uh I think I'm think at this point I'm going to make my way over to the island to see what else might be over there. All right, that is a sunray Venus clam. One of the two fancy clams I like. Yeah, I know they're kind of common, but I still think they're kind of fun. Summary Venus clam. Oh, you are pretty. So, that's a fighting cockch. And that actually reminds me of the one that I have that sits on my desk every single day. So, this is the one that I have on my desk. I look at Yeah, it I know it's got like a little damage in it, but it repaired itself and it's got a great stroboid knot. I just love that shell. So, yeah, looks like I got myself a second one. Oh, an ecosystem. All right, there's all sorts of stuff going on here. So, we got some barnacles. Clearly, the slippers. Yeah, there's like goo. Oh, those are some of the eastern white slipper snails. And you know what? There's a kitan on here. I miss it though. Where is it? See it on the other edge of the right there. Ah, I didn't see it at the time. I wish I had. I think there might be an oyster on there, too. So, yeah, there's all sorts of all sorts of uses for these seashells. What else we got? Okay, there's a piece of Atlantic giant cockal and another fighting conchk. I don't keep them all. I really I check out almost all of them, but I don't keep them all. That's just a broken piece. Broken piece of a fighting conchk. Just kind of cool. This looks like almost I don't know just broken and neat. So I kept it. I saw spots. Yes. And it's empty. It's perfect. Yay. So that's what I wanted. I wanted some cones. I got myself a cone. One is fine. That's cool. Just one is enough. Alphabet cone. Fantastic. Has a little bit of that perostricum. The black on the back of it. Come right off with bleach. Okay. Shark guy. Well, almost. Yeah. 50% of a shark eye. Looks like it's uh not a Paul Newman one. Yeah. The Paul Newmans will have the very center will be a blue. Yeah. So, it was it was a little slim, you know, like I really really had to hunt, but it's okay because I have that other big big old shell I can't wait to clean. So, yep. Still kind of out in the water. Oh, pretty. It's like calico scallop. It's lovely. Yep. I like the bright colors. That's I mean that's pretty typical, but still very pretty. What do we got here? Oh, just a piece. So, that's a piece of a true tulip. And I'm going to keep that. I just like the color. I don't know. What am I going to do with it? I have no idea. I'll figure it out some other time. That's a problem for another time. Now, I know I I'm terrible. I don't pick up a like the really common stuff like this penshell. So this is a saw to penshell. Yep. Penshells make that mother of pearl that naker. Fun. So yeah, they have we have a couple of them. This is one of the three that we have. That's a saw to pen shell. I'm still looking for the amber pen shell. I haven't found one of those yet. And piece of a moon snail. Piece of a fighting conk. Oh, okay. So, let's talk about this for a second. This is a lightning welk and it's got two tails. I mean, what it obviously something happened to it and it was like, you know what? I'm going to change my mind. I'm going to go ahead and grow straight. So, shells that are kind of like this, we call them freak shells in the most kind and wonderful way. Not in a bad way. That would be a freak shell, but in a good way. Now, Ally suggested we bring pictures or anything that you might be able to kind of make the surface of the water flat so you can see. And using that picture, I did manage to get this alphabet cone. So, there are all sorts of tricks and tools you can use to kind of help you find the shells. Um, yeah, there's bigger thing. I'm trying to carry everything with me. So, I just had the picture it. It did help a little. That's a funny looking moon snail. So, that is a shark eyee moon snail. A false shark eye. And the color is just kind of funny. Kind of white. It's pretty. And it's also got that red. Yeah, it's pretty. All right. So, clearly sun is coming up. We got more people here. So, I'm going to mosey along. I've been spending all my time out in the water. Maybe here in the beach. All right. There's a jingle. This is where the shells are hiding. Okay. Banded tulip. And it looks like on the bottom there is a fighting That banded tulip. It's bands are kind of Hey, look. And it's a it's a little bit slow. So, it's it's a great sea shell. So, fighting banded tulip, and a jingle. Oh, hello worm snail. Oh, my fingers are getting Yeah, been out in the water. I better hurry up and do it now cuz once it start, you know, the weather's going to turn and I'm not getting in the water at all for months. But that's a worm snail. There we go. Just sitting there. So, that's a little true tulip. We found a piece of one almost exactly that color. That's terrific. I know it's little. Perfect. Pocketsize true tulip. So, this is fun. You know what? I am going to meander up the beach a little bit. And in the meantime, I'm going to be quiet and let you all have some beach time. [Applause] All right, here's another banded tulip. Yeah, that looks a little bit better than the other one I'd picked up. You can actually see kind of all the bands. You know what? Let's compare this to the true tulip side by side and see how those kind of compare. Oh, silly me. That's not a true tulip. That's that big lightning welk I got that I'm dying to go home and clean up. All right. Seriously, I'll switch it out. So, that is the banded tulip on the left and the true tulip on the right. And I mean, the shape I know it's almost identical. The true tulips get a lot bigger. They're more rare. The banded tulips, they're pretty much diamond dozen. They're still awesome. I really kind of like them. So, banded tulip on the left and true tulip on the right. We found that's a little one. We did find one of those phonotus pom shells or apple murix. So, all of these shells I usually call them the common names. They all have scientific names. I know like three h maybe four or five. That's a actually that's a nice apple mir. So, that's a phyonotus pom along with its centuryia. So, those are the scientific names of those two. Now, that I think is a scallop from like one of the flats because it's umbbo like the the shape of it. It's very bulbous. That I don't think that that is a base scallop or a calico scallop. And okay, that's an apple mir. It's been hugged by the beach a whole bunch. Now, this someone came up to me and said, "Do you know what this is?" And I'm like, "Holy mackerel, that is a juvenile milk conchk. Can I record that, please?" So, this is not my shell, but I got to hold it and I got to identify it for someone. So cool, right? That's a very very unusual find for Kiwen. Cool. Cool shell. This is a cool shell. Not terribly, you know, not not quite as cool as the juvenile milk conchk, but it's a turkey wing and it's got those really nice radial ribs on it. This is a tinted canththerris. Not in the best shape. I still just like checking them out, though. So, yeah, that's a tinted canthther. I'm a little more partial to the ribbed canththerris shells myself. All right. Florida prickly cockle. I like this one cuz there's a little yellow in addition to that like sherbet color in the purple. Yeah. Florida prickly cockle. Oh, and a buttercup lucine. Delightful. There's many lucines, but that one happens to be of the buttercup variety. So, buttercup lucine. All right. Another one of those banded tool. Oh. Oh, there's a couple here. So, I did see a colorful. All right. So, let's start with that. That is another one of those fancy clams. That is a calico clam. Almost always that brown. Sometimes a little bit of purple on the reverse. Love colorful moon snails or goddas. So, that also has two names, neither of which are scientific. So, those are Yep. colorful moon snail. Super easy to remember. And then we've talked about the bandit tulip a couple times. the Cura Hunteria. Delightful. So, at least we're finding a couple. It's a little bit slow, but I'm still having a great time. I don't really care, you know. I got one apple. I mean, I'm sorry. I got two alphabet cones. I'm I'm totally happy with that. Got to see all those critters. Yep. This is fantastic. Wonderful. And the weather's starting to turn, so it's not quite as hot. There's a kitten paw. Weird little shell. That one's totally weird. Love it. See, kitten paws, they will be all kind of They're all about the same size, but sometimes they're just different shapes. Oh, a spotted slipper snail. So, I don't say I don't pick up slipper snails. I actually typically don't, but I do like the spotted ones. So, that is a spotted slipper snail. Oh, and my favorite little weirdo shell. There's nothing. It's a mossy arc. That's the way they're supposed to look. just kind of misshapen, but that's Nope. That's the way they're supposed to be. Yeah. Kind of look like a the weird I call it the weird cousin of the turkey wing. So, that's the last shell of the day. The little mossy arc. Well, that was fun. Again, it was a little slow. It's We're waiting for northwest winds to kind of kick in. So, hopefully as the fall marches on, the cool weather comes in and those other winds kind of come in, the shells will kind of get pushed onto the beach. Now, as far as garbage, there was only one cute little piece of garbage today. I didn't know what it was. And oh, look at that. So, it's part of a lure. I thought it was adorable. I'm actually going to keep it, but it was very light. It only weighed.35 oz. So, today it was only.35 ounces of garbage I've removed, but in total, I've removed a little over 83 lbs. Getting closer and closer to that 100 lb mark. Now, here's the haul. So there were a couple of the lightning welks, that angel wing, the buttercup lucine, and some naker. A turkey one, some mossy arcs, the colorful wound snail, the shark eye, that kitten paw, a lettered olive, Florida prickly cockal, some apple murks, the banded tulips. There's a sunray Venus clams plural. Then there is worm snails, giant Atlantic cockals, a couple of calico scallops. All right, I did. Yeah, did did some damage on the fighting conchs, too, cuz I like them. And then the calico clams. little pieces on top. But my favorites were that very pretty fighting conchk, the freak lightning welk, that big lightning welk, the two cones, and then that true tulip. Now, I had no idea. So, I put the lightning welk into bleach, and then I look at it the next day and my mind goes, it's gorgeous. It is now my favorite lightning welk for a shell that's kind of this big. It's got a lot of color. I've only bleached it at this point. So, theoretically, I could go back and either dip it, which I probably won't, or maybe oil it, which I probably will. But this, look at those spikes on it, like those little horns. Muff. So, that right now, my favorite lightning walk in my entire collection. So, for me, super super exciting. And I had no idea. It was like the surprises that just keep on giving. Patreons, you also, speaking of giving, thank you. Thank you so much for choosing to support me, for coming along each week. I am having a ball going out there and sharing my little escapades and all the things that I'm learning along the way. So, thank you. I Words can't convey my thanks. They can't, but I'll try. Thank you so very much. Now, next week, I have a great time. And guess what? We're back at Key Waden, but I came with the Hemingway shuttle. I did kind of want to compare what happens when I come private first thing on Key Wade and what happens when I come with 40 of my closest friends on the Hemingway shuttle. So, we're going to find out about that next week. Until then, I hope you have yourself a great week and I'll see you again next Sunday.