Looking for Seashells After a Storm. Spoiler Alert: It was Amazing!

Hello, beach friends. Today's walk turned into one of those mornings you dream about, but you only get to experience once in a while. For the next 30 minutes or so, you're going to see what happens when a winter cold front moves through southwest Florida and the Gulf decides to rearrange the shoreline. Shells were everywhere. Perfect ones, broken ones, tiny treasures tucked into the wrack line and layers of them stretching down the beach. It was messy. It was generous. And it was so much fun to explore. But right now it's still dark. I got here before the sunrise because the cold front came through last night. And around here, that usually means the beach is going to look very different in the morning. Oh my gosh. So when those strong winds push across the Gulf, they stir up the shallow bottom offshore. And shells that have been sitting out there, sometimes maybe buried in the sand, they get lifted and rolled around. And when the wind direction is just right, it all gets pushed toward the shore and stacked up into a wrack line. That's alive. We can see a little, yeah. So it looks like a big tangled mess of seaweed and shells. It's actually the Gulf spreading out its messiness for me to do a little investigating. Now these are my favorite mornings to show up. I cannot wait to see what all is going to be out here. Oh, this is a perfect first keeper shell. So that is a shark eye moon snail. A fantastic first shell. And I have a feeling there may be a couple more like that. Let's see. What's this? A pear whelk. Yeah, I suspect that's not going to be the only pear whelk I pick up either. So if you're ready to see what all is out here for us today, let's go to the beach. So believe me, I am just as excited as you are. So here is another shark eye because I've already picked one up. I haven't had this experience like a crazy shelling in like, it feels like years. This is more like storm shelling, but in the winter you're not really dealing with hurricanes instruction, which is awesome. Look at that gaudy. Yep. That's great. It's a little dirty and that's fine. So that's a colorful moon snail. And this is just almost overstimulating. Like there is just shells everywhere. So that's alive. That's alive. Yeah. And I'm going to be a little reticent to wash some shells off in the beginning here because it's, if I had to guess, I'm going to say it's about 30 degrees. And I realized that isn't super d- oh, that's a pretty fighting conch. But that's still pretty cold. My hands eventually do start hurting, but not yet. I just got here. I'm still warm and toasty and oh, I cannot wait. Okay. Yep. Big old live horse conch. Yeah. They're little ecosystems, aren't they? All right. Here's an angel wing. Yeah. Yeah. It's terrific. I can, uh, even that out with a nail file. Yep. Yep. I'm actually sorry that I didn't come to the beach sooner. I wish I'd gotten here at like three in the morning. Nice nutmeg. So right now it's probably, uh, I don't know, six, 6.15 in the morning or so. So I will be showing a little bit in the dark. Nice apple murix. Low tide is like 7.30 ish. So I did, and it's going to be negative. So it'll be nice and low for a while. That's going to have a date with bleach, that apple murix. Oh, so this is abandoned tulip and it's one of those orange, orange ones. Oh, cool. So this, yeah, that's got some discoloration. I'm not going to hold onto that. I didn't want to check it out. I want to compare it. That one will show that. Oh, that's so pretty. Let's see. Here you go. All right. So there's a banded tulip. So that's your regular one on the right. And like this, this super orange one on the left. Oh, right. Gorgeous. Living horse conch. Okay. Another nice big old shark eye. It's barely, yeah, I don't find them that size. Hello horsey. You're alive and well. Probably quite cold. Yeah. Wish I had a little blanket to give you. Sorry about that. Okay. Here is a true tulip. Yeah. Oh, wow. Nice color. Gorgeous. Yeah. We'll take that. It's empty. Gorgeous. True tulip and a shark eye. All right. Sun will be coming up eventually. Yeah. I'm going to have this headlamp for a little bit yet. Don't like filming with the headlamp, but it is what it is. The shells are here. I'm here. There's a, the time is of the essence because the tide will come in. And I'll kind of start moving some of these shells around. But for now we got plenty of time. Oh my gosh. And it just goes all as far as the eye can see. Crazy killer rack line. Beautiful apple myrix. Yep. That's a good one. The phylo notice palmum. Oh, beautiful. It's probably alive. Yeah. You know, someone's so I'll close them sometimes and they don't react. I still think that that's alive. I know it's not really reacting. It's rather cold out. I think that's alive. I'm not going to take it. I want to do. I mean, I think that color is great, but yeah, no, we're going to keep to the things that I know really, really are okay to remove. Now that true tulip. Yeah. That's got some sand and whatnot on it, but still a true tulip. Totally fine to take. Oh, oh boy. What do we got here? All right. Another scallop. Yeah. That one too. See, I think that's alive. Oh, fighting conch. Oh, that's beautiful. Yep. You'll do. All right. Fighting conch in the bucket and that beautiful scallop. Yeah. I'm going to put it with this other one that looks more close. Yeah. I think they're alive. Leave those here. I suspect there's plenty of empty things here. Please be empty. Please be. Oh, yes. Yes. Nice. True tulips. We, I guess kind of consider that like a chocolate tulip. Most of the larger ones I've been seeing that size were or have been alive. So yay, an empty one. Nice. Another gorgeous shark eye. Oh, that just delights me. Yep. So that's going to be a true shark eye, not a false shark eye. Lovely. Oh, it's so pretty. All right. Another apple myrix. Look at the size of that lace myrix. Wow. Yeah. They're, um, for at least me for shelling, I don't find lace myrix as much. Look at that. It's almost twice the size of that apple myrix. The apple myrix is a lot more common, at least where I tend to go shelling. Yep. Another one. Look, if they're here, I might as well grab them. Right. So another phylo notice palmum. Oh, there's a lot here. Okay. We have need to check you. Are you empty? Nope. Nope. I'm gonna leave you here. You're alive. That banded tulip. This pear whelk. Oh, wow. Look at the rich color on that. I hope I check out that orange scallop in the background. I know I already see it. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. Close. Yep. Oh, is that him? Yep. Yep. That's sand. Oh, that's terrific. All right. So we have a banded tulip on the right and another true tulip on the left. A little bit of beach stuff that I'll believe me. I'm pretty sure lots of stuff are going in bleach. So yeah, you I wish we'd met sooner. Oh, that's great. Some more tulips. Yeah. All right. Pear whelk. Shoot. Did you see that white, white fighting cock? Yeah. Beautiful. I get really focused on one thing and I don't I don't see anything else. So the only thing I probably saw when I was bending down was that pear whelk. I didn't see anything else. All right, buddy. Let's turn you over. Yeah, there's a lot of sea star. A lot of a lot of everything on the beach this morning. Broken. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Broken, broken. And I don't know why it took me so long to get to the pear whelk. I don't know. But here we go. Well, another one. Look at the color on that one. Oh, that's just great. And another shark eye. So you can see, I mean, there's a lot of like old stuff and newer stuff and it's just stuff everywhere. So even though it might look like old and brown or green or something right next to it could be something absolutely beautiful and pristine. So it's just the way it kind of works with these storms. There's no rhyme or reason. There's just stuff everywhere. It's fun. It's so fun. Hello, shark eye. Yeah, I got my eye on you. Can you believe how many big ones see normally? A shell like that? That would be the hero of my whole day. But I found like what, like four or five of them? Oh, false shark eye. Oh, man. What a fun day. All right. Alive. So that black body is kind of spilling out of that shell. Now we're now the sun is well, it's kind of coming up. I'd like it to get warm, but you can see. Oh, it's so fun. I have not seen a beach like this in a long time. I mean, this is a wrack line. This is the way a wrack line should look. Yeah. Oh, my hands are in. So that is a nutmeg. My brain is going to my hand to move and my hand is barely like, okay, eventually it gets around to it. That is really pretty. Thank you. Seagulls. All right. So we have an empty scallop that I will take. Gorgeous color on that. I wish they would concentrate on the pretty ones. Hey, gulls, while you're at it, just eat the empty, the pretty ones, please. So that's a fighting conch that normally loses that like zigzag pattern as it gets older. It's a little bit like green. I don't care that go in bleach and probably be really, really lovely. Now, this I think this is a blue eyed hermit crab and he's not doing so well. Yeah, that storm can really batter, especially the hermit crabs, because they're just kind of at the whim. Well, all of these shells are. Yeah, come on, son, are at the whim of the waves and wind. And they just you know, they just get placed where they get placed. This is great. Yeah, I'd be terrible to leave that behind. Another apple myrix. Awesome. An alphabet cone. Well, what wonderful shelling day would not be complete without an alphabet cone. Oh, that's awesome. I haven't found an alphabet cone in Cinnabon in a long time. Lovely alphabet cone. Yeah, that is beautiful. And it's still early enough and cold enough. Yes, it was cold enough. It did keep some shellers away. So the very, very serious shellers, they're out. They're all out. Getting some parrots. Oh, well, you know what? I think I can leave that one behind. I think I found what quite a few good ones and I probably found a couple of good apples. No, no, I can leave that one too. All right. That is so pretty. I would love to do this every day. But I think maybe if it was like this every day, it just it obviously it wouldn't be so special. So yeah, pear walk. Awesome. So when these storms come through, it's just oh, it's just so fun. What do we got? All right. Another nutmeg. You are looking good, nutmeg. Nice, hearty, beaded shell. Kind of beaded. Oh, no. OK, so here's a horse conga. Oh, no. The tide's coming in. Yeah. OK, another shark eye. It was just so fun just to be standing among all the shells. Wow. That's actually a really pretty one. Beautiful. It was fun. Very, very fun. A paper fig. And it's actually intact. How? I do not know. They feel delicate. They're kind of light. Yeah, that's a paper fig. When I think paper fig, I do think of Sanibel. Oh, no. Yeah, I better I better shell while the shelling's good. So the tide will be lowest in about 10 minutes and then it's really going to start coming in. So before that happens. OK, here's an alphabet cone. Yeah, I'm sorry. I kind of feel like I'm going quickly, but I want to cover as much wrack line as I can before that tide comes in. So I'll probably only keep half of that. It was really, really cool. Wow. Look at that live horse conga. What else we got? Fighting conga. Yeah. Yep. Even on a day like today, I'm absolutely picking up the fighting congas. Oh, great. That's beautiful. Hello, horsey. You're alive. I'm assuming you're well, probably a little cold. We all are. It's OK. OK. Another Apple Murex. Yeah, this is like it's almost like overstimulating. You don't know where to look, where to. It's they're just it's awesome. All right. Here's an angel wing. Lovely. Oh, yeah. I'm not washing my hands off. There's lots of sand involved here. They're my hands hurt. They're like raw. But I ordered gloves. So if we do get another cold front, which believe it or not, I'm actually hoping for, I'll be all toasty and warm. Now, one of my friends was on the beach. I ran into him and look at this funky shell that he got. So some of these snails are really resilient. So obviously, if this the shell broke and the animal repaired, it kept on going. That's a really neat, neat shell. So that was a lightning walk, as is this. I think we have reached the lightning walk section of the beach. Let's see. Beautiful. Oh, that's great. Very, very sandy. Oh, yeah. Yep. That'll do. That'll do. Isn't it interesting? The colors, too? Why genetics and what they eat is just the way it is. Sounds kind of orange. Very cool. Lightning walks. Nice horse conch. I hope I missed it that the moon snail sitting directly next to it. Never even saw it. Ah, darn you, focus. All right. Well, I can hardly complain, huh? All right. What about you? Are you alive? All right. Right next to that big old horse conch. What about you? All right. You're empty. Lovely. That's a nice size lightning walk, too. Yeah, again, that would be like a hero shell, but that's just one of many. Oh, man, cold front. So the cold front can do that. Storms obviously will do this and cold fronts will do this, too. And believe me, I'm looking at the weather. I'm hoping another one comes through. There's nothing in the future and the weather verse quite yet. Yeah. Oh, no, you're alive. You've got to stay here. But oh, this yeah, this is really fun. So even if it's cold and normally that's the first thing I complained about. But when the shells are like this, I don't care if it's snowing on the beach. I'll work it out. So pear, whelk, apple, murex. All right. Let's do the tide and the temperature check in. So it feels like thirty three. It's a little chilly and it's hot and it's coming back in at this point. And it's so this beautiful rack line is going to get all disturbed. Oh, look at the color on that true tulip. So this rack line is going to go away. How sad is that? I mean, they'll be here for a couple of days. There's an apple murex. Yeah. Hello, pony. All right. Well, you know what? Hopefully that one makes up for the one that I missed before, that big old shark eye. Yep. Beautiful. Oh, that's so pretty. Now the sun is coming up and I can see properly. Oh, and it's a little windy. You can see that. Yep. The wind kind of coming off the surf. And again, normally I would be whining about how cold it is. Not when the beach looks like this. No way, no how. I'll figure it out. I'll bring a tent. I'll wear a heated vest, whatever I got to do. Yeah, I'll probably leave that parawolk. On a day like today, I can be very, very, very picky. Yep. I think this one will be a little better. Oh, that's really pretty. Nice size, too. Beautiful parawolk. Now, how weird is this? So it is a sea star. One of those short spined sea stars. It's it's a sea cross. What? I've seen this once before and it happens. I've actually seen this species with six arms and with five. Obviously, that's the normal. And then with four, it happens. I mean, you awesome little weirdo, you. All right. Paper fig. I'm surprised there's not more critters. I mean, there's like snails we're seeing. That is really pretty. If you like fighting conchs, which I do. Yep. You are beautiful. Maybe it's where I am here on the beach. I mean, I'm seeing a couple of live things. Nope. I'll leave you here. This is a lot of the kind of older stuff mixed in. Ah, so sad. This tide is coming in. This guy was off-roading on the shells, so I just kind of plopped him down. That urchin is probably unalive. That's OK. The birds will have full tummies tonight. And you know what? I've been going on and on. And this is beautiful. So I think it is high time that I be quiet and let you have some beach time. All right. Here we have a live sand dollar and a live horse conch. And you know that I talk a lot about the living critters and I'm all about keeping them safe. So if you happen to see someone injuring or taking live snails, you can report them on Sanibel. It's illegal. You can call the Sanibel non-emergency police at the number on your screen. You can also call the FWC wildlife assistance hotline. Again, the numbers on your screen. Provide them with as much information as you can. Now, if you'd like, you can also use an app. So that is what the app little icon looks like. And then once you're in the app, once you get to the menu, there is a wildlife alert and then the app will walk you through how to report the incidents. And again, you're going to want to give them as much information as possible. Be aware of the surroundings like you're actually reporting a crime. So be very aware of what's going on. And you can also do it via your desktop computer, which would be at my FWC dot com slash wildlife alert. I have the phone number on my phone just so that if something's going on, I can alert people right away. And you might be able to get a reward. I will list all of this information in the description box below. Oh, here we have a trifecta of desire. The horse conch, a big old true tulip and then the lightning welk. Yeah, all alive. Hopefully we'll stay that way until it is time that nature comes and takes its course. Now, here's a buried lightning welk and it's it's it's in there. Now, the sand did not look disturbed around it. And I gave it a little effort. And guess what? That's a keeper. All right. It's not that big, big, big one. But still, I would say that's trophy size. Let me find a little bit, a little bit of water to get some of the sand out of here. Don't take much. All right. Yeah, the sun's up. I'm not freezing. My hands don't hurt as much as they did this morning. Oh, that's wonderful. That's great. Thank you, Sanibel. It's been a bountiful morning. Insane rack line. Gorgeous shells everywhere. Sun is finally out. Yeah, I am one happy camper and a very, very lucky lady. All right, pear welk. Alphabet cone. Somebody else definitely needs that. Yep. We already have one today. Oh, OK. And a little scallop. Yep. That little sunburst kind of orange strike on there. Oh, another moon snail. Wonderful. Yeah, like a Paul Newman. So when the eye is like blue, we call it a Paul Newman shark eye. All right. That horsey made it back into the water. Let's see what's up this way. Yeah. I'm going to jam. My boots are tall enough, at least in that case. You know what? On a day like today, I, I would take my boots off. I wouldn't even care. I mean, I would care. It would be cold, but I'd still do it. All right. That's a broken pear welk. Broken angel wing. This was just incredible. Oh, so sad. The tide's coming in. Now, does that look a little purplish to you? I went through this whole little story over on Patreon. I did a little extra content. This is not the same shell, but that sure does look like a very purplish apple myrix. That is awesome. So two angel wings and a pear welk and a pear tree. OK. Paper fig. Yep. Two angel wings, a pear welk, paper fig. Oh no, there is a tide coming. It sounds wonderful, but I feel the pressure. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So this is a colorful moon snail. It's my second favorite shell after the fighting conch. I think that is absolutely glorious. It's big. It's colorful. Oh, that is so pretty. Gorgeous, colorful moon snail. Empty. All right. We'll take a couple of those empty scallops. Looks like the birds are over here. Wonderful. Yeah, I just can't do it. Yeah. Although technically, I think if. Yep. Yep. That's empty. If you had a saltwater license, you might be able to take the scallops. I'm pretty pro critter, as you know. Lovely apple myrix. All right. OK. That quickly, I'm like, nope. Had beached up. Nope. Keep it moving. Keep it moving. All right. You are alive. Yeah. Place you a little more carefully when I picked you up. Oh, yeah. Tides coming in. Rock lines kind of getting spread out a little bit. What is one to do? Yep. Pass. Yep. Today is not a regular shelling day. This is definitely. That's a scotch bonnet. Oh, I would normally would be really, really happy. I know it's pink and weird. The bleach will take care of that. It's all the it's a dang ecosystem. Oh, man. You know, I probably honestly could get over the barnacles, but those slippers. Yeah. Oh, man. I would really like to see how that shell cleans up, but I'm going to put it back in the water. Yeah. Oh, man. I really want it. But. OK. Yep. Just put it in. OK, good. Just turn around. Walk away. Just walk away. All right. Well, here's a paper fig. It's not a scotch bonnet, but that's OK. It's quite pretty. I'm I suspect I'm going to go home with a couple of pretty shells. You yeah, you are closed. You will not be coming home. You probably won't be either. Yeah. Yep. When they're really great colors, they're usually alive. Take that scallop. Oh, no. Isn't it? It's kind of fun, though, thinking about the impermanence of it, like this crazy morning comes with all these shells and the tide's going to come and just kind of level the playing field again. Yeah. Like I said, I wish I'd gotten here at three in the morning. So this is a smooth duck clam, and the shell actually kind of opens. I'm going to show you in just a second so we can see in that last shot the animal kind of sticking out. And I found a hinged smooth duck clam and we can see that the shell actually kind of bends to let the animal come out. So that animal is likely unalive. But I just wanted to show you that the hinged shell has that little opening in it. Now, this is also hinged and I'm really excited about it. I don't know that I've ever found an egg cockle this pretty. That is beautiful. And the fact that it's hinged. Oh, yeah, that two for one. So that is just beautiful. A painted. No, that's not paint. That's just a regular a common egg cockle. Yeah, you're alive. Lace murrex. All right. Again, not as common. Oh, that is a little chewed up. That's OK. I'm curious what you're going to look like. So let's take you home and put you in bleach. So the horses are kind of getting pushed around now. They'll end up back in the surf at some point. And it wasn't that the water was so cold, it was that the wind when it's 30 degrees and your hands are wet, it just it hurts. Look at this guy. He's wearing shorts. Oh, my gosh. I'm wearing like 40 jackets, high boots. I mean, I am just scarf, hat, all the things, all the things just so I could stay out here and be as comfortable as long as I could. Alive. Yep. Yeah, it was just it was a such a great experience. I'm really glad I gave up my beauty sleep on a Sunday morning, no less. I'm sure that's alive. Yeah. Well, shell envy right there. I want that shell. All right. I'll console myself with this shark eye. That is a false shark eye. That is just fine. Yeah. Calico clam. I have not said calico clam today, did I? Snag one of those. Now we can really see the tides coming in. Oh, yeah. Can you imagine a couple of hours? It's all going to be covered in water like it never happened. All right. So that's another shark eye. Wonderful. Real pretty. Yeah. I like I like moon snails. So today was a great day for those. Look at this. Almost has like a purple hue to it. Right. Isn't that pretty? All right. You lightning. Well, cue sea stars. Let's see. Cross was kind of fun. Let's see. One more apple. Murex, no, a pear whelk. Oh, it's going to be one or the other. All right. We'll take a pear whelk. Oh, isn't that pretty? It's pretty probably alive. Yep. Not coming home. You stay here. Go make more scallops, you pretty thing, you. So, yeah, I don't know that there's much more I could do. I don't know that I'm going to be able to, you know, pick up another apple murex or another pear whelk or another moon snail. I mean, I could, but wow, that was amazing. And believe it or not, there was only a little bit of garbage. So just those two little things added up to 4.95 ounces. And when I add that to the overall total, I've removed a little over 86 pounds of garbage from our beaches. And today I did remove a little bit more than garbage. There is a couple of pear whelks there, a couple of lightning whelks. Wasn't a big range of species. It just was a lot. There's smoothed up clam, buttercup lucine. There's some nutmegs. There's those phylonotus palmum. I must have showed you every single one I picked up. I felt like I picked up like 500. The shark eyes, the scallops. There wasn't that many orange ones, sadly. Maybe I'll go back in a There's some paper figs, Florida fighting conchs all over the place, which is great. There was one little bruised nasa, colorful moon snail, that mussel. And then there was a pearl oyster, the gaudy nautica, the horse conch, the two alphabet cones and that big lace murex. And then we also have this egg cockle and all of those true tulips. So I couldn't pick one favorite shell. The entire experience was unbelievable. I wish I could plan this like just once a year. That's all, like just once a year. That would be amazing. And Patreons, thank you for your support. You're gonna help me buying those gloves. So the next time a cold front does come through, my hands won't be red and raw and miserable. I'll have nice toasty warm gloves. So for things like that and just supporting me, your comments, watching, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. It would be terrible to have a beach that loaded with shells and no one's out there recording it. So I'm happy to be the one that takes it for the team. Next week, we're doing it again. We're going back out the very next day. Once again, it was amazing. I won't leave anything out. I will tell you everything from beginning to end. And until then, I hope you have yourself a great week and I'll see you again next Sunday.