What if there are no shells? Change locations, look harder but stay happy!

Hello beach friends. This morning I came out to the beach on Captiva with a bit of a goal in mind. I've been wanting to explore some new shelling spots lately. Now the only small detail required for that plan of course is that there actually needs to be shells. At first glance the stretch of beach looks a little quiet in that department and I really didn't want to make a video about sand so I decided to leave, save my 40 dollars and go to a different beach. Now this is Turner Beach. This is still on Captiva. Like I said I really wanted to go somewhere new. So earlier this is the island of Captiva. I had stopped here and it didn't look like there was all that much so I traveled down to here and then there that's also blind pass Sanibel. So Sanibel is just over the water. Just arrived here at Turner Beach. Fingers crossed there is a pile of rocks that sometimes there can be a little shell pile and that is not the case this morning. So it's going to be one of those days. So I'm going to go down and check out this massive sandbar. That device we see in the sand there that is to measure the height of the water should there ever be another storm. We'll know exactly how high the water is. Yay. All right so the sun is coming up. I'm glad I got out here early enough. So I'm at my second location. Let's see what all is here. Now the tide is coming in. That's okay it's still negative at this point so I got plenty of time. But is there going to be any shells here? Let's see. So here's a little smattering. Here let's zoom in. Yeah we're looking at like broken stuff. Kitten paws. Slippers. They're fine. I'm looking for something just a little bit more exciting than that. But not to worry. If you know me I try to find anything that's going to be interesting that we can talk about. Colorful. Small. Big. And of course if there's critters well we're going to talk about that too. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today let's go to the beach. Okay well here's a species I can identify. This well frankly I can identify a lot of species but this is a coquina. Lovely. They have a nice strong hinge so not uncommon to find those attached like that. Little butterflies. Little butterfly shells. All right well it's looking a little little slim here. Here is a calico clam complete with a drill hole. So I find that to be a little bit more special. Yep somebody drilled a hole in there so we have a calico clam. Oh we can see the crepuscular rays of the sun kind of coming up. Bunch of other shellers here so I'm not alone in this little hunt. And I do mean little. Yep okay so I'm still on kind of like that massive sandbar. Actually the sandbar yeah it didn't used to be here. A lot of sand was put back on Captiva. I think it actually ended up here. And look a painted egg cockle. Kind of like that same stuff I was finding over on Lover's Key that also had like renourished sand. So just just interesting. Heck I'll take anything. Yeah it's still looking slim but you never know. Captiva can surprise you. So we'll just have to see. So again looking very flat but if you know me I'm kind of determined. So we are gonna find something. It's a kitten paws. A lady-in-waiting venus clam. A lot of kitten paws frankly. So a little bit of this. A little bit of that. So that was probably the most exciting little patch of shells I've seen. Yeah I don't know I might I might be uh relocating again. We'll just let me see. Okay here's a close-up of the lady-in-waiting venus clam. I those are beautiful. Purpuria I know it's something purpuria is the uh scientific name with a something with a purple on the inside. Really pretty. Yeah mostly crushed up stuff here. Okay but you know it's just one of oh wait see here so this is a flat and this would be one of the things that I absolutely would stay here for. So this is kind of giving me that you know come on hang out here Charmin. Maybe there'll be one or two good really great specimens kind of thrown on the beach for you. So yeah it's making it a little harder to leave so I'm not really sure what to do. Maybe I'll just pick my head up and enjoy the view. So we don't get over to Captiva very much um doesn't you know there's looks like sand beach. Not many people here because there's only there's like almost no access to Captiva. You can really from public standpoint you can only park where I parked at Turner and where I parked at Allison Hangerup and well I didn't actually park there. I really just kind of did a quick scouting mission and you know what yeah I'm gonna call it. This is not what I consider fun just kind of hoping something turns up. So I'm gonna relocate again once again and hopefully we'll have a little bit better luck. So this time I decided that Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel. Yes finally I made it from you know mid-island Captiva to the end of Sanibel and you know what to heck with it. I'm over here at Lighthouse Beach. When my fingers crossed the tide is still low. So it was lower enough look more crepuscular rays. The tide was low enough for me to literally hit three different locations but I'm gonna stick it out here. So hopefully I've chosen wisely. All right there's a little okay great at least there's a little bit here. Oh would you look at that. Now if that's not a sign of the beach welcoming me saying here you go sweet pea. I know the other beaches were stingy but have a baby's ear. Then this is the sign I would want. So yeah we are definitely going to stay here. That baby ear baby's ear is a great sign. There's stuff here. It's going to be smaller but do not do not the small is great. Look another baby's ear. As a matter of fact one of my favorite shells to find the Winteltrap hopefully will be here. So that's another baby's ear finally. Yep rinse that off. Okay much better. All right so now the hunt is on. Okay I do see that a lot. That is parchment tube worm tubes. So they're little worms and when they are unalive their little casings kind of wash up on the beach. I'm just used to seeing it. So this is also what you see on the beach so and the seaweed. So that's what's kind of I'm tiptoeing around seaweed and some of those tube worm casings. That is a pear whelk. Yay an intact seashell. Very exciting and a bubble. Two bubbles. Now you know what first of all I think bubbles I think I want to go to the east coast and find giant ones. The second one I think is if I start seeing some coffee grounds maybe it's time to look for Winteltraps. So I will be looking for Winteltraps. This could very well be one of those videos where you're pointing out you missed a shell here you missed a shell there. I'm used to it at this point so that's fine. This is an albino prickly cockle. Not terribly uncommon just super duper cool. It's one of the more common albino shells that you can find. Love a good prickly cockle. So yeah a very special albino prickly cockle. Florida prickly cockle. Now that's the regular colored one which are awesome. Maybe that's why I like them just I love the color. So yep so that's your regular species but again you get oh they have a nice hinge too. So yeah not not too hard to find them hinged. All right a little shark eye a little shark eye moon snail. Oh dear well it probably had a drill hole and then that just kind of got worn away into a larger drill hole. Yeah that's okay it's an intact seashell so that's great. I'm gonna hold on to that. An apple murix. All right that's a decent looking shell. Your phylonotus palmum. Yep lovely and a scallop. Sanibel does have fantastic scallops complete with beach stuff. You know the more I collect the less I'm willing to deal with beach stuff but uh oh look at that color on the crossbarred venus clam. Hmm yeah because I just I do collect a lot and you can't get rid of um the beach stuff with bleach. Here's a button snail lovely oh yeah they're cute little button snails don't get much bigger than that. But yeah I'm finding as my collecting is getting more refined another baby's here. I do like a good project but I don't know then just those shells that kind of have some stuff on them I might start leaving them. But that baby's ear is definitely coming home with me beautiful. Look at this mess it's awesome. What do I see? Oh a baby's ear. You know it pays to know the shape of the shell um the underside and the top side. Baby's ears this species happens to be one of those shells that I think I find actually more upside down than I do right side up. I love them though absolutely love them. All right a bunch of those white dystocene is another baby's ear. I'm not even gonna see the oh my gosh two of them. Oh it's a good baby's ear day probably not as good as that other day I had here. Look at the size of that oh that's fantastic fantastic. Yeah I would definitely rather pick up baby's ears all morning than kind of look at busted up kitten paws and hope hope something else kind of appears. This is way more fun uh-oh pretty oh man the really colorful part of it is the one with all the beach stuff on it. Yep beautiful little uh calico scallop and both of the valves will be different they're they're not the same. And paper fig there we go that's one that's more intact. Yeah lovely they are I don't think look as light as they feel but they really feel delicate. So that is a paper fig wow that's a lot of seaweed and some of those um tube worm casings. I think this what I'm holding is a smooth duck clam not to be confused with the channeled duck clam. So yeah it's got that little like benty part on the left likely oh dolphin likely where the animal kind of like comes out of its shell. That's right this morning the dolphins were playing. So we have bottlenose dolphins down here oh there's weather out in the distance and um they don't really migrate we have a community of dolphins that just hang out here. So yeah anytime I see people standing on the beach with their phones pointing out at the ocean I know there's a dolphin there. Another paper fig very nice yeah they got some nice color. I've only found one live animal the paper fig they're gorgeous absolutely gorgeous maybe one of these days we'll find another. Oh there's a juvenile fighting conch little drill hole and little oh look it's had a little freckle like a little um error for lack of a better term a little thing on it cool a little fighting conch. There's the dolphins yeah I was curious how they see the water was so murky and I was curious as how they find their fish and yeah I don't know but it's always did you see that flip out there I think there was a little juvenile guy let's watch it again flip oh that's awesome just seeing them out there being fun and oh it's great yep there must have been a little juvenile out there just having a good old time that is it's really magical it's absolutely magical like this is where the dolphins are supposed to be you know out in the wild that we get to experience that so that dolphin is fishing it's pushing the fish into the more shallow water slapping its tail around hoping to stun it and then go back and gobble it up so it's cool I love seeing that I do try to kind of keep my distance I don't walk into the water in case they do that they're not going to care I'm going to end up with a broken ankle so I'm just I've never heard that happen I'm just being dramatic but I don't I stay I don't try to pet the dolphins we'll just leave it at that egg cockle oh cool so that not to be confused with the painted egg cockle that's just regular a common egg cockle so that's the painted egg cockle there in the left they're much smaller whereas this bigger common egg cockle is a little bit bigger very nice oh look how adorable so that is a juvenile florida prickly cockle not to be confused with the yellow prickly cockle and here's another calico scallop some gunk on it that's okay yeah that's fine see a couple of lovely bivalves nice bunch of color again fantastic oh speaking of color here wow that is very buttery a very buttery buttercup lucine oh yeah they're really really colorful ones yeah they get me they're awesome all right okay I'm looking at the grit you know what that means well maybe you don't it means I'm probably going to start looking for wenzel traps at some point let's see nope obviously it had rained here let's see apple mirror yeah that's right oh it's worn really pretty though but I'm gonna leave that definitely would rather comb through like a mess like this than just have just like a flat beach there is a lace murix aww and the little tail the bottom is broken but it's still a lace murix fun shell look at all the bubbles whoa there's a bubble inside the shark eye so yeah another little moon snail fantastic wow holy bubbles batman that's a lot of bubbles and then when I do this I kind of try to ignore the bubbles and see if there's something else there I'm not always successful all right there is a little all right little fighting conch oh it's so fun like a game oh a little coquina gorgeous they have they're called variable coquinas because their colors are all different they can be yellow purple blue all different colors what's that all right an apple murix not a bubble yep probably not gonna keep that but it's a beat-up horse conch that yellow that orangey shell there all right now this is really looking wenzel trappy oh there we go there we go I cannot tell you why I absolutely love I think because it's such a challenge for me maybe one day I'll get really good at it or maybe not maybe because they're so small it's always going to be a challenge but I love hunting wenzel traps now for me this is not ideal conditions I can find them in the water pretty easily but finding them on the beach like I just I don't know where to look I know the coffee grounds I get it the bubbles so like I know they're here but I just like where do you look anywhere everywhere again when I'm in the water it makes sense here it's much more challenging at least I found one so far okay here is another little moon snail I do like a good moon snail so that's terrific still dealing with I mean I can't even believe how many bubbles there are and fun fact the bubbles will glow oh look another baby's ear um under uv light cool another baby's ear excellent it's funny too apparently you can really get them here this is only the second time that I can remember that I've come and found multiple baby's ears here at lighthouse beach okay lightning no pear whelk that is a pear whelk and another button snail and it's intact lovely yeah I tend to find those when I'm looking for the wenzel traps too or any of the smaller shells the button shells will kind of pop up which is nice now I filmed this this is like mid-February so I'm not that I'm behind but I got a lot of stuff coming up and uh there's no bugs right now but there is a wenzel trap fantastic oh that's great I think it's a little I don't care I don't care it's a little broken I worry about that when I get home so basically when I'm at the beach I just try to find as many of the specifically wenzel traps as I can I don't find them that often so I keep pretty much all the ones unless it's only like half a shell but yeah just one of those things I really enjoy the challenge I say is that another one I can't quite tell yes yes it is so that is another wenzel trap its blades aren't quite as pronounced as some of the other ones yeah it's still winning though at least I'm finding it and I think I'm starting to kind of understand where on the beach to get them this day kind of helped me so it's like practice just get out there and try it and you just get a little bit better at it so it's almost where I see the congregation again of the coffee the bubbles and that there's just like a mini rack wine kind of oh there now I thought for a hot second I had missed that wenzel trap however upon closer review it it was just like a shell fragment in the wenzel trap shape so anyway here we have a top snail that's almost that's absolutely huge compared to some of the other shells I'm finding yeah oh look at this yes because I'm down here and I just like the view of little birds kind of eating the ruddy turnstones I don't know what that maybe little pipers or will it the birds are having a good old time no frankly I think us shellers are too so just a little different view down here and because I mentioned this is February there's it's not buggy yet not yet wenzel trap oh that's great that's great and it's so fun too because like I'm completely silent I'm here in my head I'm just having a great time I'm surrounded by other people but I'm in my own little world just having so much fun okay so yeah it's almost like these grit areas there's all right so I think at least on dry land I'm starting to recognize the area where these shells might be yep oh no no no that is a imposter a fly speck serif it is clearly not a wenzel trap but they would uh yeah they would trip me up a whole bunch you know we'll just hold on to the wenzel trap and it's so nice they're so tiny differently sized for travel all right where's the next one no way I can't believe I saw that yeah that's tiny tiny oh that's insane oh hello lace myricks you're pretty almost like that toasted coconut color lovely oh a little hermit crab kind of hanging out of a horse conch we'll just leave that yep I'm just gonna leave you alone it's fun like the mini world not the micro world just like a mini world here oh look another okay tiny tiny little thing all right butter fingers try it again at least I found it right away okay oh that's great I feel so accomplished when I finally I mean because they are small oh that's wonderful now there are we actually have quite a few different species of wenzel traps down here I think most of the ones that I'm picking up are angulate wenzel traps um there's two species to me I just I still cannot separate them apart I cannot tell one from the other that oh for a hot second I thought that was a pitted myricks which would have been really cool but it's a gulf oyster drill which is still swell just maybe not as cool as a pitted myricks but that is a gulf oyster drill and I hope that's a rib cantharis it is it's kind of got that funny color so that is a ribbed cantharis yep adore those little shells they're awesome another prickly cockle this one just happened to be very melon color oh isn't that pretty yeah the variation of those just delights me so Florida prickly cockle let's see I see oh look at that scallop I see a yellow prickly cockle lovely calico scallop okay I guess we're gonna mosey up the beach a little bit maybe I'll find another would you look at this what are you doing here that is weird so that's a piece of lion's paw now that's something I might get up on captiva but what are you doing here on lighthouse beach that's so weird oh that's cool would not expect that to be here oh it's actually turning out to be a lovely day and at this point I think I'm gonna be quiet and let you all enjoy some beach time another calico scallop oh isn't that pretty yeah that's lovely I do yeah they're great no two are the same I mean a lot of them are that purplish pinkish color but no two are exactly the same all right I actually can wander all that far but I guess I'm not really finding much I think I might try my luck at some wentel traps again so here is a channeled duck clam unlike the smooth duck clam it doesn't have quite as pronounced a wrinkle but it does have kind of like that funny little flare on the edge of its shell so that's a channeled duck clam and a very bright button snail or button shell yeah we found a couple with a little bit of seaweed in there they're fun I wish they got bigger but that's it that they only get so big okay back in the bubble section of the beach likely looking for well anything and wenzel traps so that's another lace murix kind of run down not not run down but worn down just doesn't have all its angles perfectly acceptable shell just something I'll leave for someone else okay back into the fun slash challenging section of the beach okay we have an atlantic giant cockle a juvenile so it's not a beach ball it's really more of a beach cup yeah I'm picky about the interior of those so that isn't a giant atlantic cockle there was a lot of seaweed and so normally I would be looking in the water for the wenzel traps but I couldn't because of all the seaweed but that didn't stop me is that another baby's ear look at that oh very cool yeah I'm glad I relocated I don't think I would have found as many specimens or enjoyed myself as much if I had really just kind of stayed where I was and typically I would say you know what would I say just enjoy yourself but I'm trying to squeeze out a 30 minute video and just seeing a whole bunch of sand is not gonna help me accomplish my goal so I did walk around the the point of um obviously the lighthouse beach and there's lots of seaweed so there isn't much to tell you other than there wasn't much over there other than the seaweed and again it wasn't so bad there were still some shells up on the beach but it definitely impeded I think shelling in general for everybody I mean obviously I would prefer to be walking along the water's edge there but that's just not the way it was going to be and considering that it was going to be a challenging day I think for everybody in this area at this particular low tide I think I did pretty well I mean I mean I had to try three different locations but did find finally some really fun shells yep there is another wenzel trap so for me days like today are a good reminder that shelling isn't always about how many shells you find sometimes it's just about slowing down paying attention because if you enjoy the little things one day you may look back and realize they were the big things and I try to do that so every single time I get to go to the beach I appreciate it even the little things so there was a little bit of trash I love getting plastic off the beach I don't know just making sure animals don't encounter that just really makes me happy so I took 3.55 ounces but it adds up in total I've removed a little over 89 pounds of garbage from our beaches now there were a couple of little treasures some great florida prickly cockles some bubbles that top snail yellow prickly cockles some florida fighting conchs that lady-in-waiting venus clam the buttercup lucine the coquinas the crossbarred venus clam there was a smooth duck clam a channel duck clam a calico clam there's paper figs a painted egg cockle a common egg cockle some apple murex up there here are the calico scallops then there was some pear whelks some button snails the lightning whelk the little ribbed cantharis the um oyster the gulf oyster drill moon snails the giant atlanta cockle that weird flat and the um lion's paw was crazy but all the baby's ears and the wentel traps I think those are really going to be my favorites for today and what's crazy is that it didn't feel like we found a lot but there actually was so again it doesn't really matter I have learned if you go to the beach and you leave disappointed you're doing the beach wrong so I have learned no matter what happens I appreciate it and guess what else I appreciate my patreons because of you and your support it gives me the encouragement I need to plan a trip to the Carolinas so I will be in the traveling north and hitting a couple of beaches so I'm really excited about seeing something different and bringing that to you I guess through my eyes so next week we're headed to my favorite beach I'm not quite going out north yet so we're going to Fort Myers Beach next week until then I hope you have yourself a really great week and I'll see you again next Sunday