I found amazing shells on an island and there were so many good ones!

I live in a part of the country that people love to call the seashell capital of the world, which is a pretty bold title, but honestly, it's not entirely undeserved. I haven't shelled everywhere in the world, sadly, but I have finally ventured out of state in the name of shells, and I can tell you this. Southwest Florida may just have the best variety of seashells anywhere in the U.S. If you disagree, that's perfectly fine. You may submit your rebuttal to my email inbox, which I'll generously place in the description box below. Today, Kais Island is going to be unusually generous, because we're about to come across over 34 species of seashells all on one island. So I'll be your mildly sarcastic, but thoroughly enthusiastic guide as we travel from the southern end of Kais all the way to the north, identifying each find and sprinkling in whatever extra facts or commentary I feel is necessary at the time. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. Okay, so that is a bay scallop, and it's a little bit sandy because this is the beginning of February, and I'm probably not going to wash that off because it's kind of cold. Maybe as the day goes on, it will warm up and I will rinse the shells off. That does not need rinsing. That is a gorgeous calico scallop. Wow, the orange color on that. Absolutely beautiful. All right, we have a very bendy apple muric. See, I'm trying to check out the tail, the bottom, which is actually the front of the snail, and it's very, very bent. That siphonal canal is normally kind of straight. Yeah, that is cool. That is an apple muric. I'll see if I can remember. I'll try to delay saying, blurting out the names of the shells. At this point, it's very, very hard to. That is a pear whelk with a fantastic color on it. Now this fantastic, this is my second favorite shell. I've picked a second favorite. Colorful moon snail or gaudy nautica. Pick either one. Some of these shells have two names for some reason. That's a beautiful lettered olive. Nice, pointy, shiny. Oh, good. Another colorful moon snail. Yeah, yeah. I could not tire. I literally could pick those up all day. I don't know why they don't, it should have like a tiger name to it. I don't know why it doesn't. All right, nutmeg. Yep. Sandy, adorable, little hefty little shell. Well, they're sturdy. I wouldn't say hefty per se. This is actually kind of delicate. So that is a false angel wing. That waffle pattern does not go all the way down the shell. They kind of act the same. They both kind of burrow in sand, but that will not get as large as the real, the true angel wing. So that is a false angel wing. Look at how big that is. So that's a Florida worm snail. We know that because it starts out kind of normal and then flips out. So that's what we do here in Florida. I guess we're normal for a while and then freak out. Not really. And it has that shape because it eats sponges and it'll just kind of twist itself into a sponge and then hang out and have its meal. Absolutely beautiful. I love this time of day when all the sky is pastel and oh, it's just so beautiful. So yeah, I got my head down. Believe me, I got work to do, but I do like to pick my head up once in a while and see what all is around me. The broad ribbed cardida. This one is real nice because sometimes those little ridges, those ribs look like they have beads on them. That's really pretty. Calico scallop. Oh, a broken fighting conch. That's got some nice color on it. Cool. Oh, hello, Lace Myricks. Okay, you are quite substantial. Wow, that's pretty. I don't know why it's kind of tan. I don't know. Pretty. Pretty Lace Myricks. So the fighting conch, some of them have like different attributes that make it more desirable. The purple lip is one of them. So if you had a shell that had a very purple lip, people like to collect those. This shell is not in great condition, so I'm going to pass on that. But believe me, there's plenty of goodies here to go through. Oh, I can't wait. I love the ribbed acanthurus. I don't know why. I just do. So that is a ribbed acanthurus. Sometimes that exact shell will kind of be an orange color as well, and that makes it even more. Maybe that's my third favorite shell. Oh, a spiny jewelbacks with a nice big horn on it. Not really, but yeah. So the snails make all of those little spikes on it. When it makes the shell, it makes the spikes at the same time. That is the Florida State Shell. Now it's called a horse conch, but it's not actually a conch. Only conchs will have a stromboid notch, and that one does not. That's okay. It's still an awesome shell, as well as this nutmeg. It's got some pretty cool coloring on it. Yeah, that's neat. Yeah, something spotted caught my eye. So that's a spotted slipper snail. It looks like it changed its mind at some point and decided to change the spots up. Hey, you do you. Yeah, this was a little bit of a bummer for me, because that is a pitted murrex, and I would really like the shell, but it's hard for me to kind of discern what's in there, but I do believe it's the animal and it's operculum. I don't know if it's actually viable. Oh, parrow elk. I figured just in case. All right, we'll snag this calico scallop. That's pretty, but yeah, I'm not sure if it's a viable shell. I'm going to leave that here. That's how I roll. Anything in question stays at the beach. That way I don't have to feel bad, just in case I'm wrong. Always feels better to leave it at the beach, unless it's empty. Oh, and really pretty with all its little nooks and crannies. It is the Thomas English Muffin of the Sea, the apple murrex, and then there's also a bay scallop there. So they have really nice apple murrex and a bay scallop. Oh, you're what we would consider albinistic, and I have a sneaky feeling you're going to clean up kind of pretty. Yeah, we'll look at that at the very end of the video, once that periostracum is removed. That is a fighting conch. Oh, another little spiky, spiky, spiny jewel box. I guess I could call it a spiny, spiny shell. Yeah, kind of cool. I don't know why that one little horn. That's just the way it works sometimes, and as the shells are older, they'll roll around. Those little horns and spikes will kind of get worn down. All right, we got ourselves a little alphabet cone here, and I'm trying to discern what that is. Is that just debris? What is going on there? And yeah, yeah, I was able to rinse the debris out. There's something in there. It's not the animal, though. This shell is slippery and very okay to collect. Oh, it's beautiful, beautiful alphabet cone. Oh, what's this? A little horse conch? Yes. All right, lovely. Yep, packed full of sand. That is fantastic. There's no critter in there. Oh, that's pretty. So that's a little calico scallop. The other valve of that would be different, so it wouldn't look like that. It would have a different pattern, different color, probably the same family. It wouldn't necessarily be orange. They kind of tend to be in the same color family. That is beautiful. I think that's a bay scallop. All those pen shells, all those brown things, I don't even see them. You all ask me what they are. I'm like, oh yeah, pen shells, but when I'm on the beach, I don't even see them. I go right around them. It's just interesting, once you've been doing something for a while, how your other brain systems kind of kick in. All right, here is a florida cone, very beat up florida cone. This is your typical been around the block florida cone. Yeah, it's hard to find them in great condition. Let's see, are you? Yes, you are alive. Okay, yeah, at this point the tide, actually I think the tide's coming in the entire day. Yeah, it's coming in and that's kind of one of those islands. It's kind of funny, even if the tide's not low, I probably would still come. There's plenty of opportunities even in the upper upper rack lines. All right, a lightning lock and a bay scallop, a very quintessential florida pairing of seashells. Oh well, gotta be careful of those those stumps sticking up at you, but this is a tinted cantharis with that like orange color. Does need a date with bleach, clearly. Oh, that's awesome. I love those, love those, and then if they're orange, it's even better. Oh, now this is also a colorful moon snail, but it's called, they call it a vera's moon snail. I personally, I just think it's a different color of a moon snail, so it's just kind of like albinistic or some of the shells have different colors. That's what I think. I think it's just a different color, colorful moon snail. There's banded tulip, the centura hunteria of sea snails. Fantastic. Oh, all right, let's see. Yeah, it's got its periosteum like that. Oh, oh, that's great. No critter. Oh, that's awesome. That is fantastic. Another alphabet cone. Wonderful. Yeah, this is obvious when it has that like dark periosteum. I pretty much, I bleach all of my alphabet cones that have that on there. I do remove that periosteum. No way, an alphabet cone and then a rose murix back to back. Whoa. Oh, that's awesome. Yes, it's a little muddy. It'll clean up great. Yep, just make an extra shirt. All right, a guilt-free rose murix. That is awesome. Well, frankly, all of my shells are guilt-free. That's how I roll. Oh, pretty. So that is another colorful moon snail and an apple murix. Very nice. Yeah, and the Florida prickly cockle. That is also, I do, I want to get a better look at that moon snail. All right, it's, you know, it's being my second favorite shell and all. So yeah, there's a little divot in it. I don't care. We're going to keep that along with that very spiny jewel box. Awesome. Oh, some pink shells. So that's a rose petal talon and this is a calico scallop. Oh, very pretty, very delicate colors also. Lovely. Look at the color on that. Oh, that's really cool. It's almost like opposite of albinistic. It's almost like, would that be melanistic? But it almost has more, it has more color than it normally does. That is really cool. So in comparison to this, this is kind of your more, actually that has a lot of color on it too. So that's also a really cool nutmeg. So yeah, two lovely, two more Florida lovely shells. Now at this point, I feel like it's only fair to acknowledge that this is no longer a solo activity. This is a group effort because while I may be the one going out here physically picking up shells in the cold, my Patreons are very much my behind the scenes partners in all of this. So every trip, every early morning, every just one more shell moment, you're right there with me, just with significantly less sand in your shoes. And truly I am grateful for your support. You make it possible for me to keep coming out here, to keep exploring places like this and to keep sharing all these beachy discoveries along the way. So whether it's a perfect shell or just a really interesting one, we'll go ahead and consider it a team find. Now I kind of wish that the cleaning was also a team sport, but you know what, in that case, I'll take one for the team. Look at that nutmeg. Whoa. Awesome. That one's really big. It'd be nice to find a really big dark one. But I'll take whatever Kais decides to give me. You have to be so careful when you come here. I always wear really good shoes. And man, when you're bending down, yeah, you just got to be careful. I've definitely knocked my head a couple times. Now this is a true angel wing. Isn't that beautiful? Yeah, they get a lot bigger than those false angel wings. And then that waffle pattern is on the entire shell. Yep. Yep. Another kind of, that's not really beat up per se, but it does have a little chip on its aperture. That is a florida cone. Beautiful color on that. Love this island. Oh, I have an island coming for you in a couple of weeks that I really can't wait to show you. But this Kais is just beautiful. And you're alive. I might leave that critter alone. Yeah, I know. It doesn't really look like an island that you'd find shells, does it? That's okay. When I see a beach and there's like nothing on it, not appealing to me. This is a heartbreaker. Oh, look how cute you are. I want your shell. So that is a rib cantharis of that orange kind. Oh man, I'm sorry. No hard feelings. There you go. There you go. So I would have liked that other morph kind of color, but I already have one. So I'm doing a, okay, Kais is like I said, really being generous today. Look at how cool that is. So that's what a spiny jewel box looks like when it's hinged and it's alive. So we're going to leave that here. I get a little bit of resistance when I kind of just pull on the edges. So we just leave that here. Now this kind of area is where you might find an alphabet cone. So I used to call this area kind the cone zone. And right on cue. Awesome. Complete with a nice shell jammed in there. Awesome. Beautiful. Another one. Just great. Yeah, I can't wait to clean them. Oh, it's got a little bit of sea lace on top of it too. Yep. Beautiful alphabet cone. No. It's a rosemary. Awesome. Yeah, I'm in the water. I really want to be careful. Don't want anybody in there. I have had to leave a rosemary behind because there was a hermit crab in there. That was a heartbreaker. You know what? Happy to leave the orange rib cantharis and happy to take that lovely rosemary. Wow. What a really striking lettered olive. Looks like mountains. Oh, that's really pretty. So yeah. Lettered olive. Orange. No way. Another rosemary. And it's empty. Oh, that's great. Yeah. So for me, I guess, I don't know. I find rosemary almost to be like real close, like almost bucket list. And I get very excited when I find them. Top snail. Yep. We have a top snail with little beads on it. So that is a jujube top snail. We do have a couple of them. That's really the most predominant one down here in southwest Florida. The jujube top snail. I thought I was going for the nutmeg, but no, it looks like there's a little dusky cone here and a nutmeg. Yeah, yeah. Lovely. Not a dusky cone. That's beautiful markings on it. And because of that, so when cones are in really good shape, it just kind of tickles something in my brain. A lot of times it's because they're either recently deceased or they're still alive. And I cannot see on the beach exactly what's going on here. And I guess I wasn't patient enough to like really, really check. So I said, you know what, I'm just going to err on the side of caution and I'm going to leave it here. Now I could have used my camera. It's kind of bright out. It's getting hard to see. But I guess in my, I do have a magnifying glass, but I guess for one shell, I was like, you know what, it's fine. I'm just going to leave it here. So that's what I decided to do, but not with this lettered olive. Another one, not quite as striking as that other one. So I put the olive away and I'm like, no way. So this is super cool. So this is also a rosemary, but it's got a different color. We call this a mottled rosemary. So it obviously does not have that orange color. These are a little bit more rare. How cool is that? So it has the coloring of like the apple myricks, but it's actually a rose myricks. Oh, I think that's great. That is awesome. Another rose myricks. All right. Beautiful little calico scallops. So I'm going to leave those behind and a true tulip. So just like that again with the variety down here. Oh, we are so lucky. Yep. So some beautiful five valves as well as a gastropod. No, another. Oh, look how cute it is. All right. So we have a little like juvenile rose myricks. Awesome. Oh, that's terrific. That's crazy. So many and alphabet cones. Wow. Yeah, it's a good shelling day. All right. I found so many rose myricks. Where is the next one? You got to be here somewhere, right? All right. Nope. We're going for the empty kind of orange color on that ribbed acanthurus right on. Got one of those anyway. So the crab has one. I have one all as well. Actually, I think I might have more than one. So making my way up the island. So it started at the south end, making my way all the way up to the north end of the island. And it is I wouldn't have it any other way. That's my favorite. I thought that was a cone and it's not. It's just a kind of different colored fighting conch. It did trick me there for a minute. It absolutely did. All right. At this point, I have been very excited and I've been talking a lot and I think it's high time for me to be quiet and for you to enjoy some beach time. Abandoned tulip. Oh, it's not empty. It's got a dimpled hermit crab. Now, I've never had one of them. They must be very shy. They just do not come out of their shell, at least any of the ones that I have met. This one was a real tease, kind of put her little little claws out there. We made eye contact and she was kind of like, again, she's just playing with me. She's just teasing me. She's like, nope, not coming out. And that's your choice, little crab. Hopefully one day I'll meet one dimpled hermit crab. But today was not the day. All right. That's fine. I'll keep it moving. There's plenty of seashells for me to to collect anyway. No worries. And a top snail. Fantastic. Or a top shell. And another one of those pear whelks. Fulgaropsis pyraloides. Very nice. Yeah, there's just such a rich variety of different shells you can find here. And this is a great shelling day, too. So one of those dusky cones. Yeah, it's not as great as that other one, but it's still pretty good. And I'm going just because I like really manhandled it. Didn't really get. There you go. Now you can actually get a look at the shell. Dusky cone. OK, so this I did think maybe albino. It's I can't quite tell, but it's broken and I'm probably not going to keep it. But it did remind me of the time that I did find a live albino lightning whelk here on Kais. And the animal is still black. And I've talked to other people that have also found albino lightning whelks. And again, their experience was that the animal is not albino. Interesting, though. Right. So just an anomaly in the shell. One of those things. Oh, good. I'll still go home with a couple of jingles. I didn't bend down for nothing. Fantastic. OK, another. Yay. But you're kind of dry. I'm going to show you in a second. So that is obviously a colorful moon snail. It's not. It's been here a while. Probably the sun breaks it down a little bit. Now that's lettered olive. Beautiful. Nice shine on it. Let's look at this one. Yeah, this one, too. So see how there's a little bit of gloss to it. So that's a newer shell, a little bit better condition. Colorful moon snail. All these olives. Yeah, that's a different one. Yeah, there's something something in there. So we're going to put that in the water, but we're going to hold on to that shark eye. Oh, that's awesome. I love a big shark eye. All right. So we'll get to a little exchange. We'll deposit that olive. That's beautiful. It's a little chipped. It's not perfect, but perfect enough. That's beautiful. Shark eye. This was weird. So it's a pen shell. And then I guess it I'm guessing. I don't know. I tried to identify. I think it's some sort of sponge. So the pen shell will sit in the sand and kind of filter feed with that skinny point part pointing down so that where the sponge is growing would have been the part that's exposed. So maybe the sponge is kind of like grabs on and then just sets up shop there. And here we have a little dusky cone. Looks like a little one of those tinted cantharis shells and then an apple myrix. Many. Yeah, guys, you're being real good to me today. Thank you very much. I very much appreciate it. OK, another one of those ribbed cantharis shells. This was obviously a little yellow, not that orange morph color. Still very cool. That's awesome. Another ribbed cantharis. Another colorful moon snail. See if you're glossy. Yeah. Yep. That's awesome. Beautiful. See same exact shape is that other that beer is moons now just with more coloring on it. Oh, hi, Florida prickly cockle. Look how bright you are. That happens to be one of the most common albino shells that you can find the Florida prickly cockle. Oh, isn't this beautiful? See, yeah, we're not. I would say I'm probably closer to the north end of the island at this point, but in this pretty. Oh, it's a great, great day to be out here. Look, you're alive. And yeah, you're you're alive to run in the waters like that. Perfect. Beautiful calico scallop. Oh, that's awesome. Love me a good orange. Orange is a little I just like it a little more rare. It's fun. And we have. All right. I thought it might have been a coquina, but is a false angel wing. Now, you would never find true angel wings paired like that because the animal keeps the the two shells together. So they're not actually hinged. Kind of fun. Oh, yeah. Yep. Making our way to the pickup point. Oh, holy smokes. No way. Wow. A lot of people miss that shell and it's empty. I thought for sure there'd be a body in there. Oh, oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, well, some some I can't worry about that. Oh, that's great. So nice lightning. Well, oh, that's wonderful. Another one of those jujube top snails. Yeah, just making absolutely sure. Lately, I've been finding them live hermit crabs in them. Yeah, kind of strange. But that one is perfectly safe to collect. Oh, good. Another gaudy. Let's see. Are you dry? Are you glossy? You're a little on the matte side. That's OK. Like you're coloring. Yep. Oh, a couple of those dusky cones. Wonderful. Oh, that's great. Uh oh. Yeah, buddy, you are going to have a lace murix. All right. So lace broken. That's all right. Let's get this little creature. Yeah, I'm not sure. So, yeah, we have determined. So it's determined to lace murix. And, yeah, the aperture is a little broken. But, you know, I just don't find you notice I only found like two lace murix today. Much more, many more apple murix. Look at this. So I was standing there talking to my friend about wentel traps and I looked down and there was a wentel trap. And then I started talking about genonias. But the only thing I got was this wentel trap and it tried to get away. But be that as it may. Now, this is this is not my collection. This is Ali's collection. Who's Ali? Ali is the owner and operator of SWFL Shell Guide. So when I take a tour down to the Ten Thousand Islands, I always go with Ali. And if you're one of her guests, you draw numbers, you play a little shell game and everybody gets to take some of her shells home. She takes none of them home. She either leaves them at the beach or gives them to her guests. So Kais was really good to me and just reinforced how lucky I am to live down here and have opportunities like this. Now, there was a little bit of trash. I love taking plastic off the beach. Apparently, turtles sometimes mistake it for food, which stinks. So today was 8.1 ounces. But in total, I've removed 91.982 plus pounds of garbage from our beach. And from Kais today, I did remove that big lightning walk, a couple of the other ones, some bay scallops. And we're going to go back up to some angel wings, the worm snails, the false angel wing. There's a cross-barred venus clam, a true tulip, some bubbles, some rose petal talons, horse conchs, lace murix, some banded tulips, and the broad-ribbed cardida. I don't want to forget about that. There's some top shells, Florida prickly cockles, a rough scallop, calico scallops, lettered olives. Below that, there are some jingles. We have that spotted slipper snail, an alternate talon, a calico clam, some of those fighting conchs. We have, I got a couple of those colorful moon snails. There is some ribbed cantherous, tinted cantherous, nutmegs, dusky cones, pear whelks, Florida cones, shark eyes. We got apple murix, spiny jewel box. Then my favorites are that trap, that cone, the cones on the bottom, and then the rose murix. I mean, what, what finds? That was so great. Just again, the sheer variety that I get to enjoy down here is like none other. Now that fighting conch, it cleaned up just as pretty as I had hoped. So yeah, I'm going to add that to my collection of other, I clearly don't have enough fighting conchs. I don't know if you saw my collection video. I'm going to go ahead and put that as one of the videos here. And then next week we're heading off to Fort Myers beach, my favorite beach. So until then, I hope you have yourself a wonderful week and I'll see you again next Sunday.