What's on the beach? Let's look for treasures and I'll ID them all!

Hello beach friends. Now, we all know I usually come to the beach for shells, but every now and then the sky has other plans. So there was a lunar eclipse. This is back at the beginning of March. When I pop out of my house, this is what I see, and I'm hoping, okay, once I get to the beach, it'll be better. That's as good as it gets. That's it. Between my equipment, the conditions, it got cloudy, and that that was it. So I got up really early to go to the beach to find... now I'm back to shells. The sky worked out. It was fine. I got to see a little bit of this lunar eclipse, but I'm gonna go ahead and turn my attention back to the seashells. That's a nice fighting conch. I do try to hold off and not pick those up, but you know what? If a beautiful seashell is there, I'm gonna go ahead and snag it. And this little nutmeg. So kind of a heavy shell. Lovely little nutmeg. I can't wait to see what else is going to be here. So I'm at Fort Myers Beach. It's traditionally been my favorite beach. Tide is low, which is why I'm here, and it's 65, the beginning of March, so it's fine. The conditions are kind of perfect, if you ask me. This is an Atlantic giant cockle that is alive, and its foot... I know it looks like a tongue, but its foot is what is kind of like hanging out. I actually think the body is really kind of beautiful. It looks almost like some of the other sea creatures. They just kind of have like a mottled coloring. So that's a giant Atlantic cockle kind of just hanging out, waiting for the tide to come back in. And then here is one of those green mussels. Yeah, they were introduced to this area. I haven't... lately they've been popping up a little bit. It doesn't seem to be causing too much havoc right now. All right, another nutmeg. You know what? I bet you it's gonna be one of those nutmeg days. Yes, I think, yeah, it's gonna be one of those. But not to worry. That is not the only type of shells we are going to find today. I will do my best to see and seek out all the things that are interesting, identify all of them, including even some little tiny treasures. So if you're ready to see what all is out there on Fort Myers Beach for us today, let's go to the beach. Okay, so at Fort Myers Beach, it's pretty early. Not terribly early. I've been here earlier. All right, lettered olive. I'm giving it the old shine test. And then we have a banded tool. Okay, banded tool. It's alive. So we're good. Sorry, buddy. We're just gonna put that one back. So the tides are gonna change soon. Another nutmeg. Early tides are in the winter, and then in the summer, the tides are in the evening, the low tide. So that'll be switching over soon. That's another lovely little nutmeg I've already determined. Yeah, probably gonna find a couple of those today. I won't torture you with every one I pick up, I promise. There's another fighting conch. Yeah, it was kind of yelling at me. Hey, I'm kind of yellow-orange. You should probably take me home. And you're right, fighting conch. You're right. Oh, heartbreaker. Look at this beautiful true tulip. Yeah, but yeah, for me, no. I'm gonna let someone else maybe use that as a starter shell. Oh, what do we have here? Oh, that's a very nice looking fighting conch. All right, we'll do a little switcheroo. And another fighting conch. Yeah, you're kind of pretty too. Yep, all right. All right, I'm going against what I normally do. Like I said, if the fighting conchs are here, I should probably snag them. Okay, another nutmeg, and we have a banded tulip. That's Centura Hunteria. Two more pretty traditional Florida shells. Now, this is a very traditional Florida shell. It's our state shell. Now, there's different types of beach stuff. Some of the stuff will kind of flake and pick off, and other stuff is really, really hard to get off. That appears to be the flaking kind, the kind that's kind of in bigger chunks that'll kind of just pop off. So that I will kind of get a little bit more invested in, but lately I just I haven't been invested in cleaning some of the shells. That is a pretty nice looking Florida cone. They can come kind of beat up, and that's a kind of a well-behaved one. Alphabet cone. Yeah, that's been here a little while. So clearly it's, from a specimen standpoint, or just the condition of the shell, it's going to be in better condition the more recent the critter has vacated its shell. That very nice true tulip. Yeah, that kind of beach stuff I can deal with. Beautiful. Plus it's a true tulip. I just don't find them as often in good condition. Oh, pear whelk. Very nice. Nice coloring on that. And down here I wouldn't necessarily say they're either common or uncommon. It's just one of those things, you know, sometimes you find them, sometimes you don't. Now today it's happened to me before where you'll find an abundance of the same exact species. So it's a little, it's just one of those things. They don't really know, by they I mean like the experts, they don't really know why that happens. A lot of the time it could be, you know, lack of food, it could be red tide, which there's not really any red tide right now, so they don't really know. But it does happen from time to time when you come to the beach and there's just an abundance of the same species. It's just, again, it's just one of those things. Oh, another one. Oh, that's a really nice one. So a little little horse conch. Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's in great condition. Yeah, that beach stuff will pick right off. Oh, that's very nice. A lovely Florida horse conch. Gorgeous time of the morning. All the pastels. Now those, you'll kind of see the sandbars. Those are going to go away. As the tide comes in, the sandbars are going to come in. This area I'm showing, the water is just going to get a little bit deeper. Ah, the English muffin of the sea with all its nooks and crannies. The apple murrex. I think they're beautiful. And we have a banded tulip. We do. A lovely banded tulip and an apple murrex. Oh, that one is really pretty. So that's a juvenile fighting conch. And it's empty. Perfectly safe to take home. Nice and pointy. Fantastic coloring on that. Oh, I'm just delighted by the fighting conchs. I really am. There's a banded tulip. Same better days. But perhaps someone would like that for their starter. You never know. Oh, an alphabet cone. Let's see. Oh, it's the whole shell. Woohoo. And again, I'll just mention the, it's weird, the alphabet cones up here. Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, they're more on that orange side where the ones that get down in Key Waden and Keist, they're more dark, like chocolate colored cones. I don't have a lot of those. Most of the cones I find are down in the Marco Island area. All right, so bubbles. I see some little fighting conchs. Just kind of checking out what's here. I'm not willing to slow down quite yet and look for tinies. I'm still finding the larger specimens. It's a little broken piece of pear whelk, I think. So just kind of checking it out. Later on, I probably will turn my attention back to this before the waves come and cover it up. Okay, so nothing that's really gonna make me pick anything up. Okay, there's definitely some opportunities here, but I'm gonna hold off for now because, like I said, I am finding some of the larger specimens. Oh, that is a true tulip. Oh, that's great. Oh, shoot. Tiny little chip. That's fine. Now, that is the harder beach stuff to get off, but because it's a true tulip, I'm gonna go ahead and take that home and clean that up for sure. Ugh. I didn't even want to say anything, so that's broken. We'll leave that for someone else. Maybe they need a broken true tulip. That is a beautiful shell. It'll look nice maybe on a mirror or something because you only get to see this side of it. A calico scallop. Yep. One of our traditional bivalves. Very, very nice. I happen to like the orange ones. They're a little more rare. A flat urchin or a sand dollar. It has those five. They're all, they have five little parts to them. You can see that on those little petals of the sand dollar, and ours just happen to have the five keyholes. All right, I think that was a really ruddy turnstone. So, just enjoying the morning. The shells, the sounds, the birds. Yep. Very happy to be here. Very grateful. Next, we, oh look at this cute little banded tulip. You are so tiny and adorable. Whoa. You're, and that bubble is huge compared to it. Oh, I would like to, our bubbles don't get very big over here on the west coast, but on the east coast they do. Still would like to add a couple of larger ones to my collection. This is a calico clam. Pretty, another one of the very nice bivalves we have. I, this is one of my favorite bivalves, I think. The turkey wing. Yep. I have to look at the underside. They just, they're made kind of weird. The edges are a little, they're not always uniform. So, I check to see if they're broken from the underside. So, I like Fort Myers Beach because it, it seemed in the past to always kind of give me little shells, big shells, and critters. That is a moon snail egg collar. It kind of looks like plastic, but in there is all little eggs at this point. Well, this was March, so it's possible that they would go ahead and make little babies, but the moon snails start out as larva. So, this little specimen here, when it started out its life, it was larva. Just kind of floating out there. Oh, the hole there was also dug by a moon snail because of the way that they, they do their holes. They're countersunk. Oh, and it's a false shark eye. Okay, a lot going on here. So, it's false shark eye with a little drill hole that was drilled by a shark eye that we also know started out as larva. So, yep, lots of stuff going on here. Beautiful olive. Yep, the olive, the animal acts a little bit like a cowrie, like it kind of wraps itself, and that's why the shells will be nice and shiny if they're recently deceased or, you know, haven't been tumbled around too, too much. All right, so some of the bigger shells are kind of broken, and at this point, I can really quickly tell. Oh, that's a good one. Oh, so I'm passing up the broken ones, but look at that. The aperture on that's really nice, too. So, that is a lightning whelk. Fantastic, fantastic. Oh, another cone. What kind of condition we got? Yeah, that's okay. That's an acceptable alphabet cone. Aperture is a little bit broken, but, you know, that's the way it goes sometimes. It's just, it's the weakest part of the shell, and it's the most susceptible to being broken. Okay, an auger. Gorgeous little auger. Yeah, they're great. They eat worms, those augers. So, this beach is different. So, a hurricane came, completely wrecked it, and then it was re-nourished with sand, and it just, it changed the beach a lot. And so, I'm kind of just trying to figure it out. There used to be some really good pockets, and those pockets have moved. So, I'm just trying to, again, once trying to figure out the beach. But, you know what? Until I do that, for now, I think I'm going to be quiet and let you enjoy some beach time. All right, this is where I see all tiny shells. Or, well, sometimes it's crushed shells and pieces of shells. Well, we know. All right, I can leave that nutmeg behind, but believe me, there's something. It's like every time I bend over, there's a nutmeg. Okay, yep. That one's lovely. Terrific. What's this little broken gulf oyster drill? Okay. All right, yep. Shiny olive. Oh, oh, I can leave that behind. It's got some stuff on it. Okay. Oh, a sand dollar. Goodness, I almost stepped on it. Oh, it's broken. Never mind. We'll leave that here. Oh, there's so many things. So, this is fun. My brain very happy right now. Hunting, identifying, finding. Lovely little auger. Another beautiful. Okay, yep. More augers, more nutmegs. What's this? Little apple myrix. Phylonotus palmum. And so, with the tinies, it's just kind of fun because some species...that nutmeg's obviously broken or I would have picked it up. Some species only get so big, like the bubbles on this coast anyway. And then the other species or other shells are just small and fun to find. Why? I don't know. It's like rabbits are cool, but bunnies are just so much cuter. I don't know. That's just how it works. Actually, I do know why, but we'll talk about that another day. So, this is a spotted slipper snail. Yep, lovely. That is also a gastropod, even though it kind of looks like a bivalve. That is a marginella. And so, the gastropods are shells that only have one piece, whereas the bivalves like scallops, clams, cockles, things like that, they're bivalves because they have two pieces. Yep, I do like...I don't care why you're tiny, but I like a good tiny shell. So, that is a tampa turid. It kind of looks like an auger, but it's not. It's...although it has that same shape, so I suspect it travels in the sand a similar way. It just kind of like slides along under the sand. So, tampa turid. Oh! Oh, guess what that is? That is a milk moon snail. I do not find these often at all. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, that's...it pays to kind of leaf through your shell book, and so that's what happens. I've just... I see a lot of shells, but I haven't had the opportunity to find them all. Oh, that's kind of exciting. Oh, now here's a traditional shark eye moon snail, not to be confused with the milk moon snail. I wouldn't confuse it. Totally different colors. Still kind of fun. So, that's a fun little shark eye moon snail. What's this? A little top snail. Yes, a jujubee top snail. Cute. All right, this is...I believe that's a dusky cone. So, we have that dusky cone and the peels cone. I'm still kind of trying to tease them out, so I just pick them up and hopefully something will kind of stick eventually. It kind of sticks out for me. This fun little shell. So, this is a rusty dove snail. It's in really good condition, too. I don't know. It's just some algae. I don't know. It's a really bright algae, but that's not supposed to be green like that. We'll just pop that in bleach. But yeah, a rusty dove snail in great condition. That is very cool. And then we'll have that with another little gulf oyster drill. What is this? That looked very red, didn't it? That is an apple murrex. Yeah, little apple murrex. Oh, I'm really glad that I eventually found the tiny shells entertaining. It took me a while. I was looking for the big shells, but now I do like a good small shell hunt. That is another rusty dove snail. Now, this one does not have that green on top. Oh, just yeah, making sure it's empty. And oh, look how pretty. Isn't that pretty? A rusty dove snail. Yep, and that is a species that does not get very big. Lovely. Yay. Next up. Oh, I hope it's a sharp ribbed drill. Oh, I think it is. Yes. Yeah, I like those. I guess because they're kind of flat on the edges. They're just kind of weird looking and they don't get very big either. That's about as big as they get. Maybe a little bit bigger than that. Yeah, I like those. All right, this little shell is little. I think we're, let me see the other side. I'm gonna go with gulf oyster drill. Yep, that's what I think that one is. Okay, now I used to, the good spot, yeah, it used to be beyond the pier, but the last couple months that I've been coming, that has not been my experience. I'm not going to say I won't go down there ever again, but for now I'm just going to stick to the part of the beach that I know or I think will have great shells. So this is a live lettered olive. They just look so weird when they're not in their natural environment, which is underwater. So we'll just tuck it in and look what happens. This little siphon pops out. Yep, yep, it is in its natural environment. It doesn't look like goo. Well, they don't have bones. All they have is their shell. I would say exoskeleton. It's not an exoskeleton. It is a calcium carbonate shell. Oh, just fun. Next up we have a button snail. Aren't those pretty? Yeah, very cool. Yeah, buttons used to actually be made of snails. I don't think those kind ironically, but that is a button snail. A spiny jewel box. I think it's kind of entertaining that they use the term jewel box for shells. There's a bunch of different types of jewel boxes. Yep, that one is clearly a spiny jewel box. Oh, a little nutmeg. Couldn't quite tell. Yep, adorable. Yep, very, very cute. Not surprising. It was definitely nutmeg day here. Okay, what else? Okay, that is an apple myrix and that is a little shell. Yeah. All right, let's see if I can figure it out. All right, yeah, I do know. Yep, that is an apple myrix. This guy, yep, still a little shell. Don't I... That, I think, is an Atlantic oyster drill. They seemed, you know, kind of remind me of the Florida cones where they're not always in really great shape. Like they just kind of lead a hard knock life. Another sharp-ribbed drill. Woo-hoo! Cute. Yeah, just make it extra, super-duper sure that nobody's home. And by that, I mean that there's obviously no snail or hermit crabs in there. Okay, fantastic. Oh, isn't that pretty? Sharp-ribbed drill. Oh, look at that! Snagged another little Tampa turid with that auger. All right, so, yep, I want to keep those, too. Very nice auger, but I want to take a better look at this. It's almost like blonde. So, a blonde Tampa turid. Oh, very cool. That's beautiful little shell. This is starting to feel like summer. That, I believe, is an Atlantic oyster drill. It's kind of like beat up. Yeah, this is feeling like summer. This is what summer shelling looks like. It's getting there. Nope. Yep, just move it along. All right, that beach bowl or Atlantic giant cockle, or is it giant Atlantic cockle? Yep, beautiful. I tend, because I can be picky, I like the ones with like a kind of a pretty interior. I probably will stack some nutmegs in there at the end of the video. See, that looks kind of like a peels cone to me. Maybe I'm just going to keep picking them up and see if I can kind of figure it out. A marginella. I think there's a rice olive in the opening of that. A fun little marginella. Very cool. Oh, a broad-ribbed cardida. Probably been here, but it was a little bit faded. And again, we had talked about, so this one is very rich in color, and so likely the critter, you know, I had found this shell after the critter has expired recently. At least that's just, it just kind of seems that's the way it goes. All right, there's another one of those cones. I'm going to go dusky with that one. I think. Yeah, maybe. And that's, it's not always easy to figure out exactly what these shells are, and you know what, that's okay. Oh, you know what is easy? To just kind of be appreciative of moments like this. It just reminds me, just being here is enough. The water, being able to walk, take a big breath of ocean air in, so being present, I just, I don't want to miss this. So yeah, I'm one lucky gal, and Fort Myers Beach is being pretty okay to me, all things considered. So that is a spotted slipper snail, a little fighting conch, yep, and a little pear whelk. Lovely. See lots of, it's funny because sometimes like the grit, it's just broken stuff, and other times it's little treasures. So that's why you gotta kind of get down there. There is a rose petal talon. I used to find so many here, and that's just kind of like the beach has changed, the rhythm has changed, the shells have kind of changed. Like I said, I used to find, every time I came here, I would find oodles of them, and now I'm gonna go home with maybe one or two, just different. This is kind of interesting. So this is a little Florida horse conch, and what I'm interested in is that white. So that white top is called the proto conch, and when you look at a large horse conch like this one, that top there, that's the proto conch. So that little itty bitty tiny shell just adds and adds until eventually it might turn into one of those big shells. I just think that's interesting. So that little top is the proto conch. That I think is an Atlantic Gulf, Atlantic oyster drill. That's what I think that is, I think. That I know is a calico scallop. Not terribly hard to ID those, and we don't have too too many different species of scallops over here in the Gulf, at least here in southwest Florida. What do we got? Oh, another little nutmeg. Adorable. A little top snail and a little moon snail. That is so cute, yeah. Adorable, plus the cleanup is small, and I am kind of looking for wentle traps. Those are a little bit harder, a little whole lot smaller. Okay, a purplish tagalus. Sometimes those can be very brown, but basically if you find a little oblong shell, it's a purplish tagalus. I can't think of any other shell that kind of looks that shape down here. That is a tinted cantharis. Yeah, those are great. Those are great. Little tinted cantharis. Oh, a pointed venus clam. Yeah, I could usually manage to find one or two of those every time I'm here at Fort Myers Beach. Awesome. Oh, a little kitten paw. Now with the kitten paws, this is what I do lots of times. So this one happens to be, I got both valves on here, so what I tell people is if I cannot open it, I leave it at the beach because I don't know if it's not viable or not. This one, fortunately, I was able to kind of pop that open, so I know it's okay to take home. So that's how I go. It'd be a cute little thing, nice little color, and they glue themselves to other things, which is why they sometimes have like a little flat spot on them. Okay, buttercup lucine. Another one of those kind of quintessential Florida seashells. Nice. Oh, Florida prickly cockle, but this one's really pretty because it's albinistic, and so the coloring on it is just very kind of delicate. Looks almost like an Easter egg. Oh, that's so pretty. All right, so that is gonna wrap up my tour of Fort Myers Beach. The sand bars are completely gone. Got here really early. Had myself a lovely morning. Still trying to figure out the rhythm of this beach, but I'll be back. So there was a little bit of garbage. Apparently I wanted to keep it a secret. I'm not going to show it to you. It's 0.3 ounces, but in total I've removed a little over 92 pounds of garbage from our beaches, and today I removed a couple of those fighting conchs, a sand dollar, a couple doves. Yeah, there were a few of those nutmegs. There were some turkey wings, that Florida prickly cockle, a jingo, two marginellas, a bubble snail, the top snails, there's a fly speck serif, green mussels, purplish tagalus, there's a crown conch, there's little brusnasses, a spiny jewel box, there's two alphabet cones, two Florida cones, that one true tulip, some coquinas, some augers, calico scallops, lightning whelks, so drills. It looks like there's those Atlantic drills, gulf oyster drills, and then we have broad-ribbed carditas. I don't know what the other drills are. Calico clams, sunray venus clams, olives, apple murrex, dusky cones. Oh, I'm missing some bubbles. There's banded tulips, pear whelks, some shark eyes, too many shells, there's no such thing. And then we're here, there's ribbed canterers, those two dove snails, the Tampa turids, the true tulip, those sharp-ribbed drills, the milk moon snail, there's that little apple murrex, and then that fighting, no, the Florida horse conch. There was a lot of different species and I missed some of them. So again, that's one of the reasons that I really, really enjoy going to Fort Myers Beach, just because there's so many different things. And Patreons, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for you because of your support I've decided to go out of state. So next week we are going to start with a series of three different videos. I went to North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. So next week we will start with my adventure in North Carolina. I will tell you all about it. I'm probably going to pop over on Patreon and explain even how I managed to even come up with my little trip. So anyway, next week we're heading to North Carolina. Until then, I hope you have yourself a great week and I will see you again next Sunday.