Island hopping for sea shells. Shell Key and Egmont Key gave me some goodies!

So here, oh my goodness, a very feisty fighting conch, but it's also the second largest species of hermit crab in the world. And look, oh that's a nice lightning welk, right? Oh my gosh, wow, that is pretty. Hello beach friends. I have a delightful little beach trip to share with you today and I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say I like a good adventure and I like going to places I've never been before. So when I was invited to tag along with some beach friends on a trip to Shell Cay Preserve and Egmont Cay, how could I possibly refuse? Now if you know me, you know I really love beachcombing, so I was anxious to finally get to this first new island. But once I stepped onto the stand and started looking around, I noticed something interesting. Even though this island was new, many of the treasures scattered along the beach are not. Look at this, a Florida prickly cockle. Happy to see that. So there are little treasures here. What do we got? Our little coquina. Just lovely. So even though it's a new place, it very well is possible we're going to find some of the familiar friends that we usually run into. Now I brought a little help. I did bring my bucket because I am absolutely a wimp when it comes to being cold. Now I know the temperature is 88 the air, but the water is not and I was thinking I might snorkel, but I decided against it and I have the bucket instead. Now that's a rather, whoa, sorry buddy, rather rough looking shell. I kind of whipped that around kind of quick. I'm sorry. So here, oh my goodness, a very feisty fighting conch. So yeah, there was a time where I would say, gee, I wonder why. These are called fighting conchs and frankly in the world, there's no real, you know, scientific reason why they're called that. Although I think we can kind of figure this out. Almost looks like a Siamese version. It's got like a black foot and it's black proboscis. And then you see its eye stalks there. Oh, it's so beautiful. I'm just admiring it. Oh, I'm sorry. It probably really wants to go back in the water. Okay. There you go. You beautiful little fighting conch you. Thank you very much. So that is a true conch. Oh, oh no. All right. Yeah. Let me get you situated. There we go. I feel much better about that. So if you're ready to see what else is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. Okay. What? All right. Looks like we got a, we got a critter here. So this is a live lap apple murix. Now they drill, and I find them attached to jingles and other shells. And I don't know why, because you know, obviously there's no meat source in there. There's a little coquina swell. I am on the hunt for coquina. Oh, sun ray venus clam. Not to be confused with the sunrise talon. Oh, I wish that was a sunrise talon. That would be awesome. But that is a sun ray venus clam. And a striate bubble. Or just a bubble. Yep. That is delightful. A cute little thing. An auger. Common auger. Very nice. They're nice. They come in a bunch of different colors. Those, those augers. Oh, and there's a serif. And what's fun about these shells, the pointy end is actually the, the back of the shell. The snail would be coming out of the front or the opening. I mean, it makes sense, right? So we have another auger and a worm snail. Delightful. Oh, there's those great little things. Oh my gosh. So when you see a shell kind of walking down the beach, you know, there's a hermit crab in there. Let's see what kind we get. Probably, yeah, it's going to be one of the bigger ones in a shell that size. So there's two that I'm thinking, either the blue eyed hermit crab or the giant red hermit crab. And I can't tell. Oh, it looks hairy. That's awesome. Oh, here he comes. Or she. We're looking at a giant red. So the giant hermit crab is the largest species of marine hermit crab in the Western Atlantic. But it's also the second largest species of hermit crab in the world. Only beaten by the terrestrial coconut crab. Now we can recognize these because they're kind of hairy. They've got a vibrant red body, big red claws. And for me, the striped little antennas. That's how I was able to confirm that that was actually one of the giant red hermit crabs. Oh, now they are also they're typically known for being in queen conchs. Like that's how big they get. They can get up to like 12 inches big. They're just huge. Those those hermit crabs. All right. That's a bay scallop in rough shape, but I really kind of like the colors of it. It's just kind of pretty. Okay. A spiny jewel box that looks like one of those chimney clams got a hold of. There's other clams that will use chemicals and just kind of melt away shells so that they can like bury themselves in there and live. Fascinating. Oh, beautiful. There was a little tour boat here earlier. Luckily, that is now gone. And I have the place to myself. Here's a buttercup lucine. Oh, here's another. It's kind of pale, but another Florida prickly cockle. Beautiful. Lovely. I do like those. The kind of range. Very easy to find albino of that particular species. Here is a little bit better shape lightning whelk. A giant hermit crab was in a lightning whelk. That one's nice. That snail did a little bit extra time. There's even a little bit of color on the aperture. Very nice lightning whelk. A turkey wing. Yeah, the colors. I think the brown and the white colors just really make that very identifiable. Easy to find turkey wings. All right. Oh, what a beautiful day to be here. What do we got here? That is a banded tulip that is probably alive. That's why I'm leaving it there. I got a little bit of resistance. And that means the animal is just kind of buried, hunting, snacking. Okay, here's an empty one. There we go. Yeah, a little chip. That's okay. So there's a banded tulip. And banded tulips primarily eat clams. Okay, so I got the bucket. It's working. I see a moving olive there. See that lettered olive just kind of cruising along? We're going to leave that creature alone. Yeah, it definitely, it really, it just gives you so much more visibility. Oh, there's another banded tulip. Very nice. Nice little gastropod. And I'm sure I had a little bit help from that bucket. Let's see. All right. No bucket needed here. And it's not alive. Lettered olive. Very nice. All those little markings on it that don't look like letters, but that's the way it goes. Now this I managed to see there's like spiky spikes. I saw that with the bucket. And look. Oh, that's a nice lightning welk, right? Yes, clearly it is completely covered with barnacles. I'm not worried about that. One, because they're not viable and bleach will take that off. At the very end of the video, I'm going to show you how that shell cleans up. Yep. Oh, that's terrific. Yay. A gorgeous Sinister Fulgur Sinistrum. Lettered olive. Yep. Lovely. That'll pass the test. It's got to be pointy and it's got to be shiny. I can be a shell brat because I kind of go out often. Now it's alive and I missed this. So on the very bottom there, there's a spot right there. It looks like a barnacle, but it looks like the animal just kind of covered right over it with shell material. I wish I had taken a better look at that, but I get, I, at the time I, I might not have even have seen it when it's kind of bright, your pupils will dilate. And so it's, it's so hard to see when it's real bright on the beach. I know it's counterintuitive, but it is, that's the way it kind of works. A jingle. Yep. With that little baby foot on the opposite side. Lovely. They're very, very variable as well. The jingles, all different colors and whatnot. Okay. Looks like this turban has some friends, some barnacles as well. It's empty. Whack. All right. Oh, that's a really kind of cool looking lettered olive. Yeah, that's neat. Lettered olive and a chestnut turban and some bonus barnacles. All right. More jingles. Yeah, they're fun. Whoops. And there's, I mentioned that wind, little bit of wind out there. Now I had heard that the black ones are not natural, that those have been buried and discolored. That's what I've heard. So apparently the black ones are a little bit more rare. Yeah. Yeah. It's a live creature. So imagine those augers also the opening of the shell is the direction that the animal travels. And then the pointy end is just the back of the shell. Fun, right? Yeah. It's a little siphoned. They are voracious predators, those lettered olives. Oh, this is just beautiful. All right. Lots of barnacles here. Oh, a coffee malampus. Very, very nice. Cool little shell and a dwarf olive. Okay. Aperture's broken, but still kind of fun. Yeah. And tons of barnacles. A couple of bubbles. So yeah, there's a bubble. A striate bubble. There's another. All right. Some fun little things here in this little rack line. Oh, another live olive. Yeah. That means it's low tide. If you start seeing the live lettered olives, you know it's low tide. All right. I think I might be heading back the way I came. Wrap around the corner. See what I might've missed. The tide probably at this point is going out still. Oh, beautiful. Look at this auger. Yeah. It's a little rock or something in there. Oh, that's lovely. I don't know. Yeah. They come in purple. I wish they came in blue. Not enough things come in blue. I guess the water or the sky. Oh, Florida cone. This is a very typical Florida cone. For whatever reason, they just have a hard time staying intact in one piece. Look at how many breaks this one has. Yeah. Yep. That is a bad boy. Florida cone. Another chestnut turban. No barnacles this time. Lovely. And that will have nacre. Underneath, it's kind of shelled a layer. There's a layer of nacre. That mother of pearl. There's a bay scallop. Very nice. They always not, I shouldn't say always, they tend to look dry to me. Like they kind of just have that like white cast on the bay scallops. I do like them though. There's another Florida prickly cockle. That's kind of like a pastel version. Oh, it's so pretty. Yeah. They're perfect. I like the color on the one side and the prickliness on the other. Now orange is something you don't see all that often. This is a calico scallop. Obviously it is orange and that's a little more rare. You don't see the orange on those shells as often. So I'll tell you what, the Southern tip of Shell Key Preserve was quite lovely on this summer-ish. It's middle of May when I filmed this, but we're going to head on to the next location. We get to see a little dolphin on the way. So we're leaving Shell Key Preserve and we're going to head over to Egmont Key at this point. This is another island that I have never been to. We're passing Fort De Soto. So you get a little tour on the way. But here we are at Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge. I've heard of this place many, many, many, many times. So I'm very happy to finally be here and get to see it for myself. All right. It looks like this little tinted cantharis has an inhabitant. Yep, little hermit crab. And it looks like a long-wristed hermit crab. So we are going to leave that little shell and little critter right there. Next, another one. This is a different one. Oh, oh, very active long-wristed hermit crab and another tinted cantharis. Let's see. All right. And once again, we have, yep, long-wristed and a shark eye. Okay. All right. So no shells for me here yet, but it's a good sign. I bet you there's going to be a couple of good things here. So we'll just, we'll just see what all is here. All right. Lightning whelk. Yep. Yep. About 50% of a lightning whelk. Let's see. Oh, now that's weird, right? Now that is not a sea snail. That is from freshwater. That is a banded mystery snail and it looks fossilized to me. So I have no idea why that would be here. It's just weird. All right. Not as weird. Not weird at all, frankly. Lettered olive. The big chunky side. All right. Nice little rack line here. And yep, I'm going to head to the southern end of the island. I like the points. So the very, very northern end, the very, very southern end. There's a turkey wing and I think it actually has periostracum on it. Yeah. Look at that. Weird. I think they kind of like muddy-ish areas. So curious that that would be here, but with its periostracum. Weird. Yeah. Cool. I don't usually find turkey wings with that little organic layer on it. Oh my gosh. That's an albino nutmeg. Oh, that's, first of all, that's a great find. But yeah, I guess I wouldn't know what's up here, would I now? Never been here. Oh, that is really cool. An albino nutmeg. That is awesome. Oh, what do we got here? We have a piece of a lightning bolt. Yeah. Cruel. Yeah. The tail. What are you going to do? All right. Keep moseying along. Oh, that nutmeg is cool. Yeah. A ram's horn. Weird. All right. These are also, I have done a little bit of shelling in freshwater. I've got to watch out for the gators. I don't have to worry about that here, but yeah, that's a ram's horn snail. Weird. So I have so many questions. And one of my beach friends that brought me over here on their boat was talking about some of these snails. And like I said, these are from freshwater. And I looked at Google Maps and tried to find a pond or something that would explain why these shells are here. And I got nothing. Now the discoloration is going to come from being buried. But why are they here? There's a lightning welk that was buried for a while. Okay. The orange is iron, I believe. And if the black is more sulfur. So depending on the mineral content in the sand, it's going to change the shell's different colors. Why though, right? If anyone has any idea why freshwater snails would be all over this beach by all means, leave us the information below. Ram's horn? Weird. Weird. I have so many questions. So many questions. All right. Let's look for some sea snails. Oh, a pear welk. Well, a seashell anyway. I don't actually need the snail. I'd prefer to leave the snail here. So beautiful, beautiful pear welk. Awesome. Oh, here's a little empty, empty tinted cantherous. Fantastic. Oh, oh, that's a pretty one too. Yep. Lovely. A lovely tinted cantherous. What is going on? So there's another patch of these weird shells. I mean, that's a lot. Why are they here? All right. Another sun ray venus clam that obviously was predated. And somebody snacked on that with that hole in the shell. Now, why wouldn't those hermit crabs maybe find their way up? There's plenty of shells here. Do they know that the integrity of these shells aren't strong enough? But yeah, I didn't see anybody in those shells. Only in the seashells. Calico scallop. The bottom one is actually broken. Pretty though. Yeah. I'm very happy that our calico scallops come in such a variety of great colors. Beautiful. All right. Another turkey wing. Let's see what kind of shape you're in. You're not broken. All right. Number two. Kind of chonky, aren't you? Yeah. Big old turkey wings. Yeah. Not broken. Just kind of been hanging. Yeah. Those are pretty substantial. Yep. A pair of lovely turkey wings. There's an olive. But you know what else I notice is that that feather. Now, most native bird feathers are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. And under that law, it's illegal to possess feathers without a permit, even if you simply just found it on the beach. So now when I see the feathers, I just leave them there. I don't want to get in any kind of trouble. Beautiful calico scallop. Look at that. Oh, that's pretty. Gorgeous color on that. I love the orange. Love that mixed in. Well, look at that purplish simile. Not in great shape, but still kind of cool. Don't find those every day. Actually, don't find those often at all, actually. Yep, that's purplish simile. Another lovely bivalve. Oh yeah, this is pretty too down here. Another turkey wing with its periostracum. Hmm. Curious. Yeah. All right. That's what we got in there. It's got a lot of periostracum on it. All right. So kind of, yeah, it looks like I've kind of reached the tip point of the island and holy cow, it's pretty. I think it's time for me to be quiet and for you to enjoy some beach time. All right. Yeah. So at this point, the water is getting a little bit cloudy and I have noticed it's only taken me six years or so. The tide is pretty clear as it goes out, but once it kind of starts coming back in, it tends to get cloudy. Now that's not always the case. So the tide is coming back in at this point. It was nice and low, which is why we timed our trip when we did. I'm not seeing a whole lot kind of knock around in the water. What do we got? An olive? Yep. Very blonde olive. All right. That's pretty, but not the sheer, you know, kind of volume I would like to see. All right. We got some broken shells. There's a calico scallop. Some, yeah, just kind of like chunks. Some rocks. There's another scallop. I see some slippers in there. All right. Spiny jewel box. That's more like a lumpy jewel box, isn't it now? And I didn't stop moving. I kind of scanned. So I'm just going to stop for a second just so you can kind of like acclimate and see what's here. It's mostly cockles and clams. It's not a whole lot of very interesting stuff. And I only know that by the pace that I'm going. Kind of scanning, but nothing's really kind of knocking out at me. Oh, well, this is kind of fun. I personally am not into fossils. They just don't appeal to me. But something like that is kind of cool. I think we call them paddies. That is kind of neat. I'm going to hold on to that. I'm probably going to end up putting that on Etsy, but just kind of cool. I didn't feel like leaving it at the beach. Oh, my gosh, it's so pretty. It's a little flat, but there've been plenty. I mean, that like a albino nutmeg, that cool lightning whelk. There've been lots of great shells. But I think, yeah, let me see what's up here on the upper rack line. I already did kind of what's down in the water. Let's see, just in case. Well, yeah, a fighting conch, like a knobless, no, one knob. What do you call that? Maybe one and a half knobs. All right. Let's see how that at the very end, let's clean that up too. All right. So we'll take a look at that also, see how that cleans up at the very end of the video. All right. So not a whole lot up here. It was definitely worth checking it out. I already knew it was down over by the water. Oh, isn't that pretty? I love that pink color, that purplish pink color. So that is another one of those calico scallops. Love the variety of them. Very lucky. Very lucky that that's the species that we have. There's another lightning whelk, a little wonky one, a little bendy on the bottom there. So it broke. And then when it repaired itself, it wasn't exactly, it left the level in the woodshop that day. So the bottom is just a little bit bendy. Isn't that neat? So that's obviously been buried. It's got a weird, like an army green color. And I also, from a species standpoint, I think that's a valve of one of the flats. It doesn't look like a bay scallop or a calico scallop. So that's what I think that might be. The purplish tagilis. Yep, there is purple in there. I think tagilis are kind of cool, but you know, that's what that little, little friend is, a little purplish tagilis. Okay. A juvenile, yep. Juvenile fighting conch. It's a little, it's not the most pristine one I've ever seen, but still just interesting. Yep. The juveniles look so different from the adults. Wow. That is pretty. That is gorgeous. So a calico scallop and that little white thing on it, that's the business from a jingle. So a jingle was attached to that at some point. Oh, that's so pretty. All right. Well, I do think my time here on this island is coming to an end and I did manage to get one rough scallop. So Egmont Key was pretty good. All things considered, that albino nutmeg was pretty cool. What was with those freshwater snails? So different. And as we headed back to land, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was impossible to miss. It was a wonderful light show to end the evening. So there was a wee bit of garbage. I left this on the beach and then I went back and snagged it. And so I actually grabbed a couple things, but I didn't weigh them at the same time. So I'm going to add that 0.3 to this one pound, 3.8 ounces to give me one pound, 4.1 ounces. And in total, I've removed a little over 96 pounds of garbage from our beaches, as well as some augers and some lettered olives, that patty, a worm snail, that weird freshwater snail, looks like some sort of clam, a scallop, a piece of a flat, a fighting conch, lightning whelks, pear whelks, chestnut turban, the coffee melampus, the coquinas, banded tulips, jingles, purplish semolina. And then we have more calico scallops, that one Florida cone, turkey wings, the purplish tagalus, the kittenpaw, there's some bubbles, Florida prickly cockles, a giant cockle, some nacre, some spiny jewel boxes, bay scallop, lace myrix, the sunray venus clams. My favorite were these three, was that big lightning whelk, the albino nutmeg, and that beautiful calico scallop. It doesn't take a lot. I just need one, one good shell. And, or just, just the experience in general. And today was a great experience. I got to see two new islands I'd never seen before. And that wouldn't have been possible without the invitation from my new beach friends and my Patreon. So my heartfelt thanks once again for choosing to support me, to allow me to go out and do all of these amazing trips and just discover new things. I can't believe how lucky I am. I'm just a very fortunate person and I am so grateful that you helped me. Thank you. Now I did mention we are going to clean up this fighting conch. Now I'm trying something a little different. I put this in bleach, but I made the bleach from a Clorox concentrate and I kind of told my Patreons about that already, but I'm letting you all know 24 hours didn't quite do it. I still see a little bit of periosteum come on there. So I'm going to pop that back in the bleach and I'll see how that works out another day or so. This I didn't mess around with. That I did just put in the 100% straight bleach and ta-da! Yeah, I knew that was going to look, yep, absolutely beautiful. Yep, no surprise there. Real pretty color. This is a great size. Now I could grind down like the edge of the shell. I'm probably going to leave it natural. But yeah, that is just, I had a great day. Now I'm going to go out of order. Next week we're actually going to go snorkeling in the Keys. So until then, I hope you have yourselves an amazing week and I'll see you again next Sunday.