I identify everything I find on an island, and that island gave me lots of seashells!

Hello beach friends. Yes, you can absolutely find shells on the beaches of southwest Florida, but there is something a little more adventurous, a little more exciting, and maybe just a little more exhilarating when you're getting to those uninhabited islands with the assistance of a boat. So today we will be going to Dickman's Island, and I can't wait because I haven't been here for over a year and a half. One of the many things I love about shelling is there's no wrong way to love shells. Some people like to make things with their shells, some people like to buy shells for their collection, but for me the greatest joy comes from being out there in nature, feeling the breeze, appreciating the beauty of Florida, and holding those seashells in my hands. And one of the most fun and frustrating parts of shelling is you never know what's going to be out there. Of course I'm coming at low tide. That is my favorite time to look for these treasures and to make sure that you have as much fun along the way. I'm going to identify everything we find, and you never know what that's going to be. Each trip is its own one-of-a-kind adventure. All right, first up we have some jingles of the orange variety. Now if I had to make a prediction, I would say we're going to have an okay day. There's plenty of shells here, and I suspect there'll be one or two interesting things in there for us to examine. So I'm going to kind of hug the shoreline here. All right, here's another jingle, and oh a scallop. Very nice. So it could very well be a bivalve kind of day, but not to worry. I'm going to do my hardest to look and find the most interesting and exciting things that I possibly can find, and I'm thrilled to report I will be adding some fantastic specimens to my collection. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. Oh a spiny jewel box. Now what's interesting about this one is it has a drill hole in it. Now typically those spines will kind of protect it from getting drill holes, but not this. Someone was very determined, very hungry critter drilled into that. Oh first critter. So this is a short spined sea star. We can clearly see it moving. So it's got little tube feet on the bottom, and it's kind of cruising along. A lot of these animals, I know it feels like it's supposed to be in the water, but they do live in tidal zones. So they can survive in and out of the water, and the water's right there. So yeah, the tide's going out. That critter will be fine. Next we have a shark eye. Now it is a false shark eye. It's got that little divot on the back. Let's give it a quick flip. Yep, pretty. I like the stripes on it, even though that's not entirely in focus. Yeah, that. So it's a true tulip. Look at the color. It's just stunning, but it's broken. You know what, when you hold it just like that. Yeah, if I can find an angle where I can hold and it looks okay, I'm going to keep it, because you never know when you need a broken shell. You just never know. All right, this olive is half buried. Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was going to be inhabited or not. Wow, pretty lettered olive. Almost has that fun little stripe on it like some of the other olives get. Oh, it's been a while since I've been here. I'm glad I reserved the Dickman's conference room for our meeting today, folks. Yeah, this is a nice location. So this little underachiever of a sunray venus clam, I just find interesting, because the colors can be very different from, you know, shell to shell to shell. So I just wanted to point that out. That was, in my opinion, a little bit of an underachiever. All right, that lightning welk is broken in a couple different places. I'm going to leave it. Oh, sorry, Mr. Hermit Crab. So we do have a lace myrix, but it is inhabited. Ah, good choice, friend. Yeah, that's a pretty good Okay, all right, I see another tulip. Oh, it's another true tulip. So Dickman's, yeah, you can get just about anything on this island. Clearly true tulips are one of the specimens you can find here, although I'm having a little bit of a trouble finding one that's not broken. And that is the closest I'm going to come today to an alphabet cone. Yeah, so spoiler, I won't be getting any alphabet cones today, but there's plenty, trust me, plenty of other fun stuff. This beautiful island. Broad-ribbed cardida. Yeah, you're kind of fun. Hardy, you know, like I couldn't imagine breaking that shell. If I were going to choose to be a critter, I might want to be a cardida. It's got a good protection system going on. Oh, inhabited. Okay, sorry, buddy. We have a scallop. Now, I did see that little horse conch there, too, and I didn't go back for it. That's a very pretty scallop because it was broken. So I was in the footage sometimes. I know I missed things. That was a little hermit crab. Or I just questioned, like, why did I do that? All right, I put that back because it's a little bit pitted. Oh, another spiny jewel box. I like that the one weird little spine coming off the side. Oh, that will need a date with bleach, but that is okay. We'll get the spa treatment. All right, so this is a colorful moon snail, but it's not very colorful. Yeah, I'm trying to rub it, and I think it's kind of dry. When the shells have been sitting out for a while, the UV minerals will start leaving the shell, and they kind of get, like, fossilized. All right, there is only shells in that aperture, no critters, so it is safe to collect. So that's a little dusky cone and a calico scallop. Lovely pair of shells. All right, we got a banded tulip. We do. Thwack. All right, the cintura hunteria. Yeah, that is, well, a banded tulip. They don't get quite as big as the true tulips. And, you know, I do want to get more shells and try to make more of those shell flowers, and I was reading you can do them out of the discocenias. So that's what I'm doing here. I'm just kind of collecting some supplies. All right, that shell was running away, so we're going to leave it alone. All right, that shell was sleeping. Well, the critters in there. All right, it looks like a moth mouth drill. There you go, Hermie. There you go. Pretty much just the way I found you. Yeah, all right, some of the shells are running around, and there's some fish there. Olive, yep, there's just sand in there. Two olives, lettered olives. And another orange jingle. So lots of action. So tons, tons of shells. Granted, they're a little more on the common side, but that's okay. That is all right by me. Frankly, the fact that there's just shells. All right, so another broad-ribbed cardida and a calico scallop. Lovely. I like this mushy area here. Mush is usually pretty good to find shells. Oh, a zigzag arc. You can also go with turkey wing. Either one would be correct. Yeah, yeah, that is swell. Pretty good shape. Hey, lovely. Yeah, it also needs a little date with bleach, but that is also the turkey wing. Look at the condition. Oh, it's almost perfect. Oh, thank goodness. If I turn that over, and there was a hermit crab in there, I would be very, very sad. But that is a Sanibel turid, and it is in fantastic shape. That is the best specimen I've found, a Sanibel turid. Oh, that is very exciting, and it's ironic. I never find them on Sanibel. Go figure. All right, here is a jujube top snail. They're a fun shell. I have a hard time resisting them, and I might as well grab that docinia while I'm here. Oh my gosh. So sometimes it really pays to know what the reverse side of a shell looks like, because that is a flat. And so we call it a round-ribbed flat. Frankly, just go with flat. It's fantastic. Flats are awesome. It does look a little bit like Elsa kind of stopped by and did some of her magic on there, but yep. Oh, that's wonderful. It's not perfect, but that's still great. A wonderful round-ribbed flat. That is awesome. All right, here's another spiny jewel box. Yep, and they do glue. The juveniles will glue themselves to things. This one is still stuck to a little shell there. Now when I went to rinse it off, it all just kind of fell apart, but I did want to show you that flat spot on the spiny jewel box. That's where it was glued to the other shell, so a lot of them will have that. Cool spiny jewel box. Oh, a lightning welk. We have not seen it. Well, we did actually. We saw the broken one, but this one is collectible. Very nice. They're relatively common, but still a very fun find. A lightning welk. All right, here's another calico scallop. I do like the ones with those little bursts of orange. Yeah, orange is just one of those colors that exists out in nature on the beaches, but just a little bit more rare. Very desirable in my humble opinion. This is an overachiever, so this one completely not only did the dark, but it also did the light too. So yeah, some of these mollusks can be really fantastic. I think that it's kind of fun to compare them. All right, we got a fighting conch here. Yeah, oh, that's pretty aperture. It's a pretty standard looking fighting conch, but yeah, I kind of like that yellow. Yeah, I'm gonna probably hold on to that. All right, another is turkey wing or zigzag arc. All right, it is not broken. I have to look at the other side because I can't tell. They're just not uniform. Calico clam. Very pretty. That and the sunray venus clams. They're fancy clams. There is another. Oh yeah, overachiever. Now this one on the other hand, it's just different. Kind of white base. I'm not going to keep it. I just wanted to kind of show you how they can be very different. Another calico scallop or rough scallop. These are more rare than some of the other scallops, at least here in southwest Florida. I'm going to rinse that off. I want to see the roughness. Yeah, yeah. That's where it gets its name. It's literally a rough scallop. Very fun. So yeah, the shelling, there's no like rack line. It's like really, really, really spread out. So I'm kind of like zigzagging. I kind of want to go by the water, but for whatever reason, my shell senses are going, I'll stay up here for a little while. Oh, all right. I was rewarded with a orange calico scallop. Lovely. I'd hate to miss that. That'd be terrible to miss, especially since it's so orange. All right. We got a trickster. We got a, nope. Yep. Got a trickster. Just a piece. You never know though. Check it out. Yep. There has been plenty of times where I just kind of assumed there'd be something in it and it was empty. Now this, if I had to call this anything, I would call that a fried egg jingle. Is it? Yep. Almost reminds me of the giant one I found on Shell Island. That was last summer. Nice nutmeg. Is this why I stayed up here and didn't go down by the water? Look at the point on it. Holy smokes. It does have a break in it, but it repaired very nicely. That's a really lovely nutmeg. Auger. Now augers hunt worms, polychaete worms mostly. And they also have like a little harpoon, kind of like the cone shells, but you'll, you'll be fine. They're just hunting worms. Us humans are totally fine. That is just a piece of a Sanibel turid. And that is normally kind of the condition I find them in, which is why I got so excited with that. Other one was just, oh, so rich in color. It had all its pieces. It wasn't worn down yet. That was awesome. A little dusky cone. Yep. Cute little thing. Yeah, they don't get much bigger than that. Little dusky cone. The old purplish tagless. All right, that one has lost its periostracum, so it actually is purplish. An orange jingle. They look nice together. Purplish tagless and a jingle. Hmm. You're weird. Your flare is off. Now we can see, yeah, it was, um, maybe barnacles or something were on the shell and the snail just kind of kept, so I don't know if you can tell, like the aperture is much wider than it should be. Yeah, it just looks a little bit off. Oh, that is cool. Definitely going to keep that. Oh, there's another nutmeg. Lovely. Granted, maybe not quite as glorious as that other one, but still a very attractive common nutmeg. It's very nice. Horse conch. Oh, no, no, I am, I stand corrected. That is a piece of a horse conch. Oh, the color on that. That would have been nice. All right. Well, I guess we'll just go ahead and take this purplish tagless instead. All right. We got a live lightning whelk. So yes, all of the sea snails will create and grow their shells as they get bigger. They do not switch shells. So the black is the actual animal. The only critters that change shells are the hermit crabs. So hermit crabs will switch their shells as they get bigger, but the snails all keep their shells and the shells will just grow as the animal grows. These little divots in the sand, those are live lettered olives. At low tide, it's very typical. Yeah, if you start seeing those little like funny C's and letters and stuff, ironically, that's not why they're called lettered olives, but there we go. So this is a nine armed sea star that apparently wants to, I think that this critter wants to get into the water. I don't know why that other sea star earlier was kind of running away, but I'm going to give this little critter a lift. Here you go. It's a little nine armed sea star. Hopefully it probably would have been fine. As a matter of fact, I, yeah, if I had to guess, I mean, I really think it would have been fine, but I just, sometimes I just feel like I have to bring the critters to the water. Oh, sand dollar. Now I know I'm not the only one who collects sand dollars and not all of them make it home intact. So I do put it in my delicates container, but some of them, they just weren't meant to make it home in one piece. I do feel like I have the place to myself. There are other people here, but because it's an island, we get to spread out. So no one's showing on top of me. All right, grab that disc docinia. So there's a little bit of weather brewing. It's summer, it's Florida. And I got to tell you, that's the real rub because low tide is in the afternoon. So you want to be out in the afternoon, but that's also when the storms tend to pop up. So it's just one of the challenges of summer shelling. All right, here's a little bubble. One of the other challenges is having the shells show up, but today I think we're doing okay. So that is a striate bubble. It's an adorable little thing. Here's another little, all right, there's another little top snail, a jujubee top snail. If you're going to find a top snail, it's like 99 out of 100, it's going to be a jujubee one. We do have other ones like a sculptured top snail, but they're just a lot harder to come by. I think I have like two. So this is a calico scallop. I'm assuming it's not a bay scallop and it's been buried a long time. Look at that black. Even though it's a little broken, I think I'm going to keep it. I'm just in love with the really dark shells that kind of get buried. Yeah, it's kind of cool. See, I think that's kind of nice. It's sort of an underachiever. I mean, it didn't really go out on the colors, but the pattern's okay. At least they kind of tried. There was some effort put into the coloring on that Sunray Venus clam. Not that Sunray, but here we have a sand dollar and it looks intact. I'm kind of admiring the mud. Get a lot of mud down here, but yeah, there is definitely mud on there. All right, but looks good to me. The condition is fine, so that will, fingers crossed, it'll go in the delicates container and make its way home intact. Here's another one. That's not, yeah, that's not intact. Yeah, I'm gonna leave that there. Yes, I can be bratty about sand dollars, although I guess I could have taken that one and hoped that was the one that broke in my container. So admiring the handiwork of this spiny jewel box the spines are not solid. They're actually kind of got a hole in it and that's where the animal goes in and makes the spines. And that is a piece of a true tulip and I just kind of like the color. So I think I'm gonna hold on to that. That's very red. Oh, you're kind of pretty. I know it's hard to kind of really tell. I'm gonna bleach you and find out. Yep, yep. All right, let's come back to that at the very end of the video. Let's see what that looks like. Oh, that is lovely. Again, just a calico scallop, but it's just got the umbo. So that part where all the color is that is called the umbo of the shell. Beautiful. Yep, not tired yet of sand dollars. Not yet. Maybe one day. Today is not the day. Yeah, yeah. So for now, I'm still picking up sand dollars. Oh, you're adorable. You little banded tulip. Oh, that's pretty. Another calico scallop. The scallops today have been really bringing it. Look at how fun the color is on that one. So again, it's a calico scallop. These are all the same species, but they just have completely different colorations. All right. So this one, this one succumbs to peer pressure. I think in the beginning it wanted to be lazy. And then, yeah, peer pressure took over. And so it did a little bit, put a little effort into that Sunray Venus clam. I think it just like admiring the differences in all the colors. So we got some live olives there hunting, doing their thing. Oh, look at that. Nice recovery. So it can kind of sail. These aren't the snails that will do that. I don't know if you've ever seen some of the other videos, but littered olives. I guess I'll do a couple of tumbles and then they bury themselves. There is another really pretty calico scallop. Yeah, terrific. Now I know by the time this airs, it will be July, but right now I'm shelling in June and holy cow, am I feeling lucky. However, I think it's time for me to be quiet and let you have some beach time. Okay. Another bivalve. So this is a kitten paw. So the other valve of it, it acts kind of like a scallop was probably glued also to something. So the kitten paws, just like the jingles will also glue themselves onto other things. Now this I think is so cool. So this is a slipper there. It's a little shelf on the inside. It's a spiny slipper shell. So to me, it looks like it has a Mohawk. So this is like the, the tough shell of the beach, the spiny slipper snail. All right. This is going to be my, probably my one Florida prickly cockle that I'll pick up today. I try to find at least one almost every time I come. That one has a little yellow. Very, very nice. Oh, pink rose petal talon. Very nice. Yeah. There's a muddy area behind us at the very end of the video. We'll, we'll go there real quick. And this, Oh, Oh friends. So this is a very cool scallop. This is called a Ravenel scallop. So this is the other side of the flat. So we were talking about the flat earlier that I found, it's got another valve. So the other valve looks like this. Oh, that is cool. So imagine that they're not the same size. So it's obviously not from the same animal, but that's how those particular scallops work. One side is flat and one is kind of like a bowl. And that type of scallop has its own name. It's called an inequa valve. And so when they, one side is flat and one is concave or convex inequa valve, apparently unlike the calico scallops where the both sides will have the same shape, not the same color, but the same shape. Oh, here's a somewhat colorful moon snail, a little bit more colorful than that first one we picked up. I will say, I know we're not on Kais right now, but Kais does have some great gaudy nauticas. All right. Hello. So the umbo of that scallop also looks extremely pretty. Another calico scallop. And so the other valve of that would not look like that. It would just have different colorings. Yeah. Over there where I normally, where I actually thought I would be going, but I wasn't because Dickman's was better. I was going to get bitten with bugs and there was just not really a lot of shells there, which is why I always come down to the 10,000 islands with SWFL shell guide. She knows the areas down here and she's only going to bring you to where she thinks the shells are going to be. So I could not recommend her enough. And I'm so happy to be here in Dickman's having a great time. Yeah. And there's a little bit of weather back there. It's for now, it's still kind of holding off. I don't think we're going to have to leave. Do I see skimmers? My favorite shore bird? Well, I really like reddish egrets too, but I do think that the skimmers are my favorite. Oh, so they're off doing their skimmering thing. All right. I'm going to turn around. I've gone as far as I can go, head back toward the boat and might as well bring this little rose petal talon along with me. What's not to like about a little pink shell, right? Lovely. All right. So the tide at this point is coming back in. So I've been through the low tide. It's coming back in. So the tour is kind of winding down, but I still have a little bit of time, few more things to find. Look at this. So this is a ponderous arc that has been kind of chewed through by chimney clams or another kind of animal that will dissolve shell and then live in it. Isn't that neat? So anytime you see these shells with like holes in them, it was done by another critter. Isn't that a really pretty? So this is another calico scallop and that beach stuff it should pick off. It would like a dental pick or something. Lovely. Oh, another sand dollar. Yep. I guess I went through and back through the sand dollar field. So the ones we have here are the five hole keyhole sand dollars. Lovely. Oh, I, for a hot second, I thought it was a cone, but no, it's just a juvenile fighting conch. Just one. I can't tell you how many I have that size. Like so many. I'm addicted. They're awesome. Now, I was just kind of thinking what was interesting, which did not show up today. So we did see that one lace murix, but I had to leave it. There was zero, um, apple murix, not really many banded tulips. It's just interesting what shows up that bay scallop is awesome. Right. I do see a little chip on the top. I don't care. I love the color so much. Yep. Beautiful bay scallop. I want another bivalve, an angel wing, that lovely waffle pattern through the entire shell. They like the mud too. The angel wings, crown conchs, rose petal talons go figure. Oh, that's a reddish egret up there. I that's my second favorite shorebird. I was kind of hoping it would do its dance and stuff, but it didn't. It was pretty sedentary. Now this is Oliver. Now Oliver isn't really going to do all that much, but what I want to show you is Oliver's operculum. So the operculum of a fighting conch looks like that. It's like this weird Brown sickle looking thing. So it doesn't act like the operculum from some other animals that help trap the water inside. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a second. This is a tinted cantherous. I think they're swell. I'm very happy that there's no hermit crab in there. Okay. So this is a lightning whelk and something scratched a hole in it. So the animal is not really protected in its shell anymore. That could have happened by anything that break. That's its operculum. I don't know, but it's not. Yeah. It can't trap water inside its shell anymore. So I don't, I don't know. That's only the second time I've ever seen a live lightning whelk with a hole in its shell like that. I don't know what's going to happen. Probably nothing good. So that's kind of a bummer, but this is the muddy area. Oh, look at that very muddy pear whelk. Fantastic. I have not, we did not get a pear whelk today. So that's going to go and bleach along with some of the other green shells. And yes, we got very, very, very rained on. And in case you were wondering, rain will push through a raincoat if you're on a boat and you're going fast enough, but it was totally worth it. Look at how beautiful all of those calico scallops. Yeah. There was a great bivalve day, especially the scallops over there in Dickman's. That was kind of fun. The Florida prickly cockle, there was two banded tulips, the turkey wings, some augers. There's rose petal talons, a whole bunch of jingles. There's some miscellaneous stuff up in the right corner, worm shells and whatnot. Some fighting conchs, juvenile fighting conchs, nutmegs, shark eyes. There is a buttercup lucine, that bay scallop, broad-ribbed cardidas, top snails, oval, cross-barred venus clam, and a little bruised nasa up there. Lightning whelks, kitten paws, tinted cantherous, purplish tigellus, the calico clams, angel wing, sand dollars, sun ray venus clams, lettered olives, spiny jewel boxes. And then we hit, now my favorites were the flats. I mean the flat and the raveneau scallop, the santa bell turd was awesome. The weird fighting conch. And then I did like that ponderous arc with the holes in it. Yeah. Call me crazy. What's also crazy and I'm so grateful for is that bleach works so good. So that muddy pear whelk. Yeah. It's almost like magic. Kind of like the acid, but yeah, just soaked it in simply, I mean, I scrubbed it a little bit, soaked it in bleach and that's it. It's beautiful. Now I told you, we take a look at this one and I had a feeling it just, it had a certain look to it. I cannot always tell, but this one had a natural shine. Isn't that glorious? Yeah. So that one cleaned up really well. I mean, you know, there's that little white spot on the Maybe I'd hit that with oil, but overall I think that that came out so good. And what's funny is I've kind of been playing around with bleach and the best bleach is like this Walmart low splash bleach. Go figure. But none of my antics would be possible. Whether it's going out to the beaches, picking up shells, showing you critters, cleaning shells, all of it is possible because of you and my Patreon. So thank you so much for coming along with me each week and supporting and with your comments. I am the luckiest gal I know. Next week we're heading to Marco. So just north of where we were here on Dickman's. So a little slice of heaven. We'll be exploring that. So until then, I hope you have yourself a great week and I'll see you again next Sunday.