Island hopping for sea shells. Kayak freedom to roam islands looking for shells.

hello beach friends we're at a marina and that means we're going out to some islands today first we'll be stopping at a sandbar in front of dickman's island and then we'll be making our way over to caice island my name is charmin and i will be your host for our beach walk i am a southwest florida full-time resident and i love sharing the amazing beaches down here and all the fun things i find along the way i have an irresistible curiosity about the things i discover on my beach walks and i enjoy bringing you wherever you may be along with me on my walks so if you're ready to see what the beach has in store for us today let's go to the beach [Music] [Music] so right here we are making our way over to dickman's island i do have my own kayak i launch from the kaksambas public marina and it doesn't open until seven so there's only so much i can do about getting here first to the island because i am constrained by what time the marina will open so i quickly paddled over here and it is a little bit of a walk once you get to um the island to actually get over to the gulf's edge so we're kind of walking across this big old sandbar that at high tide will be almost completely covered and that's what we're kind of seeing here where the tide at some point was here and it has receded this is always a good opportunity too i'm always kind of checking out just to see if there's some other really delightful treasure left behind here but today there wasn't all that much to check out now typically i make a bee line for the water i'd like to see what's in the water what might be at the water's edge so that's warm headed looks like before i got there though i had to just stop and admire and probably pocket this lettered olive very shiny all right not too shabby looks good to me let's see what other kind of fun things might be here right this i do look to see if it's going to give me an indication it never really works out that way if there's shells here i go yay because hopefully there'll be lots of other things to kind of comb through and it does look like there's a bunch of goodies here so we're gonna head into the water because that's where i think that the bigger shells are gonna be although i did see that lump so if you see any lumps check those out first you never know i got lucky recently and found a keeper this one i'm going to classify as not a keeper looks like it's been here for quite a while i'm gonna go see if there's any other big old shells out there to discover oh on the way we have a little sea friend this is a short spined sea star alive and well and they're just so pretty not too active we'll just say a quick high and leave that little critter where i found them now this i actually thought was a live banded tulip but upon closer inspection it would appear that we have a hermit crab in each shell so there's a hermit crab in the banded tulip on the left and the true tulip on the right i think they're exchanging shell phone numbers yeah that's what i think they're doing and here is a live lightning welcome and you see it's little ears it's kind of those little black things and i was really kind of hoping i'd be able to capture this underwater so i did get my underwater camera and it just wasn't as clear from this angle there was definitely a little bit more surf action than i had seen from above so you can't really see all that much oh well we tried don't worry there'll be more critters to come more critters to say hi to and i did find this big old lump but it's got a hole it's been kicking around here for a while so look if you found this and you think that that's a keeper by all means i'm going to keep searching i'm going to keep looking for something that's maybe in a little bit better condition but what i figured i would do just in case somebody does want to hold on to it is i'll just move it a little bit closer to the beach so just in case another sheller comes upon it and they would like to keep it it's theirs what okay here's promising something big it's a horse conch most of a horse conk about 25 of a horse conch so yeah i'm not gonna keep that we'll leave that there but i wasn't wrong in that the big honking shells are in the water they're still kind of buried here except for that one that we did see on the beach and yes so that's why i'm here i'm kind of hoping i'm going to find a big old good one i keep finding big ones but nothing i'm going to keep that is another live lightning welk i'm just going to leave leave that little friend where it is see what other kind of goodies we can find all right we have a gorgeous five-hole keyhole sand dollar oh looks like we have more than one and this was expected i do happen to find plenty sand dollars when i come down to this area the marco island 10 000 island area so i bring a big container for my sand dollars and it makes the sand dollar smell like coffee so bonus so that is the container that i keep my sand dollars in and here i was hoping that this was an albino florida fighting conch but no but there was a little crab hey crab all right so that is not a keeper shell so we'll leave that where it was all right looks like there's another couple of florida fighting cogs and i'm not going to hold on to that one but i figured let me show you why it's kind of got some stuff i don't feel like working on and this one that's lovely normally it might be a keeper but i'm going to keep my shell weight down i just started so i'm not going to keep that florida fighting but i'll definitely keep this sand dollar plenty light enough to go with my other treasures now this bird so this is a reddish egret and what is cool about these guys is they do this dancing and flapping and really puts on this show when they're hunting so it's easy to kind of tell in the distance if that is a reddish egret another interesting thing about these birds is they come in a white form as well it's called a morph so this shell or that bird rather even though it's called a reddish egret can sometimes be white so while he or she is still stalking some breakfast i'll let you know that it is 67 not too bad and the tide is just about dead low so it's going to continue to come in at this point which is fine uh-oh all right what are we gonna remove from the beach a bush light can all right definitely not gonna leave that behind and i'm looking and i'm so excited because i'm really the only one here right now but i've kind of done my thing in the deeper water i found a bunch of big lumps nothing i'd necessarily consider keeping at least at this point so i'm just going to keep kind of walking around see what other goodies we might find i will give you a little spoiler i find something i've never found before so that's going to be cool to share all right here we have an orange jingle come in all different sorts of colors whites yellows blacks grays that one it's a lovely orange variety and here is another lettered olive that is empty excellent and it doesn't even have shells jammed in it which is kind of weird they almost always do oh it's beautiful a lovely clean shiny littered olive and a beach taco all right this is one of the pen shells the smaller ones aren't quite as unattractive as the larger ones but that is a pen shell they do have that pretty iridescent color on the inside we'll see that in just a sec oh all right while i'm here go ahead and add that sand dollar to the coffee can what other goodies gonna rinse off that sand dollar real quick and see what else might be here all right there's a piece of that maker i was telling you about so this is a piece of the inside of a pen shell or that gorgeous it's usually really the purple is the more predominant color so that's called maker it's really super pretty and we're going to keep exploring see what else might turn up all right i do happen to like these the sunray venus clown i know it's just a clam but these and the calico clams i just think they're so pretty the patterns are all different some times yep that one's a lot more pink sometimes they're more tan sometimes they'll be black the stripes will be black that the accent color was a little darker so those are some of my favorite sunray venus clam shells i suspect we're looking at a sand dollar even though it's really hard to see yeah oh it's so pretty and i can't manage that with one hand so we'll do it like that gorgeous gorgeous sand dollar that is awesome a little bit harder to find the real small ones and the larger ones majority of them are kind of the medium size so real happy with that and here's another one that one's a little more evident you're going to kind of look for the the voids those little black marks beautiful sand dollar now check this out now i was looked this up so this is a red beard sponge and scientists actually use these to study they put them in like a scientific blender and they make kind of like a sponge soup and then the sponges can eventually find themselves and rebuild their structure with the correct cellular placement that was just crazy i couldn't believe that yeah some of these fun things we find in the beach are actually used for other types of research and then this clam looking shell is actually a white atlantic simile very nice little shell and another one of those see like the accent marks are dark so that's another one of those sunray venus clam shells oh so very very pretty awesome oh and a critter all right so this is a lined sea star and check it out it's cruising well for as fast as a sea star can move so that's how it gets around it's probably a little bit easier in the water but that is how this creature moves around on the sand they have a hydrovascular system and that's how they get to move those little legs around so i'm going to try to show you the under part of this gorgeous creature so that that's where it gets its name from the lines on top of it and check out all the little legs so that is a lined sea star don't get to see those very often so real happy to say hi to that gorgeous creature we'll just help it into the water until the tide comes in all right i got some competition the other shellers and shell tours are here so now it starts getting a little bit more interesting and i have been checking out the water i did get here first so i felt good about that let's see if there's anything half buried why yes as a matter of fact there is hello gorgeous so that is an alphabet cone gets its name from the markings so some someone thought that they looked like letters i think it looks gorgeous either way super happy with that alphabet cone and i see a piece of a light yeah a piece of a lightning walk that's all it was and believe me i do that all day long i just don't always share those shots with you here's a little peek at the sandbar here let's take a peek all right so what is piled up here you got your cockles oh a spiny jewel box let's check out the spine factor yeah yeah definitely spiny awesome so i definitely see some cockles here's a scallop the piece of a kitten paw adhered to it with its marine glue see your clams just kind of see if there's anything kind of poking out mostly your arcs and your regular run-of-the-mill shells now here it's a little bit more spread out and so you have the opportunity things might be kind of a little more half buried oh we have a little auger check real good to make sure it's empty all right we have a banded tulip that is empty a little bit chipped that's all right oh yay so this is another one of those clam shells i like so much that is a calico clam shell i just think it's very very fancy for a clam and another lettered olive now there's actually other types of olives i'm really hunting for an albino but the lettered olives are the most abundant ones that we have down here and that is a calico scallop very very nice add a little color to the collection today all right back at the water just in case i guess i hadn't checked this area out quite yet see some color yep another calico scallop anything else really special oh there's a sand dollar looks like i got my fill a couple more clams we already picked up some of those anything else peace all right it might be half buried we got lightning milk a little chipped up a little bendy that's all right i'm gonna hold on to that anyway yeah just kind of skin and that's what most of my time is done just kind of meanding around see if anything really kind of sticks out at me i just thought that was so pretty i know it's just a clam shell i really like them and this okay this i've never seen before never seen one of these this is a cinnabell turret you only get to be about one inch big i just wanted to stop and really let you take a look at that gorgeous little shell i've seen pictures of them when they're a little bit more worn down that one is in fantastic condition so i was super duper happy with this little cinnabell turid how cool is that never seen one before awesome these i've seen lots of them this is a banded tulip relatively easy to find in the 10 000 island area but man once you get up toward fort myers beach or sanibel captiva much harder to find and this is a co it's like a third of a cone looks like the rest of it kind of evaporated oh and look at this fine little tinted cantorus so that's another one of those little cantharis shells and a serif those also stay on the smaller side they can be quite lovely and if you're in the water just take extra care make sure that that shell is empty the hermit crabs seem to really like those and that is a little banded tulip the banded tulips don't get that big the true tulips on the other hand they do they get much much bigger and this is an arc a zigzag arc i like to call them turkey wings and it is a little worse for wear so i'm going to leave that for somebody else but looks like there's another letter to olive awesome while i'm here yeah just a piece of a sand dollar and so all those other shells they're just clams here's another olive a little bit of stuff in it and a bubble so sometimes what i'll do is i'll you know i'll find a bunch of the same shell i'm just kind of done for 10 minutes but then 10 minutes later i start picking them up again so i wish i could tell you the rhyme or reason if i see something i think it's cool i pick it up that's just kind of how i roll so that is another lightning well nice size i know it's a little chipped but they are harder to find once they get to be a little bit bigger so i'm going to hold on to that and that was worth a little pull out of the sand as well let's take a peek oh very nice another lovely lightning milk here's another little shot of the area that i'm beach combing lots of space not too many people because you really can only get here if you have a boat if you're on a tour if you kayak here as fun as this has been i'm really itching to know what's over on caisse so we did what we could here let's see what other kind of things we can find on our way back to the kayak right a florida fighting conch and two banded tulips and again i'm not going to worry about weight because i'm just going to leave those in my kayak at this point won't have to drag them around with me oh i'd love to drag that around with me but it's alive so this is another live lightning whelk and since i've poured you know pulled it out of the sand i figured oh let me help a little friend out get it over into some water so there you go buddy just hang out wait for the dyed to come in and this is another little florida fighting it's alive though i was kind of hoping it would move around a little bit more but i don't know what it was do is just kind of hanging out enjoying the sun but i suspect it's going to be a little bit happier in some shallow water so we'll just help another little friend out before we leave dickman's island what else okay hey there's a florida cone there you might as well grab it so that's another florida cone it happens all the time they really really hard to find them intact and not kind of beat up but i'm gonna hold on to that pretty florida cone another big old orange jingle appears to have yeah a little bit of beach stuff on it no problem a couple of orange things to remember our trip to dickman's by okay now check this out this is a colorful moon snail but it doesn't have the right coloring so it's kind of one of the freak shells i've seen a bunch of them not a lot of them but that is not the right color of that colorful moons now a spiny jewel box yep immediately go for spine factor it's decent i'm going to see a decent spine factor on that and a lightning bulk it's in pretty good shape okay might as well take these while i'm at it now we haven't seen one of these yet today that is a paper fig so that is another one of the fun animals i've only ever seen one alive it was absolutely gorgeous but that is the shell that the creature leaves behind so there's my trusty little kayak it is little it is mighty i still think it weighs more than 45 pounds but i had to get something i could manage by myself so we're gonna take this little kayak from dickman's and now we're gonna head on over to kai's island now i was a little nervous because the last time i kayaked by myself i had a little bit of trouble and i i literally needed to call 911 for help so getting to the island no problem this time okay excellent well that really wasn't my problem last time either but be that as it may was a relatively calm paddle over here so we're going to land over here on kais and see what kais has in store for us oh i do love a good worm snail so i pretty much always pick those up if i see them let's see i'm doing kind of trying to figure out what other kind of goodies we might find okay so there is another colorful moon snail we're probably going to find a bunch of those today this island is really good for the banded tulips and the gorinorikas the lace mirrors we're gonna find all sorts of good stuff hopefully so we're still kind of on the side of the island we haven't kind of wrapped around onto the gulf facing portion as of yet a little lightning walk but you never know what is going to be there i mean i found flats over here so i hate to just kind of run past all the stuff thinking there might be better things down the beach and there are a couple of other tours here so i will be encountering a couple of other people and by that i mean like five so pretty awesome to be out here on the islands and i've been having a great time i think i'm gonna be quiet and let you enjoy some beach time all right so i'm gonna quickly check here just real quick i've also found good stuff here so it pays to just slow down take a peek just in case and i'm sure if i did kneel down and really started getting into the sand and seeing what was half buried there probably are good things here but i really want to see what's on the golf facing side so that's what's over there so that is the gulf facing part of the eyelid most of it near the water's edge is really trees so it's tricky to get all the way down by the water proper we'll get there a little bit let's do a quick check-in 73. it's really kind of perfect and the tide is coming in but it was very low to start with oh so pretty so here's a little pile a little bit better of a pile than there was over at dickman's all right a little piece of a banded tulip oh one of those clam shells i can't resist that's a little tiny hinged sunray venus clam shell there we go now we're talking all right so that is a banded tulip with a little bit of beach stuff on it and i think it's just fun i'm gonna go ahead and hold on to that lovely show a moon snail all right so that is your shark eye moon snail awesome another spiny jewel box i really really cannot resist them and i like the older ones they kind of start getting those layered look to it on the edge of the shell right a little bit yellow and purple on the underside a lovely spiny jewel box so that's what i mean it's really kind of tough to get to the sand here a little treacherous but believe me plenty of opportunities to find awesome treasures here and it's so beautiful beautiful little florida fighting conch alright the inhabitant is not quite done with its shell yet and it is a juvenile so hopefully it will live a nice long florida fighting conch life here you go buddy so it really is special being here it is just so beautiful it's hard to kind of shell near the water here that's the only bummer but you can really not complain when you're just going through piles and piles of seashells and here we have another one of those banded tulips excellent and all sorts of other piles to look through and i was hoping but no i was hoping that was going to be an albino florida fighting conch but just a beach horn a little bit beat up one oh well absolutely beautiful here and i pretty much have the place to myself yep pretty awesome so we'll try to get out there by the water and a little bit but for now we're going to see what is going to jump out at us in these other shell piles looks like a little bit of color all right here's one of your calico scallops and another calico scallop so just kind of scanning and i'm looking for shapes for colors there's another one of those little venus sun ray venus clams textures i mean there's all sorts of different attributes the shells you're going to kind of train your brain for so you know sometimes you'll just see a piece and you'll just you'll know what well you can hope that the rest of the shell is attached to that little piece hey lace muric's just sitting there this is another one of the shells that are really hard to find in other places but down here for whatever reason not too hard to find all right finally made it to the water and there's sand here yep there's those roots and stuff and so there's just a little bit of sand here and it's going to turn back really back into the roots and whatnot and honestly i've never really had luck here and it doesn't make any sense to me i feel like there really should be bigger shells out here something rolling around in the water not so much go figure so okay fine be that way i'll just head back inland and see what other kind of goodies are up there for me oh friend all right so that's one of those short spine sea stars we saw over by dickman's can't just leave him laying there so we'll get him to a little a little bit of water there you go wait for the dye to come in and a cone a florida cone and it's a little chipped i'm telling you they're so hard to find in good condition but still a very pretty little shell another olive not an albino but that's okay got some nice m's and w's on there awesome and another lace murics so normally on a any other kind of shelling day finding two lace mirrors in one day would be fantastic here it's like normal i love kites guys is awesome and another little lightning woke great color good condition empty all right a little bit of beach stuff but i'm going to keep that lightning well and then here we have a sarath on the left and an auger on the right i get this question often hopefully if i show you enough times you guys will know otherwise if it's pretty just pick it up and keep it that that's my motto if you like it just keep it and that is another calico scallop piece of a cone yeah that's a kind of pretty shell get some pink into our day i love these so that is a ribbed cantarus they don't get that big i just love them i don't know what it is about them they're just got a really cool shape and that's it ribbed cantharis really cool and a little top snail i accidentally left one of these in acid too long and it just completely removed the outside so underneath it's got this beautiful maker like the pen shell you can sometimes you can kind to see it so that is another top snail and this is a juvenile florida fighting conch and they have such great patterns another spiny jewel box yep he's spiky-ish we'll hold on to that didn't quite make the lumpy phase yet it's a little bit of spikes on it still so just getting you got to be careful i did walk into a tree branch that i was again hoping for that albino just showing you there is a little bit of sheen to it but it's just a very very light lettered olive so we found some pretty cool stuff so far that cinnabelle turid was pretty awesome that near perfect alphabet cone also very very cool got to see a couple of critters now at this point we have been together for quite a while so we are going to continue our walk next week but there are some things i cannot wait till next week to show you so i want to let you know that we're going to find one of the most gorgeous gorinorakas i think i've ever seen just absolutely stunning i find a true tool that is just awesome i've never seen one that color at least that i have found and check that cone out as well as that one so we are going to continue having a great walk discovering really awesome things next week and just real quickly before we go i want to show you all the shelves that are not going to make it into the final shot next week so next week i'm going to show you all the shelves that we found and i couldn't fit them all in the same shot so those are just the ones that aren't going to make it to the board next week so thank you so much patreons for supporting me monetarily and allowing me to continue to bring things like this to you and thank you everybody else for all of your love sharing the tips your comments i just appreciate you more than you can now so next week we are going to finish our walk on kais it's going to be awesome i hope you have a great week and i will see you again next sunday