Searching for rare low tide shells. I drove 3 hours and it was totally worth it!

Late summer at Honeymoon Island State Park is truly beautiful. I drove about three hours north to spend a few hours here and I was even greeted with a rainbow. So this is my third visit up here to Honeymoon Island and while expectations can set you up for disappointment, I'm hoping for two things I've never found anywhere else. Chestnut turban operculums and fat talons which I prefer to call potato chip shells. Now someone who lives up here might barely give them a second look. Meanwhile I find one and I act like I won the lottery. Now I realize they're not rare to everybody but they are rare to me and who knows they may get excited about something I walk past at home. We get used to what's around us, don't we? Now, of course, knowing these are ordinary to somebody else will do absolutely nothing to improve my composure if I find them. Let's see what turns up and whether the locals would be remotely impressed. Now, this is a morph. This is a chestnut turban, but it's got that orange color morph. Rare. That's kind of rare. I don't know that that would necessarily excite a local, but it sure is exciting for me. All right. This is kind of interesting. It's deteriorating because it's really kind of made out of like a keratin material. This is an operculum. Very different from the operculums that I'm kind of hunting for. And they're made from a completely different material as well. Oh, a bay scallop. Another shell I was hoping to find a few of, but you know what? I'm not making my wonderful morning depend on what ends up in my shell bag. I've got the beach, the sound of the water, and time to wander. Anything special that turns up is just a bonus. And you know, I'll be ridiculously excited about it. So if you're ready to see what all is out there for us today, let's go to the beach. Okay, the chestnut turbans. Well, in order to have chestnut turban operculums, you're going to need chestnut turbans. So that is the seashell that produces the operculum that I'm kind of on the hunt for. All right, there's a lot of grit. Some grit is awesome. All right, we have a couple of broken turbans. All right. Let's see. Oh, a bay scallop. Very nice. I really do like the bay scallops. And up here you can get ones that are more of a yellow and orange color. The ones that I find are typically more of a brown color. Now that is the operculum of a chestnut turban. Woot, woot. So I have at least one. So that is one of the things I was, I came up here to find. So yay. I think they're here. Like a little breadcrumb. Hopefully I'll find a couple more. Oh yes. Fantastic. I think they're so cool. So they're called cat's eyes or shiva shells. And depending on the size of the turban, that depends on the size of the operculum. So some turbans are like the size of your fist. So you can imagine that operculum can also get quite large. I'm kind of obsessed. I just think they're really, really cool. And that spiral shape. That's actually pointing on the inside of the shell. So if you were to look at the shell, if it were alive, that yellow rounded part, that's what would be exposed outward. Cool. Oh, yes. Woohoo. All right. They also have augers here. It's a broken, um, yeah, the aperture is a little broken, but this dark serif is completely intact. Fantastic. Another one and the rocks yeah Honeymoon Island was rocks were kind of imported here to build this island. Oh so this is called a wedding shell. Why is it called a wedding shell? Well because it's not native to Florida. So I don't know where that shell is from. I've just seen enough shell books to know it's not from Florida. So I didn't it's probably some sort of turid. And sometimes leftover shells from weddings, parties, who knows what, they just kind of end up on our beaches. Sometimes we even give them a name, a wedding shell. This is a Sunray Venus clam. That should absolutely be here. The color's a little interesting on top. But not unusual to find something like this. Honeymoon Island is 122 miles north of Sanibel or Fort Myers area. So things are going to be a little bit different up here. Another bay scallop. This actually looks like it's a little worse for wear. It's okay though. I got it. I figure for now I'm just going to put stuff. I came 122 miles. I'm going to put it in my shell bag and I'll worry about the other stuff later. Look at that beautiful jingle. Oh, that's really pretty. I like the color. Bright yellow jingle. And another operculum, yeah that one looks a little deteriorated and again I'm probably just going to collect anything that's intact and I'm going to worry about the condition of it later. All right we have a broad ribbed cardida, those I'm also used to, lovely little shells, oh it's got some calcareous tube worm stuff on the back of it and lots of stuff out in the ocean likes to glue themselves onto things. Yes, it looks like the buffet just opened and apparently everybody got the memo. So when the school of bait fish kind of moves in close to shore, the birds don't waste much time. The tide is going out at this point. It's not going to go too, too low, but that's all right. It's going to be a great morning. It's going to be a great morning. This is an Eastern white slipper snail. I typically find those on the inside of larger empty snails. Now this type of slipper snail that's not going to pile on stack on top of each other like some of the other species do. The eastern white slipper snail. Oh pretty bay scallop. Love that yellow color. Yep the more yellow the better. Fantastic. I don't get them. So that makes them a little bit on the rare side for me as well. Oh oh look at that grit. Hope fingers crossed hopefully there's a little something something here. All right a turban. Fantastic. I was expecting those. Didn't necessarily come for those. I was looking for perculants. What do we got? Beautiful. That's another little bay scallop. If you see the fighting conch here. Okay. Yeah. Very easily going to leave, decide to leave that here. Oh, no. Yeah. You know, at this point of my shell collecting career, I, there's some of them are catch and release. So the fighting conch and that shell, if it's broken, I'm just going to shark eye moon snail. A true shark eye moon snail, not to be confused with a false shark eye moon snail. Oh, a baby's ear. Yeah, that's like half of a baby's ear. I'd like to find one of those as well. All right, another chestnut turban. There's a lot of stuff in this little grit line there. Another one. These are, all right, yeah, that one's a little beat up, but we got a little fossilized pear whelk. Interesting. I was just going to say, I see the melampus, but really quick. So that's a coffee melampus. Didn't give it much screen time for some reason. I was too busy looking at the next shell I was going to pick up. And it's going to be a turban. That's fine. Yep, that works. Oh, beautiful bay scallop. Bright yellow. I see. I don't find those down by me. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. So that is a yellow bay scallop. Hmm. This is also interesting. A ladderhorn snail. The only other place, although I think I feel like I might have found one on Dickman's, but on Bunch Beach. Interesting. You know what? I find the Melampus there too. Hmm. Interesting that this is similar or some of the specimens are similar. And Bunch Beach is more of like a muddy bay kind of beach. So interesting. All right. Another chestnut turban. Yeah. I see the dark serif. Catch and release. Augur. Yeah. Yeah. That's swell. Okay. All right. Oh, a Fargo's worm snail. Not to be confused with the Florida worm snail. They are cool. Yeah. I like the weird and wonderful. Oh, button snail. Oh, well, broken. You'll have that. And grit is different. Sometimes the grit is tiny shells and there's good stuff in it. And other times it's just grit. But I get excited. Either way, I get excited before I kind of give it a Get a good look, a top snail. All right so if you were to come up to Honeymoon Island you also might find a top snail in addition to some chestnut turbans or a button snail. It's intact. And another. I'll work out the condition of it later. All right chestnut turban and now oh I kept it. All right I'm assuming I was gonna drop that one. Yeah so we have all right fantastic. Oh is that a bruise nasa? No it's not. This is a gulf Oyster Trill. So that a lot of gastropods um drill through shells that's how they kind of get their get their meals they eat other gastropods and whatnot all right another bay scallop with a little bit of organic material kind of smashed in the ribs there it's all right oh isn't that kind of pretty so very common the crossbarred venus clam but some of them can be really quite pretty including that one All right, so Honeymoon Island, depending on where you park, there's a couple different places to go. There's some jetties. I love jetties. A lot of times they kind of collect things. It looks like the feeding frenzy is still going on. All right, a leucine of the buttercup variety. Yes, so a buttercup leucine. Yeah, standard looking leucine. That works for me. Get another turban, but look at the nacre. Isn't that pretty? I did spend a couple minutes grinding off some of that with a Dremel, and it absolutely works. You can do it. So there is nacre underneath that top layer of a chestnut turban. A Florida prickly cockle. Adorable. Another turban. Yeah, there's a lot of turbans up here. Oh, no, a piece. Just a piece. But it shows me that you could find, theoretically. All right, there. A banded tulip, and I'm holding in my hand another dark serif that's really quite attractive. Lightning whelk that has been here a minute. Came in touch with a boring sponge or something. The minerals in the shells, everybody's looking for minerals, so other creatures and sponges and other things will kind of gouge out and suck out the minerals from shells. Not orange, but pretty, eh, broken. It's broken. Catch and release. All right, and a Florida horse conch. All right, cool. That works for me. Ooh, this looks pretty good. Oh, is that a sharp ribbed drill? Oh, it is. Oh, and it's kind of orange. Cool. Love those. Oh yeah, some grit is better than other grit. Yeah, I'm glad I picked that up. That would have bothered me. It's broken. Okay, now I know. Hmm, yeah, questionable. All right, that is a bruised NASA. Lovely. Oh, I thought I was going for the button snail, but it looks like I'm going for this other sharp ribbed drill. Is it most of it? Yep, no, it's intact. It's a little bit sandy. Hard to kind of tell. Oh, fantastic. Oh, I guess I'm not going for the button. Oh, oh, wait, I'm back. I got the button. Okay. Yes, it bothers me when it's... Now, on your side, it might be frustrating because you might think I'm looking for something like the auger. Like, I pass up a lot of shells. So it might look like I'm missing it, but I actually just passed it up. Moon snail. Okay. And then other times I don't see it. So it's kind of hard to say. Alright, that was a decent little grit pile. Oh, what are you? You're very dark is what you are. Okay, there's nobody in there. I haven't found a hermit crab yet. Wow. All right. It's hard with that coloring. Rinse that off and see if I can figure it out. Oh, a little banded tulip. You're so cute. A little ladderhorn snail. All right, let's rinse off that guy. Let's see if I can figure out what that is. Now typically I depend on color. But, in this particular case, that is a gulf oyster drill that just has a lot of stuff on it. The shell itself is a different color than I'm used to. But I've seen about a gazillion of them, so I can kind of tell at this point. Alright, chestnut turban. Oh, I love, love, love these. Ribbed cantharus. Yup. Yup. I know it kind of looks like the drill. I know. Some of these look very similar, but like I said, just look at about a billion shells and you'll be able to tell them apart. Alright, that's a juvenile fighting conk. It looked like somebody might have tried to drill a hole in there at some point. It was not successful, but that's a juvenile fighting conk. Oh more grit, yay! Hey, some of those operculums could be in there. Oh, a star shell. So that's a long-spined star shell in kind of terrible shape. But interesting because I only seem to find those on the east coast and in the Keys. And then up here in Honeymoon Island. It's like they completely skip the southwest portion of Florida. All right, that was a mauve-mouthed drill along with an auger. Here is a bruised nasa and another bruised nasa. A good little grit pile here. Oh, a button shell. Look how cute. Oh, it's so cute. Yeah, all right, tiny's work. That works for me. All right, wait, there's more. All right, there's an auger and another. Yeah, there are quite a few augers here. Oh, maybe I went back to that same grit pile. You know, that happened once with sea glass. I went through and got all the green, and then I noticed the brown, and then I noticed all the white, so it's funny. And I do see that white auger-looking thing. Not that. That, I think, is a fossil, but there was another augury-looking thing on the left that I kind of missed. That is another gulf oyster drill. Looks a little weird. It's a little taller, but that is a gulf oyster drill. See the olive in the background. Another bruise nasa. Boy, having the luxury of like looking at the screen instead of when you're there. It's a lot easier to look at the shells here. Oh yeah, there was an olive. Broken. Yeah, a couple of great little tinies. Okay, some of these. All right, this one actually, yeah, I'm skimming pretty quick. All right, nothing intact. But they kind of look the same from a distance. You've got to check it out. You just never know. All right, that looks like it might have been the last jetty that's going to help me out. Okay, Gulf Oyster Drill, you are such a strange color. I'm very much not used to you having those colors. But, yeah, really pretty. Yay, a yellow prickly cockle. That's not terribly yellow on the inside. That's okay. No judge. No judge. It is still yellow prickly cockle. This still has prickles. That counts. All right, yeah, so the jetties are behind me at this point, and moving toward the north end. I can't go all the way north. I'll talk about that in a minute. Tide's not quite all the way out yet, so getting there. Yeah, there's more of those rocks. Honeymoon Island was built. They kind of trucked in a whole bunch of rocks to create it, and yeah, there's still rocks. There's probably always going to be rocks here. What are you going to do? Oh, isn't that pretty? So this is railroad vine and it is fascinating because it actually recruits ants as bodyguards. So there's tiny glands beneath the leaves and it produces a nectar that attracts ants and it helps defend it when plant eating insects kind of show up. It's a beach plant with its own security team. Now each flower gets just one day. Flowers usually open at sunrise and close by early afternoon on sunny days, so I feel like I got here just in time. That was absolutely beautiful. I love seeing that purple and the green on the beach. Oh, just lovely. Thank you, Honeymoon Island. A frond oyster. So frond oysters are kind of cool. So something like that would have another valve that looked like it, and it would kind of attach itself to sea fans and things that kind of grow on the seafloor. So that is a The frond oyster. Turkey wing, almost has the same shape, doesn't it? So that is a turkey wing. Got quite a few holes in it. So this is likely a catch and release shell. But just to let you know, if you're coming up here to Honeymoon Island, yep, you might be able to find a turkey wing and a calico clam. You know, I haven't found any calico scallops. Hmm, I wonder if that's normal because each day can be kind of different. All right, another chestnut turban. Those are always here, that I do know. You know, I don't typically collect that seashell but the crossbarred venus clam but I am loving that color. I want to make some flowers with the bright bright or even the purple shoot either color so it can have a really intense yellow or a really intense purple color. I'm going to pay more attention to those. Gorgeous so that kind of bay scallop is what I typically the coloration is what I typically find down by me in southwest Florida. Oh that's beautiful and yep those are perculums. Look I don't Get to find them. Any other time except when I come up here. So I'm going to make hay while the sun is shining. Wow, that's beautiful. And you know what? I don't know if that's a bay scallop or a calico scallop. Calicos, I don't typically find a solid color like that. I just don't know. I don't know. But wow, I've been having so much fun. I've been finding the things I've been looking for for all intent and purposes. So I'm going to be quiet and let you enjoy some beach time. Okay, luckily the tide is kind of out, so if the tide were higher, yeah, I'd be like walking through the jungle up there. But at least for now it's low enough I can kind of meander at the water's edge. That is a bay scallop. So that I do know is a bay scallop. Okay, let's see what's kind of down here. And I'm almost as far north as we can go. Almost as far north as we can go. All right, a fighting conch. Hey, look at you. All intact and whatnot. So that's another shell we can get up here. Not rare at all, but guess what? They're my favorite. They're my favorite. Go figure. Yep. Another bay scallop. That, again, is the coloring I would expect to see if I were to find a bay scallop in southwest Florida. A little perilous. Yeah, I wouldn't want to bend over and take one of those sticks in the face. I'll tell you what. Okay. OPERCULUM! Operculums. Yes. All right. I do remember. Yeah, there was this little patch. I spent a couple minutes there. I spent a couple minutes picking up operculums. I couldn't help it. Yep. Oh, it was wonderful. And then I finally went up. Oh, look. Jingle. What's that? Jingles. Plural. Lovely. Now, so what is that other yellow thing? Excellent. Scallop. Bay scallop. Yeah, pretty. Yeah. Catch and release. Lovely, though, that other one. Intact. Beautiful color. I will make exceptions. It's not like I don't ever keep shells that don't have a slight imperfection. You know what? Like that one. Yeah, I'm going to file that down. Perfect. It's perfect. And you got to be real careful when you bend down. I will tell you what. Another turban. Oh, you're kind of swell. You can see some nacre, kind of like you're lifting your skirt up. Okay. Another scallop. Holy smokes. That's beautiful. And ah, you know what? Yeah, I'm going to file that down. I'm going to keep that. Oh, hello, mauve mouth drill. They tend to have that funny break in them. Kind of like the floridacones. I mean it's one of those things I like noticed but I never I guess verbalized. I'm looking for those. Oh yeah those little yellow dots on the sand. Excellent. Oh boy. Yeah. Oh fantastic. Love that little swirl. Can't have too many. Cannot have too many. Oh nice. So long spine star shell. That's got, it's got some pretty good spine. At least half the shell has some spines on it. That's kind of cool. You want to keep that. Well, they're not going to pick themselves up people. So I spent a couple minutes picking them up. Oh, coquina and an operculum. Yep. See what I mean though about the operculum from that lightning walk that we had found when we first pretty much got onto the beach. Yeah the operculum is much different. These are more mineral based versus the other operculum which is more protein based. So it just makes them a little different. Sharp rib drill. Yes! I was kind of kidding, but wow cool. All right so sharp rib drill, juvenile fighting conch, and more of those little shiva shells. Oh your lovely little yellow bay scallop. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. All right. More grit. Hopefully more. Those little fabulous shiva shells. Oh yeah. You know it's funny that I've never really had the urge to like sit down and show. I just I don't have the urge. I usually I'm fine kind of like grazing. You know just walking along picking things up. Only once these operculum. Here I really did want to plant myself and just sit there for a while picking them up. So I really did have that urge. Yes! Okay potato chip shell we meet again. So this is an Atlantic fat talon and I just think the shape is weird and awesome. So I think it kind of looks like a potato chip. So I'm going to call that that that is what I'm going to give that shell second name. That's a Florida prickly cockle. Now this is also a talon. This is an alternate talon. So, again, not uncommon, but just interesting. They're both talons. They're both in that same kind of family, but they look so very different. Yellow prickly cockle. Oh, yellow. A yellow bay scallop. Oh, I can make earrings, I think, with that other. Oh, I just love the yellow because I don't usually get to see it. Now, nacre, I do. I am not a stranger to nacre. I actually really like nacre. Or Mother of Pearl. I didn't realize it was called like that. I don't know why so many of these things have two names. It can certainly be confusing. Just beautiful. I love parks like this because there's only one entrance kind of sorter. And if you want to get up here, you got to walk. All right, Shark Eye, you're in questionable condition. And I'm going to work that out later. Yeah, for now, you're going to come. You're going to hang out with the operculums in my shell bag. Oh, and this very pretty bay scallop. Oh really pretty color on that. Oh that's great. That's great. I don't normally get to say it. That's awesome. It's like shelling in a different country almost. Oh oh another. Oh look how nice that one is. Potato chip shell. Oh yes. I love the wrinkle. I absolutely love that wrinkle on the left. You have the fat talent. But we'll just call it the potato chip shell. Yay a baby's here. I was Who's hoping to find one of those too? Oh, it's so pretty! It's big too, intact. Oh, that's gorgeous. It's reminding me of the black one I found up in North Carolina, beautiful. Oh, there's another long spine star shell, an operculum. All right, that one's good. It's not quite long, it's got little lumps. It's a star lump shell of sorts and an operculum. Whoa, look at the color of that prickly cockle end. It's giving me an operculum. It's a twofer. All right, one shell grab, but two fabulous little treasures. I love the yellow on that buttercup lusine. Really awesome. Guys, guys. That is a flat tree oyster. So I've only ever found one. So that is only the second one I've ever found. They're very flat. They can pack themselves into a very, very small area. So that is a flat tree oyster. Oh, so very cool. Very, very cool. All right. More colors, more oranges and yellows. I'm not necessarily used to. Oh, and a very slippery. We have an elegant docenia. Now the disc docenia, those lines on it are very, very close together. This one you can kind of see them. So I'm going with an elegant docenia. That is a rose petal talon. So that is also a talon like the potato chip shell and that alternate talon. And if you look really, really close, it does have a wrinkle in it too. It has that funny shell wrinkle. Isn't it pretty? You're actually not as beat up as most of the other chestnut turbans I've picked up. Kind of a monochromatic shell, but lovely nonetheless. Now, this was not always the most northern part of Honeymoon Island. That over there used to be attached but first Hurricane Idalia came through in 23 and then in 24 Helene came through and just completely busted it up. So now this is as far as we can get and this was the location where I sat down and had a lovely picnic lunch. Can you imagine a more beautiful location to just take a breather for a few minutes? I did. I sat my fanny down and I And I picked up Uber Eats for a couple of minutes as I was eating my sandwich. So it was awesome. Oh, what a fun day. Oh, see, there was a lot of them there. So I just sat there, picked them up. They're not gonna pick themselves up, people. And just as a reminder, they come from the chestnut turban. Now that, it's not perfect, I get it, but it's the best one I found today, a long spine star shell. That one's a pretty good example of one. Yeah that's pretty cool and that also has that nacre underneath. Interesting. All right we have two iconic birds that you can kind of see. The osprey up in the tree and the tricolored heron on the ground. Tricolored herons only get to about 21 inches tall or so. So they're not going to compete. They're not going to be as big as some of the larger great herons and whatnot. A Morton's egg cockle. You can also call that a yellow egg cockle. But I know it is a Morton's egg cockle. Fun. Of course it has two names. All right that is a Florida prickly cockle and albino version. Yeah it's got some beach stuff on it but I kind of like it and that might pop off so I'm gonna go ahead and throw that in my shell bag. Now it's always a little bit of a gamble when I travel for shelves and there's no guarantee I'm going to find anything but today was wonderful. I found what I was looking for and some and yes I'm ridiculously pleased about it. Just goes to show that something rare can show up several times in one morning. Now garbage I was kind of hoping that that sole would be heavier but I only ended up with 4.55 ounces of garbage but that's okay because in total I'm getting there. Over 98 pounds of garbage I've removed from our beaches. Took a couple shells too. Yes, there were a couple of those chestnut turbines. I do see a potato chip shell on the bottom there. The docenia, the nacre, the long-spired star shells, the jingles, the wedding shell, the augers, the serif. Top snails, leucines, that frond oyster, there were some fighting conchs, some cockles, the giant Atlantic, the Florida prickly cockle, yellow prickly cockle, a worm snail, we got some shark eyes, button snail, slipper snail, the sunray venus clam, the calico clam, there's some olives there, a Florida leucine, there's the crossbar venus clam, a winged pearl oyster, the alternate talon. So many fun little drills there. They all kind of look like each other between the Gulf Oyster drills, the sharp rib drills. There's horse conchs, nasses. Look at the operculums. Those are not even all of them. So yeah, I just kind of snagged a quahog and piled them in there. There's the cut ribbed arc. Lots of those bay scallops, especially the yellow ones. I'm just, I'm in love with the, yeah, the yellow and the orange ones all. And then my favorites for today Thank you so much for joining us today. Bay scallops, the flat tree oyster, the baby's ear, the potato, that potato chip shell, that bay scallop, the long spine star shell, and that sharp rib drill. Wow, that is a mouthful. And Patreons, yes, it is that time of the video where I try to convey just how grateful I am for you. Today was about finding things that are rare to me, but having people who help me keep doing something I love. That's pretty special, too. You're part of these videos before I even get sand in my shoes. And your support makes these adventures possible. So thank you for helping me continue to bring a little beach time into people's lives and supporting a woman who gets excited about potato chip shells. Now, next week, we're headed to lovers. Okay, I will tell you all about it. There was a reason I went. The most exciting thing for me was actually a critter experience. So until then, I hope you have yourself a wonderful week and I'll see you again next Sunday.