I recently likened them to snowflakes - no two are the same. I have to agree with the fascination part. I can pick up the same type of shell all day and find something unique to love about it. Thanks so much for watching!
Now this is the first time I had been out looking for Shells and such I had friends who lived on the Island Worked at one of the Motels à small place but I loved it and will try to get back down there ,,,,,I Miss you guys hope to See You...🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖💖💖💖
Oh my word--this is exciting!! THIS is where my hubby & I used to vacation when we needed a break from our North Dakota winters!! It's interesting that you're finding those olives because I found that they were pretty plentiful there. It was fun to try to grab onto them as they were rolling in the shallow water. They're a favorite of mine because of the smoothness & patterns. I also like the spiney jewel boxes because of the juxtaposition of the rough, spiney exterior and the pretty soft pink interior. I I just wanted to add that one year a pair of manatees swam past us in the water. They weren't more than 3 or 4 feet away from us! It was one of the greatest experiences we had there. I knew NOT to try to touch or disturb them as I'd done my due diligence by reading up on what a person should not do regarding sea creatures & shelling, etc. So, I also knew not to take any shells that were 'occupied.' Also, other tourists were surprised when I said we had pelicans up here in North Dakota & Minnesota. Our pelicans are white so I don't know that they're the same kind as Florida's, but they're large like yours. In fact, one of North Dakota's national wildlife refuges has the world's largest colony of white pelicans. Thanks so much for taking us on your shelling journeys. I'm really, REALLY enjoying them!
That is interesting about the white pelicans! We get them down here in the winter as they migrate from up north. They are the 2nd largest bird in the US, only to the California condor and they are about 3x the size of the brown pelicans we have here. I enjoyed Lido Key - especially all the olives. It's the only experience so far I've had with being able to shell after/during dredging. Apparently the shells are more plentiful a bit more south where I normally go beach combing but I'd still like to visit a few more places up that way. Thank you so much for watching and congrats on your awesome manatee experience!
‘Olive-palooza’ 🤣🤣🤣 I love the discolored shells, too. And pieces, especially of large shells, are so interesting to me. I have a couple of glass vases full from our vacations in South Carolina along with some good looking whole knobbed whelks. Even made some wire wrapped jewelry pendants from central whirl pieces which intrigued me. Love your channel and have been binge-watching over the last couple of days. I’m going to be sorry to catch-up. You have such a fun, good-natured voice and attitude! Also, you do really well with the camera steadiness and video production, which makes the whole package calm and fun to watch. TYSM!
My husband was on a kick for a while and was making jewelry out of all sorts of pieces of shells. One of my favorites happens to be just the whorl from the interior of the shell. There's so many things to love about those beauties!
You are so very welcome! This week is a bonus week too. I'm dropping my organizing/what I do with my shells video on Wednesday. Thank you for watching!
We were married years ago in "The Keys"...due to health issues we have not made it to FLA in over 5 yr....2021 we WILL be vaca'ing in the KEys again and looking forward to driving through SWF on the way down....we love Lover's Key State Park and I appreciate your videos---going to help me "hang in" until May!
I can’t wait to get back to The Keys! Our trip there is what convinced us we need to move to FL. Not as many great beaches there but holy cow it’s beautiful. In the meantime I’ll keep taking you to the beach each Sunday! Thank you for watching!
It was definitely a good day to find olives! I'm glad it was a shell that I really like :) I hope you can make it down here too! There's nothing more relaxing AND fun than walking the beach looking for goodies. Thank you for watching!
I loved seeing a new beach. Thanks so much for the road trip and beach excursion. Such fun. I paused the video at the end to count the olives. 180 olives! Definitely olive palooza!!!!
180?! I didn't even count there were so many! I really enjoyed hitting the road and checking out a different beach. I recently went to the East Coast to check out the shells - that video coming next Sunday! Thank you for watching!
Yesss!! I’m so glad you went! It was awesome when we went about a month ago is when I found my very first Junonia and a huge perfect Alphabet Cone! The second time we went a couple weeks ago, I found my very first Horse Conchs and of course, tons of olives and Florida Fighting Conchs. 🐚💜
You lucky girl!! I was hoping we might get a junonia, but oh well. Congrats on your finds - that's amazing! Isn't it exciting? It should be going on through October - maybe we'll try it one more time in the next few weeks. Thank you for watching!!
That fighting conch shell colors was amazing! The olive collection was also so cool. Never been to Sarasota but sure did look pretty!!! Thanks for sharing!!!🐚🌴🧡
Congrats on your olive find! I think I love them so much because some are so smooth and shiny naturally. Just can't get enough. Thank you for watching!
Ooh yes Sarasota! I switch between Sanibel and Siesta Key. I’ve been to Lido, Anna Maria also. Love that area. Great finds. Turtle Beach a little south of Siesta Key is a more ruff area and it’s beautiful. Found my first lace murex there🙂 Next road trip north, you should check out Caspersen beach near Venice. Lots of sharks teeth to find!
This was actually our second trip up North - we did go to Caspersen Beach since my husband was dying to look for sharks teeth and we found quite a few! I love exploring different beaches so ideally we can get up there from time to time to see what the beaches up there are like. Anna Maria looks like a place I really want to visit and I'll have to put Turtle Beach on the list too! Thank you for watching!
WOW...look at all those Olives. I would love to find a 3” Olive. I have never seen a gray Olive, it was lovely. It’s always fun to shell on a different beach. Thanks for sharing. ❤️
just wanted to say thanks....been on vaca in anna maria for a couple weeks and made the short drive to lidos beach and was not disapointed...still great shell'n....ton's of olives, really nice sharks eye and Murex.....FYI, they are still dredging the pass so tons of stuff washing up at the ebb.....no scoop needed...just walked the surf.
I'm so glad you took the trip and found great stuff! We were really glad we took the trip up. I have a bunch more beaches up that way I want to hit - I doubt I'll make it back up to Lido any time soon but I was happy to visit and pass along all the info! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave me a comment!
I have so many favorites! Finding the albino whelks is a lot of fun! Wait - finding all the shells is actually really fun. I just love being on the beach!
Beautiful beach. Love it. Great shell haul. Definitely an olive palooza 😊 I read in a previous comment to me that you went to Philly and stayed on Walnut St. I'm familiar with Walnut St. I don't live in Center City, I'm in South Philadelphia. But I sure wish I was in SW Florida. What a beautiful place to live. I've been to Florida a number of times, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, Key West, Orlando, the Panhandle. The water is the most gorgeous blue. Your shells are lovely. Linda from Philadelphia
Hopefully I'll get to visit all the great beaches down here in FL. I'll never get tired of finding beautiful places to explore and considering where I live I don't think I'll run out of places to visit any time soon! I'm glad I can take you along with me until you can get to the beach for yourself. Thank you for the comment and thank you for watching!
Welcome to my channel! Thanks for the kind comment and thank you for watching! I'm glad to be able to share my beach walks with others that can't get to the beach as often as I do :)
Thanks for sharing the dredging video! I might have to consider giving that a try if shelling on Sanibel isn't great when I head down. The only bad thing I can say about dredge shelling is, a lot more than usual of the shells are grey, faded, or very worn. Some of the shells could have been buried for years if not decades so sometimes the quality can be a bit lacking, but you tend to get huge quantities although you got quite a few nice ones! While this is definitely quite far from Sanibel and the thought of driving all the way there on vacation turns me off a bit, but your video definitely piqued my interest. The shell you found at 4:40 was a Rock Snail, quite a rare find, I am assuming because not many rocks in the Sanibel area! I only have a handful in my collection and half of which I found in the span of five minutes all in one spot. It looks almost exactly like a Tinted Cantharus, but it gets larger and if you have a fresh one it has a cream-sickle orange inside another way to tell them apart. The shell at 8:50 is indeed a Tinted Cantharus. Also congrats on the Junonia piece! That's a good sign shelling is great. Also I couldn't believe the all the olives and they are huge! That is one species that really has proliferated in the past 5-10 years.
The dredging is only going on through October, so not sure it will make sense to take a trip up there depending on when you're coming. I have been doing some other beach explorations, so I haven't been to Sanibel in a few weeks. I'm hoping the shelling is starting to pick up. Low tide at Fort Myers Beach has been great lately! No wonder I had such a hard time identifying that rock snail - there are a few that look so similar and if I don't find them all the time they really stump me. We have found a few junonia pieces - but nothing ever bigger than just a piece. Yet - LOL. And some of those olives I found were HUGE! Only a few were still shiny but I'm always excited when I find those big fat ones. Love 'em! Thank you so much for watching and I hope you find lots of goodies when you come down!
Great video again this week! I think the shell at 4:42 is a Florida Rock shell, which to find one sitting on a sandy beach in the west coast of Florida is quite rare! I have only ever found one so far, you usually find them in rocky areas as the common name suggests. Maybe they are more common in the Sarasota area? I'm not sure but that really is a cool find!
Thank you for the identification help! Some of these shells look so dang similar to other ones and it's so hard to identify them correctly. This was my first trip up to the Sarasota area, so I have no idea what the "regular" shells up there might be. I'm sure the dredging is adding to my confusion! Thank you again for your assistance and thanks for watching!
Holy Olive day!! You found some whoppers for sure. Thank you for sharing your trip and treasures .I am actually watching this while we are headed out to Sanibel "Blind Pass" for some night shelling.. lol
@@SWFBeachLife Just pulled up. Watched the sun set on the way out..lol Looks like your comments are being invaded by porno/dating sights. Be careful you may want to block them..
Thank you so much for going to Lido key. I vacationed there the last 3 years and where I got hooked on shelling! Not sure when it will be possible to get back there or finally get to visit Sanibel and it’s awesome beaches you share. Keep safe & well 🙂
I'm lucky there are so many amazing beaches so close to home! I didn't get to experience the big shell piles but it was still a glorious day to be out and about. I'm hoping my videos are the next best thing to visiting - thank you for watching and hope you stay safe too!
It was fun despite not having the huge shell piles I was hoping for. We headed to the East Coast recently and we found all sorts of goodies I had to break the book out to identify! That videos coming on Sunday 😊
WOw congrats on your first junonia. Amazing! Even a piece of a junonia is rare and better than no junonia. I love the olives. They are definitely close to max size. Oh and I have never found a shark eye/moon snail. One day. I really miss going to the beach.
What? Never a shark eye? I wasn’t a fan at first but now I love them - especially the colorful moon snail. We have found pieces of junonias but they sure are hard to come by. The beach has been hot and while I’m not necessarily looking forward to cooler weather it will be nice to stay on the beach longer.
@@SWFBeachLife Winter is the best shelling. I recommend you buy tall rain boots so you can wade during the cold months. You don't have to go deep. Do what you're already doing in like a foot of water but that will save your feet from icy water. I've cheated though. I have bought perfect specimines of moon snails and guady nauticas from a store right there on the beach of Treasure Island. "Hum, didn't find much today. I'll treat myself." I'm so bad ha ha.
@@ScaryFear LOL! That's a good plan when you can't find anything - just treat yourself! I did bring one pair of rain boots from up North, and I will indeed try them this winter. I FROZE last winter until about 11am every time we went out! Live and learn ;)
How did you find out about beaches being dredged please? I love your shelling vids. You should win an award for such entertaining relaxing UA-cam uploads. Oh and “Here’s looking at you kid!” 👀
I found out about the dredging from other shellers on social media. They seemed to really be finding great shells so I tried to go up there and see what all the hoopla was about. It was nice to see a different area of Florida! I think typically the beaches are prepared with machines and the news alerts the public so it's just a matter of people sharing the info :)
Just wanted to let you know I went down to Lido Beach yesterday and it was LOADED. Guessing the rip currents helped the dredging bring a lot up. Thanks for the tip. BTW, did you get my reply to your question about Honeymoon Island? I don't think UA-cam notifies of replies past the first one.
Yay! I hope you managed to get a lot of good stuff! I did get the message about Honeymoon Island - that's where all the chestnut turbans are right? It's on the list. At some point I am going to plan a good road trip. Eventually I will make it to all the good beaches!
Yes! A pretty big tinted cantharis too! And another! There are literally tons of chestnut turbines up my way - different colors and patterns. They're so common I don't pick them up much unless they're really unusual or beautiful. I always get a kick out of Sanibel shellers who comment about them being so cool. I drool at the horse conchs you guys find! I just have one question: what on earth are you going to do with all those olive shells??! The news here in Tampa had a thing about the dredging in Sarasota county. Looked like fun but I didn't make it there. When did you go?
We went last Saturday 9/19. I know the dredging is going on through October, but we wanted to get up there and maybe pick through some shell piles. LOL - I would be one of those chestnut droolers! I just finished editing a video about how I organize and what I do with my shells. That video will drop on Wednesday. Hopefully I managed to answer everyone's questions! Thank you for watching!!!
So the beaches I normally shell at are being dredged as I speak, and I am losing my mind bc I want to get past the orange fence!! My husband (not a sheller, but a bad boy) is trying to get me to go at night with him with headlamps on to get shells 😂 I have endlessly searched the internet trying to figure out what the dredgers do with the shells bc someone told me they have like a giant strainer where they catch them so they don’t actually go on the beach. Now, I just need to get my hands on this giant strainer 🤔
That would drive me mad too! I think the shells get good and disturbed when dredging is going on so hopefully you'll have quite a few weeks of good shelling once you're allowed back on the beach. I would make a giant strainer out of a 5-gallon bucket and chicken wire!
@@SWFBeachLife So today I went to check out the dredging situation, see how close I could get. As I got closer, a guy sitting on one of the vehicles honked at me me and waved me over. So I go over and he tells me I can’t go over there. So I said well can you tell me where the shells are, and he played dumb with me and made some story up. We ended up talking for a good 40 mins, trading stories, telling each other about our lives, etc, and at the end, I said I know you know where the shells are mister!!! He sighs and hops out the car and we walk fifty feet to a giant metal container and boom, tens of thousands of shells just sitting in there!!! I’m like OMG and I start sorting through and he’s like you really have to leave, come back at night and go through it!! So I left but I grabbed like 3 things out of it before I left 😆 totally going in the next few nights just have to figure out my plan of action. Just thought I would share that with you!
The nutmegs have a neat little opening where you can see the little twirly piece of the shell in the opening. They are also brown and white. The chestnut turbans have a different shape (but they are also very beaded looking) and the opening of their shell is more shaped like a circle. I did film a shell ID video and one of these days I'll get it up on my channel. Hope this helps!
It's a battle I'm still trying to solve. I bought a pair of sports sandals that are okay to get wet, and the sand still gets between the bottom of my foot and the shoe. The water socks I have are horrible. They just collect the sand in the shoe. There are "shoes" they make for yoga (more like socks with heavier bottoms) that I might give a try but I'm still experimenting trying to find the perfect solution. I wore the sports shoes for this excursion and it's a good thing. It probably would have been quite painful to walk around in the surf on all those shells. Once I find the magic solution I promise I'll share :) Thank you for watching!!!
I about choked on my soup when you said ... maybe I should have brought my scoop. I was just about ready to pause the video and ask you about whether you thought a scoop would help. What is the advantage of doing do ... or, disadvantage?
LOL! Scooping...can be very helpful if the surf is too rough to really see and grab shells. You'll just scoop up a bunch of whatever you get, then you pick through what you scooped. Since I'm usually recording as I'm finding things, a scoop makes it almost impossible for me to film and shell at the same time, so it's a disadvantage for me almost always. However, if there is nothing on the beach and you know theres goodies in the surf it can definitely help find shells. On this trip it probably wouldn't have really assisted since it was possible to see and grab things. Thank you for watching my antics!
I’m so excited you went there!! I wondered what it would look like I’ve read so many comments from people who were there when there were huge piles. I’m trying to get a trip to Florida in the next couple of weeks. The shells are common to you, but I’ve yet to even make it to a beach with whole shells 😂. I could have sat in a small pile and played for hours! I loved the HUGE beautiful olives and even a piece of a Junonia would be amazing!! Thanks for the road trip, I loved it!!!
I'm so glad you liked my trip! If you want to find whole shells, I have to recommend South Fort Myers Beach as well as Sanibel. You will find whole shells!!! I hope you can make it down here too. I HAD to get up to Lido Key to see what all the hoopla was all about. Sounds like the shell piles come and go and while I didn't get to explore any piles, it was fun to see something different and check out a new beach. Thank you so much for your support and thank you for watching my adventures!
I've found two different answers when I've researched this. They call them fighting conchs because they can "jump" at other snails (with their bodies) and it's been said the males will "fight" each other. For such docile critters they sure have a fearsome name!
It was fun to go back and watch this video, which I hadn’t seen before. Thank you! ❤🐚
Seems to me shells are similar to people, no two are the same, which is what makes your hobby so fascinating.
I recently likened them to snowflakes - no two are the same. I have to agree with the fascination part. I can pick up the same type of shell all day and find something unique to love about it. Thanks so much for watching!
Now this is the first time I had been out looking for Shells and such I had friends who lived on the Island Worked at one of the Motels à small place but I loved it and will try to get back down there ,,,,,I Miss you guys hope to See You...🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰💖💖💖💖💖💖
Love your videos. I have even started to recognize the names of the shells.thank you for all your adventures.
Thanks for watching!
Oh my word--this is exciting!! THIS is where my hubby & I used to vacation when we needed a break from our North Dakota winters!!
It's interesting that you're finding those olives because I found that they were pretty plentiful there. It was fun to try to grab onto them as they were rolling in the shallow water. They're a favorite of mine because of the smoothness & patterns. I also like the spiney jewel boxes because of the juxtaposition of the rough, spiney exterior and the pretty soft pink interior.
I I just wanted to add that one year a pair of manatees swam past us in the water. They weren't more than 3 or 4 feet away from us! It was one of the greatest experiences we had there. I knew NOT to try to touch or disturb them as I'd done my due diligence by reading up on what a person should not do regarding sea creatures & shelling, etc. So, I also knew not to take any shells that were 'occupied.'
Also, other tourists were surprised when I said we had pelicans up here in North Dakota & Minnesota. Our pelicans are white so I don't know that they're the same kind as Florida's, but they're large like yours. In fact, one of North Dakota's national wildlife refuges has the world's largest colony of white pelicans.
Thanks so much for taking us on your shelling journeys. I'm really, REALLY enjoying them!
That is interesting about the white pelicans! We get them down here in the winter as they migrate from up north. They are the 2nd largest bird in the US, only to the California condor and they are about 3x the size of the brown pelicans we have here.
I enjoyed Lido Key - especially all the olives. It's the only experience so far I've had with being able to shell after/during dredging. Apparently the shells are more plentiful a bit more south where I normally go beach combing but I'd still like to visit a few more places up that way. Thank you so much for watching and congrats on your awesome manatee experience!
Looked like so much fun and i am learning a lot!!
‘Olive-palooza’ 🤣🤣🤣 I love the discolored shells, too. And pieces, especially of large shells, are so interesting to me. I have a couple of glass vases full from our vacations in South Carolina along with some good looking whole knobbed whelks. Even made some wire wrapped jewelry pendants from central whirl pieces which intrigued me. Love your channel and have been binge-watching over the last couple of days. I’m going to be sorry to catch-up. You have such a fun, good-natured voice and attitude! Also, you do really well with the camera steadiness and video production, which makes the whole package calm and fun to watch. TYSM!
My husband was on a kick for a while and was making jewelry out of all sorts of pieces of shells. One of my favorites happens to be just the whorl from the interior of the shell. There's so many things to love about those beauties!
That piece of Junonia made my heart stop! What a haul. Thanks for the bonus week ❤️
You are so very welcome! This week is a bonus week too. I'm dropping my organizing/what I do with my shells video on Wednesday. Thank you for watching!
We were married years ago in "The Keys"...due to health issues we have not made it to FLA in over 5 yr....2021 we WILL be vaca'ing in the KEys again and looking forward to driving through SWF on the way down....we love Lover's Key State Park and I appreciate your videos---going to help me "hang in" until May!
I can’t wait to get back to The Keys! Our trip there is what convinced us we need to move to FL. Not as many great beaches there but holy cow it’s beautiful. In the meantime I’ll keep taking you to the beach each Sunday! Thank you for watching!
Those olives are amazing! You found some enormous ones!! Can't wait for my opportunity to come down and go shelling!
It was definitely a good day to find olives! I'm glad it was a shell that I really like :) I hope you can make it down here too! There's nothing more relaxing AND fun than walking the beach looking for goodies. Thank you for watching!
I loved seeing a new beach. Thanks so much for the road trip and beach excursion. Such fun. I paused the video at the end to count the olives. 180 olives! Definitely olive palooza!!!!
180?! I didn't even count there were so many! I really enjoyed hitting the road and checking out a different beach. I recently went to the East Coast to check out the shells - that video coming next Sunday! Thank you for watching!
Yesss!! I’m so glad you went! It was awesome when we went about a month ago is when I found my very first Junonia and a huge perfect Alphabet Cone! The second time we went a couple weeks ago, I found my very first Horse Conchs and of course, tons of olives and Florida Fighting Conchs. 🐚💜
You lucky girl!! I was hoping we might get a junonia, but oh well. Congrats on your finds - that's amazing! Isn't it exciting? It should be going on through October - maybe we'll try it one more time in the next few weeks. Thank you for watching!!
That fighting conch shell colors was amazing! The olive collection was also so cool. Never been to Sarasota but sure did look pretty!!! Thanks for sharing!!!🐚🌴🧡
You are so welcome! Thank you for watching!
I love these videos....I spent a lot of time (in my younger days) collecting pretty shells.
It's so much fun collecting shells and I love sharing my finds and beaches. Thanks so much for watching!
OMG Looked like perfect shelling conditions. 🤗🐚🐚🐚 Keep on shelling
We will! Thank you for watching!
WoW! Those Olives are huge 😳. I found my first olive just last week. Thanks for taking us along! 🤗
Congrats on your olive find! I think I love them so much because some are so smooth and shiny naturally. Just can't get enough. Thank you for watching!
Ooh yes Sarasota! I switch between Sanibel and Siesta Key. I’ve been to Lido, Anna Maria also. Love that area. Great finds. Turtle Beach a little south of Siesta Key is a more ruff area and it’s beautiful. Found my first lace murex there🙂
Next road trip north, you should check out Caspersen beach near Venice. Lots of sharks teeth to find!
This was actually our second trip up North - we did go to Caspersen Beach since my husband was dying to look for sharks teeth and we found quite a few! I love exploring different beaches so ideally we can get up there from time to time to see what the beaches up there are like. Anna Maria looks like a place I really want to visit and I'll have to put Turtle Beach on the list too! Thank you for watching!
Throughly enjoyed your trip to Lido Beach. So exciting to see all those beautiful olives.😍
Yay! I'm glad you enjoyed. It was nice to see a different beach and I sure did hit the jackpot with the olives that day! Thank you for watching!
Beautiful olive day! Awesome whelks! Love this video. Thanks you for sharing this amazing walk with me! 😊
It was indeed a good day for olives! Sorry no cones - LOL! Thanks again for watching!
Yes! Come to Sarasota, PLEASE! Shells are good after a storm, but most shelling is done in the water.
I'll get up there one of these days!
@@SWFBeachLife ❤️ call me and I’ll hold your phone for you!😄
@@dalegruder2363 😂
Oh heavens..look at the olives!!! I love them too..and all of them same as DMV or not!! Thank you!
It was indeed a very good day for olives! Thank you for watching!
I love it there .Stayed with Friends we went swimming and Shell hunts most everyday .Hopefully get back down soon.
WOW...look at all those Olives. I would love to find a 3” Olive. I have never seen a gray Olive, it was lovely.
It’s always fun to shell on a different beach. Thanks for sharing. ❤️
I'm glad you enjoyed! Thank you for watching!
You could walk up towards the hotels and go around. There was a huge pile over there up for grabs on the other side! 🤗
just wanted to say thanks....been on vaca in anna maria for a couple weeks and made the short drive to lidos beach and was not disapointed...still great shell'n....ton's of olives, really nice sharks eye and Murex.....FYI, they are still dredging the pass so tons of stuff washing up at the ebb.....no scoop needed...just walked the surf.
I'm so glad you took the trip and found great stuff! We were really glad we took the trip up. I have a bunch more beaches up that way I want to hit - I doubt I'll make it back up to Lido any time soon but I was happy to visit and pass along all the info! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave me a comment!
Wonderful video! Loved the new location!!
Thank you very much! And as always - thanks for watching!
I would have been in my Olive glory....loved the grey one especially.
I made sure to keep that one. I usually prefer the pristine ones, but there was something very neat about that gray one! Thank you for watching!
Nice finds! My favorites are albino lightning whelks and fighting conchs.
I have so many favorites! Finding the albino whelks is a lot of fun! Wait - finding all the shells is actually really fun. I just love being on the beach!
Beautiful beach. Love it. Great shell haul. Definitely an olive palooza 😊 I read in a previous comment to me that you went to Philly and stayed on Walnut St. I'm familiar with Walnut St. I don't live in Center City, I'm in South Philadelphia. But I sure wish I was in SW Florida. What a beautiful place to live. I've been to Florida a number of times, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, Key West, Orlando, the Panhandle. The water is the most gorgeous blue. Your shells are lovely. Linda from Philadelphia
Hopefully I'll get to visit all the great beaches down here in FL. I'll never get tired of finding beautiful places to explore and considering where I live I don't think I'll run out of places to visit any time soon! I'm glad I can take you along with me until you can get to the beach for yourself. Thank you for the comment and thank you for watching!
Excellent videos. Just found your channel and love it already. I subscribed. Love shelling. Keep up the great work
Welcome to my channel! Thanks for the kind comment and thank you for watching! I'm glad to be able to share my beach walks with others that can't get to the beach as often as I do :)
Road trip! We are about to go down one side of Florida and back up the other side.
I LOVE SELLS!!!!!!!
Me too!!!!!
Thanks for sharing the dredging video! I might have to consider giving that a try if shelling on Sanibel isn't great when I head down. The only bad thing I can say about dredge shelling is, a lot more than usual of the shells are grey, faded, or very worn. Some of the shells could have been buried for years if not decades so sometimes the quality can be a bit lacking, but you tend to get huge quantities although you got quite a few nice ones! While this is definitely quite far from Sanibel and the thought of driving all the way there on vacation turns me off a bit, but your video definitely piqued my interest.
The shell you found at 4:40 was a Rock Snail, quite a rare find, I am assuming because not many rocks in the Sanibel area! I only have a handful in my collection and half of which I found in the span of five minutes all in one spot. It looks almost exactly like a Tinted Cantharus, but it gets larger and if you have a fresh one it has a cream-sickle orange inside another way to tell them apart. The shell at 8:50 is indeed a Tinted Cantharus. Also congrats on the Junonia piece! That's a good sign shelling is great. Also I couldn't believe the all the olives and they are huge! That is one species that really has proliferated in the past 5-10 years.
The dredging is only going on through October, so not sure it will make sense to take a trip up there depending on when you're coming. I have been doing some other beach explorations, so I haven't been to Sanibel in a few weeks. I'm hoping the shelling is starting to pick up. Low tide at Fort Myers Beach has been great lately!
No wonder I had such a hard time identifying that rock snail - there are a few that look so similar and if I don't find them all the time they really stump me. We have found a few junonia pieces - but nothing ever bigger than just a piece. Yet - LOL. And some of those olives I found were HUGE! Only a few were still shiny but I'm always excited when I find those big fat ones. Love 'em! Thank you so much for watching and I hope you find lots of goodies when you come down!
Great video again this week! I think the shell at 4:42 is a Florida Rock shell, which to find one sitting on a sandy beach in the west coast of Florida is quite rare! I have only ever found one so far, you usually find them in rocky areas as the common name suggests. Maybe they are more common in the Sarasota area? I'm not sure but that really is a cool find!
Thank you for the identification help! Some of these shells look so dang similar to other ones and it's so hard to identify them correctly. This was my first trip up to the Sarasota area, so I have no idea what the "regular" shells up there might be. I'm sure the dredging is adding to my confusion! Thank you again for your assistance and thanks for watching!
Holy Olive day!! You found some whoppers for sure. Thank you for sharing your trip and treasures .I am actually watching this while we are headed out to Sanibel "Blind Pass" for some night shelling.. lol
Too funny! It’s beautiful there. Hope you see a gorgeous sunset and find lots of goodies!
@@SWFBeachLife Just pulled up. Watched the sun set on the way out..lol Looks like your comments are being invaded by porno/dating sights. Be careful you may want to block them..
Thanks for sharing....would love to go to a dredging..
Thank you for watching! There had been so much talk about what was going on up there I had to share :)
Great haul! I thought your bracelet was very pretty too.
Thank you! That's my fancy FitBit bracelet. I like keeping track of how much we walk - it's a LOT! Thank you for watching!
Thank you so much for going to Lido key. I vacationed there the last 3 years and where I got hooked on shelling! Not sure when it will be possible to get back there or finally get to visit Sanibel and it’s awesome beaches you share. Keep safe & well 🙂
I'm lucky there are so many amazing beaches so close to home! I didn't get to experience the big shell piles but it was still a glorious day to be out and about. I'm hoping my videos are the next best thing to visiting - thank you for watching and hope you stay safe too!
Cool little road trip! Sorry you didn't find much uniqueness, but looked fun anyway.
It was fun despite not having the huge shell piles I was hoping for. We headed to the East Coast recently and we found all sorts of goodies I had to break the book out to identify! That videos coming on Sunday 😊
@@SWFBeachLife East coast is my stompin' grounds, born and raised, so look forward to that!
Tinker Tailor Right on! First video is Hobe Sound - it was gorgeous!!
WOw congrats on your first junonia. Amazing! Even a piece of a junonia is rare and better than no junonia. I love the olives. They are definitely close to max size. Oh and I have never found a shark eye/moon snail. One day. I really miss going to the beach.
What? Never a shark eye? I wasn’t a fan at first but now I love them - especially the colorful moon snail. We have found pieces of junonias but they sure are hard to come by. The beach has been hot and while I’m not necessarily looking forward to cooler weather it will be nice to stay on the beach longer.
@@SWFBeachLife Winter is the best shelling. I recommend you buy tall rain boots so you can wade during the cold months. You don't have to go deep. Do what you're already doing in like a foot of water but that will save your feet from icy water. I've cheated though. I have bought perfect specimines of moon snails and guady nauticas from a store right there on the beach of Treasure Island. "Hum, didn't find much today. I'll treat myself." I'm so bad ha ha.
@@ScaryFear LOL! That's a good plan when you can't find anything - just treat yourself! I did bring one pair of rain boots from up North, and I will indeed try them this winter. I FROZE last winter until about 11am every time we went out! Live and learn ;)
How did you find out about beaches being dredged please? I love your shelling vids. You should win an award for such entertaining relaxing UA-cam uploads. Oh and “Here’s looking at you kid!” 👀
I found out about the dredging from other shellers on social media. They seemed to really be finding great shells so I tried to go up there and see what all the hoopla was about. It was nice to see a different area of Florida! I think typically the beaches are prepared with machines and the news alerts the public so it's just a matter of people sharing the info :)
There was an insane Mountain of shells further down
Just wanted to let you know I went down to Lido Beach yesterday and it was LOADED. Guessing the rip currents helped the dredging bring a lot up. Thanks for the tip. BTW, did you get my reply to your question about Honeymoon Island? I don't think UA-cam notifies of replies past the first one.
Yay! I hope you managed to get a lot of good stuff! I did get the message about Honeymoon Island - that's where all the chestnut turbans are right? It's on the list. At some point I am going to plan a good road trip. Eventually I will make it to all the good beaches!
Yes! A pretty big tinted cantharis too! And another! There are literally tons of chestnut turbines up my way - different colors and patterns. They're so common I don't pick them up much unless they're really unusual or beautiful. I always get a kick out of Sanibel shellers who comment about them being so cool. I drool at the horse conchs you guys find! I just have one question: what on earth are you going to do with all those olive shells??! The news here in Tampa had a thing about the dredging in Sarasota county. Looked like fun but I didn't make it there. When did you go?
We went last Saturday 9/19. I know the dredging is going on through October, but we wanted to get up there and maybe pick through some shell piles. LOL - I would be one of those chestnut droolers! I just finished editing a video about how I organize and what I do with my shells. That video will drop on Wednesday. Hopefully I managed to answer everyone's questions! Thank you for watching!!!
How did you miss the biggest cone shell that I have ever seen!🤯
My neck of the woods
So the beaches I normally shell at are being dredged as I speak, and I am losing my mind bc I want to get past the orange fence!! My husband (not a sheller, but a bad boy) is trying to get me to go at night with him with headlamps on to get shells 😂
I have endlessly searched the internet trying to figure out what the dredgers do with the shells bc someone told me they have like a giant strainer where they catch them so they don’t actually go on the beach. Now, I just need to get my hands on this giant strainer 🤔
That would drive me mad too! I think the shells get good and disturbed when dredging is going on so hopefully you'll have quite a few weeks of good shelling once you're allowed back on the beach.
I would make a giant strainer out of a 5-gallon bucket and chicken wire!
@@SWFBeachLife ohhhh I like the way you think!! Im hoping otherwise that it will bring in nice shells for the next year to come!
@@SWFBeachLife So today I went to check out the dredging situation, see how close I could get. As I got closer, a guy sitting on one of the vehicles honked at me me and waved me over. So I go over and he tells me I can’t go over there. So I said well can you tell me where the shells are, and he played dumb with me and made some story up. We ended up talking for a good 40 mins, trading stories, telling each other about our lives, etc, and at the end, I said I know you know where the shells are mister!!! He sighs and hops out the car and we walk fifty feet to a giant metal container and boom, tens of thousands of shells just sitting in there!!! I’m like OMG and I start sorting through and he’s like you really have to leave, come back at night and go through it!! So I left but I grabbed like 3 things out of it before I left 😆 totally going in the next few nights just have to figure out my plan of action. Just thought I would share that with you!
I lived in a condo on S Lido in 88 & 89
just starting to learn about the shells - what is the difference between a nutmeg and a chestnut turban??
The nutmegs have a neat little opening where you can see the little twirly piece of the shell in the opening. They are also brown and white. The chestnut turbans have a different shape (but they are also very beaded looking) and the opening of their shell is more shaped like a circle. I did film a shell ID video and one of these days I'll get it up on my channel. Hope this helps!
Do you wear beach shoes? If so, how do you keep the sand and muck out? I love shelling (and your videos).
It's a battle I'm still trying to solve. I bought a pair of sports sandals that are okay to get wet, and the sand still gets between the bottom of my foot and the shoe. The water socks I have are horrible. They just collect the sand in the shoe. There are "shoes" they make for yoga (more like socks with heavier bottoms) that I might give a try but I'm still experimenting trying to find the perfect solution. I wore the sports shoes for this excursion and it's a good thing. It probably would have been quite painful to walk around in the surf on all those shells. Once I find the magic solution I promise I'll share :) Thank you for watching!!!
I about choked on my soup when you said ... maybe I should have brought my scoop. I was just about ready to pause the video and ask you about whether you thought a scoop would help.
What is the advantage of doing do ... or, disadvantage?
LOL! Scooping...can be very helpful if the surf is too rough to really see and grab shells. You'll just scoop up a bunch of whatever you get, then you pick through what you scooped. Since I'm usually recording as I'm finding things, a scoop makes it almost impossible for me to film and shell at the same time, so it's a disadvantage for me almost always. However, if there is nothing on the beach and you know theres goodies in the surf it can definitely help find shells. On this trip it probably wouldn't have really assisted since it was possible to see and grab things. Thank you for watching my antics!
Great place for finding fat Olives!
One can never have too many olive shells…..
Does the fall have lots of shells?
We have shells all year, but winter is the best time to find them 😉
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I’m so excited you went there!! I wondered what it would look like I’ve read so many comments from people who were there when there were huge piles. I’m trying to get a trip to Florida in the next couple of weeks. The shells are common to you, but I’ve yet to even make it to a beach with whole shells 😂. I could have sat in a small pile and played for hours! I loved the HUGE beautiful olives and even a piece of a Junonia would be amazing!! Thanks for the road trip, I loved it!!!
I'm so glad you liked my trip! If you want to find whole shells, I have to recommend South Fort Myers Beach as well as Sanibel. You will find whole shells!!! I hope you can make it down here too.
I HAD to get up to Lido Key to see what all the hoopla was all about. Sounds like the shell piles come and go and while I didn't get to explore any piles, it was fun to see something different and check out a new beach. Thank you so much for your support and thank you for watching my adventures!
How can we watch without the ads?
You can pay UA-cam $12 a month (UA-cam Red) and you'd be able to watch ad free.
Why do they call them fighting conks?
I've found two different answers when I've researched this. They call them fighting conchs because they can "jump" at other snails (with their bodies) and it's been said the males will "fight" each other. For such docile critters they sure have a fearsome name!