Hi, I have taken the liberty of working on your prose to make it a little crisper and more precise (but still keeping your 'voice'). This is my rewrite of your second paragraph.
The adventure begins.
Early on this “typical day” I arose at the crack of dawn to meet low tide at the water's edge. The charts had informed me that this would occur at 5:30. As I am both a natural history buff, and a beachcomber, I was keeping an eye open for mollusk seashells and other interesting critters as I ambled south along the Gulf shore. I kept searching as I returned by a different route along the north shore of the lagoon. I am an enthusiastic, if amateur, naturalist, so I was searching for creatures, living or dead, and also the signs they leave behind (tracks, droppings, etc.). My eyes were peeled for mollusks (both with and without shells) , crustaceans (crabs, amphipods, etc.), echinoderms (sea stars, sea urchins, etc.), shore birds (sanderlings, egrets, etc.) and near shore birds (pelicans, terns, etc.). My rationale as a beachcomber has always been less about collecting sea shells and more about enriching my understanding of the lives their occupants had previously lead.