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Digging for Sea Glass at Davenport Beach

Looking for sea glass at Davenport isn’t how people typically search for sea glass at most beaches. While there are lucky days when you can walk up and down the beach and find pieces as they wash up at your feet, that’s not how it’s found on most days. If you want to find Davenport sea glass, you have to work a bit harder to get it most of the time. 

There are a number of ways to look for sea glass when at Davenport Beach. The easiest way to find it is when gravel shows up on the beach, but this isn’t an everyday occurrence (It usually only happens after storms or strong tidal surges during the winter months.). The sea glass is most often found among the gravel as it’s usually about the same weight. When no gravel is showing on the beach or in the waves, the best way to find sea glass is to dig for it. 

If you plan to visit Davenport Beach, one tool you should bring with you is a shovel. This is so you can dig for sea glass. How far you’ll have to dig to find it depends on how much sand has covered the gravel. It can be right under the surface of the sand, or you may need to dig several feet to reach it. You simply need to keep digging until you reach gravel.

It’s important to note when you dig for sea glass, chances are you’re going to mainly find tiny and small pieces. While it’s possible to find medium and even large pieces when digging (the first large piece I ever found was while digging), this is not the norm. The vast majority of pieces will be on the smaller side.

The positive to digging is that you can do it on most days when visiting the beach and you don’t need to buy a wetsuit and get in the cold (and dangerous) waves to search for it. As long as a lot of sand hasn’t piled high over the gravel, there is a good chance you will be able to find at least a few small pieces when digging.

The drawback to digging is it takes a lot of energy and work. You may have to remove a foot or more of sand in order to reach the gravel, and I’ve seen it buried under several feet of sand at times. In summer months, the sand may be so high it’s not even worth the effort to dig for sea glass. 

You also need to have a bit of luck on your side. When you dig, you only get to look at the limited space where you happen to be digging. It’s pure luck if you happen to hit a pocket of gravel that has pieces of sea glass mixed in among it. There have been plenty of times I’ve hit gravel and there has been no sea glass in it. 

The best place to dig on the beach varies as the sand and gravel frequently shift. That being said, probably the best place to begin is along the rock outcroppings on the north side of the beach (just south of where the river empties onto the beach). This is an area where gravel often accumulates and is one of the better spots to find pieces. 

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