tidepool mystery

Here’s an interesting find in a tidepool from this morning.  It had the same texture as a whelk egg case, but a different shape.  The whole cluster was only about 2 inches long, and was resting right at the edge of a tidepool.  This is a banded tulip egg case: fasciolaria hunteria.  According to Rupert and Fox in Seashore Animals of the Southeast: A Guide to Common Shallow-Water Invertebrates of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast

…they are carnivores which prey on other mollusks, including oysters. The thick sculptured tip of these snails is used to chip a hole in the prey’s shell, through which the proboscis is inserted.

 
This egg case has several perfectly circular openings through which the young snails emerged. (look at the lower right end of the top photo.) Each cluster is made up of individual egg cases which are joined together. Almost all of the banded tulips we have found have been inhabited by hermit crabs.
 

banded tulip egg case

banded tulip with hermit crab

Looking toward Capers Inlet from the Dewees Island north beach.

The forecast called for a stronger storm than the one that actually hit, but Andrea did disrupt ferry service for a few runs and knocked down a willow or two. It’s rained a lot on the island this year, so a fairly saturated ground and a heavy wind could have led to far more downed trees. We were spared the 5 inches of rain and 60mph winds that might have come our way– I recorded about 2.5 inches of rain and a gust of 41mph… not much more than a summer thunderstorm.

We ventured out as soon as it was light to see what was going on– it was our day to walk the north beach for the turtle program. We drove to the north end and made our way to the ocean, and after being on the beach for a few minutes, it became clear that we would have to either go the other direction or scrap the plan. The sand was so abrasive against skin that we would have been miserable. It took a few days, but here’s a video of scenes from Friday morning.

sand blows along beach at the very lowest level to about a foot above the ground

rainbow towards Mount Pleasant in the midst of the storm

Our tide pools are rich in marine life, and here’s a find that’s usually offshore a little further but has been seen in our tide pools fairly regularly.  This little heart-shaped coral is a sea pansy.  The sea pansy, Renilla reniformis looks like a little flower, but it’s really a colony of organisms in the class Anthozoa. (flower animals). It’s also called an octocoral, because most of the polyps have eight pinnate tentacles. This collection of polyps has one large bare stemlike polyp called the peduncle, which anchors it into the sand. Apparently they are more common on beaches on the edge of an inlet, because of the way the water moves. If the water gets rough, the peduncle can absorb water and become distended for a better grip in the sand. The best explanation I could find for the way the polyps work was at Wisegeek.com,

“The pansy-like body that gives the sea pansies their name is actually made up of various types of smaller, secondary polyps. Some of these secondary polyps are responsible for feeding the sea pansy. These feeding polyps extend above the sand and secrete sticky mucus to snare any tiny zooplankton and organic matter that venture nearby. Each feeding polyp sends its food to a common digestive system so the entire colony feasts or starves together.”

The little white dots are pumping polyps, which can deflate the whole pansy at low tide, when it might be exposed to air, allowing it to be covered with a fine layer of silty sand. When the tide comes in, reinflation occurs and the tentacles are extended for feeding. On Dewees Island, look for sea pansies at dead low tide in or below the tidepools south of Ancient Dunes Walk.

The sea pansy feeds on tiny particles of plants and animals in the water. The main predator is a sand-burrowing striped sea slug called Armina tigrina (which I never heard of before researching sea pansies and I am now headed out to try to find one in a tidepool!) A Miss E.B. Richardson of the Charleston Museum recorded observing striped sea slugs in 1939 at the lower reaches of Fort Moultrie, so they should be nearby.

We took this video of a sea pansy feeding in a tidepool on Thursday: you can see the eight points on the polyps that extend into the water.

Another amazing feature of sea pansies it that they emit a green bioluminescence when disturbed.  We discovered this walking on the beach by starlight at low tide… Reggie stepped near one and it flashed a green light!  (and speaking of bioluminescence, we talked about it in this blog post, and Smithsonian Magazine had a very interesting feature about it in the February 2013 edition.) The responsible chemical is luciferase, which acts with Green Florescent Protein to produce green light when the organism is disturbed.

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8514713/#page/103/mode/1up

It was a wonderful weekend on the island as we gathered in a big group for a barbecue and game day.  The weather was perfect, and young people of all ages enjoyed the company of neighbors and family for a bucket brigade, oversized jenga game, tennis, ping-pong under the trees, and fabulous barbecue prepared by Paul Connelly and his team of helpers.  We honored the holiday by retiring several American flags in a ceremony managed by Boy Scouts of all ages, and one lucky family had the winning bid for the Aggie Gray flag.  Dave McIntyre played the accompanying music for the moving ceremony.  After dinner, we sang some patriotic tunes and laughed with our neighbors.  Renters and owners, guests and visitors all paused to enjoy each other and celebrate together. There are two galleries of the same slide show below, using different technologies. To download your own copies or order prints, click here… but you can link to them on facebook or share without downloading.

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(Don’t print the pics from the lower gallery– they are not high enough resolution.)

I had a chance to do a technology-share session with the Coastal Master Naturalists about nature apps that Naturalists might use in the field. This gave me an excuse to purchase some apps I have been longing for, and also served as a conversation starter as I asked some really good birders what they use while they are out and about. A few disclaimers– there is a wealth of technology available, and it’s a challenge to keep up with it.  Some is easier to use than others because the user interface (UI) is better, and some is easier to use because the user is familiar with the process and reluctant to switch. I know a little bit about a lot of programs/apps, but I am not an expert in any of them.  So if you have tips and tricks to share, pipe up– I’ll be thrilled. I am an Apple fan.  I use a macbook, ipad, and iphone.  Android and windows have some pretty cool stuff, but I know NOTHING about them.  Most of the apps below are available on more than just the apple platform.

Apps to Make Your Life Easier:

lynda.com
This is a great way to learn anything technology related: from how to work your camera, to how to use evernote or Lightroom.  You pay a basic membership fee to join: monthly or annually, and then you can take courses to your hearts content.  If you want practice with their files, get a premium account; otherwise you should be fine. 7 day free trial, $25.00 to $37.00 per month, with discounts for annual memberships.

Evernote – Evernote
Taking notes in the field with a notebook is great, but if you are trying to remember what your instructor said about a Blue-gray gnatcatcher, you will want to be able to search your notes later.  Evernote is your friend.
Evernote is a cloud-based system that syncs with all your devices so you can search your notes from anywhere. It automatically syncs with your calendar and your location to help you organize your notes as you write them.  Understanding the vast capabilities of Evernote is a little like trying to take a bite from an elephant, but basic notes and notebooks are pretty easy to use.  You can even get an evernote-enabled moleskin notebook, which allows you to scan, categorize, and search handwritten notes.  Once you have all that covered, you can use evernote to copy articles online, put them in an offline reader, and enjoy them whenever you want.  Or take sound and photo recordings and put them in a notebook.  Or make a stack of notebooks.  Or checklists.

I have taken notes on my ipad, added a photo, opened them from my computer, edited them, and searched them from my phone in the field.  There is a free version and a paid version.  I’ve been using the free version, but I bought a moleskine evernote notebook, which comes with 3 free months of premium, so I’ll let you know if the upgrade is worth it.  A premium membership is $45.00 per year.

Field Guides:

The feature I wanted most in a field guide (besides more information, see below) is the ability to make a list of expected birds for a given location in a given season.   Sibley’s Smart Search feature works well for this. Almost all of the birding guides have multiple bird calls and songs, which is a nice feature as you try to learn the bird songs.  This is often a matter of personal preference.

Sibley Field Guide to the Birds
In order to research mobile technology apps, I figured I had to take one for the team and purchase this one.  And in the first five minutes, I discovered that this may be the one I use the most.  There are more song choices available for each bird, but fewer pictures, and no photos. It’s designed well for the ipad, with scroll wheels and click buttons, and lots of information and notes on the page.  My favorite feature is the compare feature, where you can select two similar species to compare them to one another. I understand why many of the best birders I know use this one.

Ibird
This is the first birding field guide I used, so I am familiar with the interface and it’s the one I was most likely to reach for, until I discovered Sibley.  (The Sibley app wasn’t available when I bought this.)  Again, there are lots of features I don’t use, like the ability to add your own photos.  (Using a phone or ipad picture seems silly, and moving pics out of iphoto or lightroom is too much trouble. Some people connect their iphones to a telescope and submit those.)  What I like is the ability to type a generic word, like sparrow, and see all available sparrows; and then I can listen to the calls to help identify it in the field.  There are ways to create lists, and ways to search or identify a bird by attribute.  Multiple photos of the bird in different locations and positions are very useful, so I’ll keep it as an auxiliary app for birding. Multiple versions from free, to a regional version for $6.99, to $29.99.

Audubon Guides:
A new Audubon Guide to Birds came out on May 15th, and this was the hands down favorite of the instructor in my recent birding class. Originally $14.99, it is currently on sale for $3.99. I just bought a copy, and will be doing more research on how it all fits together. I buy these when they go on sale, and so far I have mushrooms, fish, birds, butterflies, etc. (I rarely use them in the field, but they are a great supplement to the books on the shelf. They have beautiful photographs, and allow you to browse by attribute.  I wish they had caterpillars, eggs, and chrysalis information for butterflies; and nests, molting plumage, etc. for birds.  Available as apps or ereader guides, they are especially helpful for non-bird ID’s.

MyNature Tracks
This is an app for track identification that works pretty well and is easy to find the species you are looking for, so long as you have a pretty good idea of what potential species you should be searching through.  The website mynatureapps.com has a variety of mammal apps, as well as wildflower and tree guides for national parks.

Apps to teach you about the Environment

Larkwire:  is one way great way to learn birding by ear, but it gets expensive.  There is a basic trial version for free– try it for a while to see if you like it.  You’ll want headphones rather than irritate your fellow house dwellers with rapidfire repetition of birdsongs while you learn the difference between a painted bunting and an orchard oriole (and you won’t have to tranquilize your cat.)  The basic pack took me a while to master, but I decided I wanted more birds and purchased the Eastern Land Birds pack as an upgrade.  Waterbirds is another possible upgrade, but I will stick to learning the land birds for now.  This is not a field app… and it only requires an internet connection for installation.  You can play the game in airplane mode or on your phone, anywhere you have a few hours to kill.

I have just heard about another, less expensive app for this, which might be more customizable, but have encountered a glitch… stay tuned; I’ll let you know if I can get it working.

Starwalk: is an app that makes stargazing simpler and more interesting for astronomy novices.  Besides the fact that when I used the app on Dec 24th to look for meteors and found a tiny Santa making his way across the sky, I like the ability to point my device at the sky to identify stars, the space station, satellites, constellations and the Hubble Telescope.  It’s also useful for information about sunrise and sunset times, moon phases, and other interesting facts.  I think it was originally $9.99, currently priced at $2.99.

Weather

EweatherHD gives you the ability to watch fronts move in and see real-time radar.  $2.99.

TideApp gives you the tides at a myriad of locations.  It would be better if it automatically connected to where you are, but once you set a preferred location, it becomes your default.

Saving the Planet:

Paperkarma is an incredible service which stops unwanted mail from arriving at your house: use the phone to take a photo of the catalogue and they’ll do the rest.  Read more here.  I think this has reduced our junk mail by 90%.  FOR FREE!

Want to know where to get rid of stuff that you just hate to send to the landfill?  Try Irecycle: a database that looks to see where you are, and then shows you where you can send old paint, shoes, batteries, etc.

Citizen Science

I am a big citizen science fan: our turtle program is a great example of how citizens can provide scientists with really valuable research.  Apps for data entry, however are far from seamless, but the potential is incredible.  Imagine a bio-geographical overlay of the planet, with details about all of the organisms and biodiversity of a particular area.

Birdlog North American Edition: this is the best and fastest way to make ebird entries from the field.  Originally cumbersome and awkward, subsequent revisions in September 2012 have made this a valuable tool for counting.  Tap the species name to get an entry form to enter a number, or tap the box next to the name once for each individual you want to record.  Unless you see more than five, it’s easiest to just keep tapping rather than bring up the entry window. $9.99.  (The Audubon and SIbley apps may soon provide seamless integration with ebird, which would make this redundant, so if you don’t use ebird often, you might wait on this one.

Leafsnap:

This is an app with TONS of potential; in fact, I think it’s going to change the way citizen science happens.  Unfortunately, it is currently restricted to the Northeast area, and it’s still a little cumbersome.  The eventual outcome will be a great geographical map of where certain plants are located.  The idea is that you can geotag certain plants, play games to learn trees by looking at bark, flowers, fruit and leaves, and contribute to an interesting plant database.  I’m looking forward to the Southern Edition.  In the meanwhile, it’s a useful tool to learn leaf identification.

INaturalist:

Another citizen science observation platform, which feeds data to Leafsnap, and uses similar technology. It is connected with the catalog of life and ubio, which indexes and organizes scientific names.  You can set up a project (I am working on one for Wildflowers of Dewees Island), and store your data in that project, and even invite others to participate.  My hunch is that this will just keep getting better and better, and I want to spend more time learning this one.

Nature’s Notebook:

This is also a data entry program with geotagging, and you can provide valuable climate change data to the National Phenology Network.  (from the website: Phenology refers to key seasonal changes in plants and animals from year to year—such as flowering, emergence of insects and migration of birds—especially their timing and relationship with weather and climate.)  Your observations can be linked into existing projects, like monarchwatch, or you can explore other ways to submit observations.  I am just getting to know this one, but it may prove to be the most interesting of the citizen science apps.

Loggerhead sea turtle nesting season officially starts on May 15th on our beaches, and it looks like the turtles got the memo.  On our second day walking, George Hilton found a set of tracks on the North End of the island.  Because the turtle came ashore without nesting, we call it a “false crawl.”  Gary and Lesa investigated and concurred with George’s assessment of the situation.

false crawl, photo Lesa Kastler

Yesterday was my turn to walk the beach, and I faithfully walked the high tide line the way we are supposed to.  I stopped to investigate some canine tracks on the beach and looked out to sea, and  saw a curious thing… sea turtle tracks on the sandbar.

These, however, went only ONE WAY!  They didn’t come up onto the beach, so I wasn’t expecting to find a turtle actually nesting, but I was curious about a single set of tracks. We investigated, and found that the tracks were indeed “incoming.”  Skeptically, we looked at the tide pool, which goes the length of the beach southward, and is riddled with old tree stumps and twists and turns.  We couldn’t imagine a turtle could be hiding in there, but we did investigate.  Eventually we came to the conclusion that she changed her mind and swam out of the tidepool southward.

Want to help with the turtle team?  Click here for the protocol page, or click the Turtles tab at the top of this page.  Just want to keep up?  Our nestlog page will have the ongoing information about what we find.  Here’s a step by step guide to using sign-up genius to schedule a chance to walk.

Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

These three lines are from poet Mary Oliver, from a poem entitled Instructions for Living a Life. (I think I may adopt them as my new mantra.) Huge thanks to Stephanie Hunt, local writer and author of this Charleston Magazine article on Dewees Island, for introducing me to Mary Oliver, and to fellow Coastal Master Naturalist Nan Salas for bringing that particular poem to a meeting.

So I am working on paying attention: to the spring calls of birds recently arrived: purple martins, black-necked stilts, great crested flycatchers, orchard orioles, and painted buntings. Paying attention to the minute details of early wildflowers, of caterpillars eating leaves and butterflies enjoying nectar, to the intricate architecture of a spiderweb.

Paying attention to a retired elementary teacher’s tales of reconstructing rodent skeletons with her lucky students and pausing with her in surprise at the unexpected daylight call of a chuck-wills-widow.

Paying attention to the expertise of guest birders who could explain the differences in similar shorebirds in the shallows; who spotted birds I had never before seen on the island.

Paying attention to the cries of the young bald eagle on the osprey platform, to the startling of a great blue heron, to the vanishing blue tail of a five-lined skink as he slithers under a boardwalk, to the pink bellies of baby dolphins splashing in the inlet.

The astonishment is easy, here on Dewees.  I’m astonished by the sliver of sun emerging from clouds after days of rain and wind, by a cluster of baby alligators slipping soundlessly into the water, by the deliberate grace of a fishing egret, by the ability of water and wind to carve the shore. We have so much nature we can see with such little effort, when we just pay attention; and we are so quickly rewarded with that sense of awe that comes with watching some miracle unfold.

Green Heron

Carolina Wren chicks

Alligator babies

If you’ve never been to an artwalk downtown, you are missing out!  Periodically, the Charleston Art Galleries get together to open their doors in the evening, serving wine and appetizers to folks wandering through.  You can take a glass and go from one gallery to another, socializing and getting a chance to view great art!  The next French Quarter Art Walk will be this Friday, May 3rd, and will feature our very own Esther Doyle, exhibiting her work at the Spencer Art Gallery, in an exhibit delightfully called “The Nature of Things.”

Esther’s painting of the Aggie Gray in the sunset

To learn more about to the Art Walk, you can download a map of all participating galleries here.  Of course, we suggest that you begin your journey at the Spencer Gallery.  Our nature center store features stationary Esther designed from one of her paintings, and depicts a loggerhead turtle making her way back to the sea after laying eggs.  Many of her paintings in the current exhibit were inspired by her observation of nature right here in her own backyard on the island.  ”Dewees Island is so inspirational,” Esther told me.  ”Everywhere you look, there is something to paint: raccoons and sea turtles, birds and landscapes.  I love living here, where I’m inspired every day!”

Fishin’ , by Esther Piazza Doyle

Dewees Islanders will be impressed with her ability to capture island scenes in oils and canvas, and her choice of settings and poses from our island animal neighbors. I asked Esther for some more biographical information to share with readers.  Esther started sketching as a young child and by the age of 13 was drawing detailed works in graphite.  Though desiring to be an artist since childhood, she chose a “dependable, steady career” at the urging of her parents.  After 5 years as a legal secretary, feeling stifled and bored, she pursued a career in nursing which was a great fit satisfying her desire to challenge herself on many levels, always learning something new, and having a meaningful contact with clients.

Wood Stork, by Esther Piazza Doyle

During her nearly 30 years of nursing, her artistic endeavors were limited to the occasional drawing.  However, while recovering from a neck injury of her own, she pulled out the sketchpads, bought an easel and acrylic paints, and rediscovered her love of art and creating.  This ultimately led to a side business in decorative art, painting children’s furniture, decorative accessories, and murals.  In addition to the decorative art she began designing and building her own children’s furniture to paint.  Several of her pieces were featured in “Fresh Paint” published by Lark Books.   She has participated in many juried art shows around the Southeast.

Eventually, both her art business and eventually her nursing career were placed on hold while she took care of aging parents, relocated to Dewees Island, built a house, and furthered her education.  Finding time to paint kept getting pushed aside.  Determined to return to her art that she missed so much, she concluded that taking art classes would get her back into the studio regularly.  At the suggestion of a friend, she started attending classes taught by Joyce Hall in painting with oils.  “I love the medium and have enjoyed the classes and being back in my studio immensely.”

Night EgrAlthough largely self-taught, Esther has attended workshops with well-known folk artist, Heidi England, and Heather Redick, who teaches Jhostovo style florals, and portraits with Johnnie Liliedahl and Linda McDonald.

Esther is currently represented in several galleries in the Carolinas.  She is an exhibiting member of the Charleston Artist Guild.

Esther says ” I want to create art that one can step into and enjoy being there or feel moved by the content.  My style is largely realistic, but I also enjoy the painterly approach in drawing the eye to the focus of the work.  I do sometimes like to place little surprises of interest somewhere in the painting for one to discover as they contemplate a piece.  There is no end to the learning experience in art.  Every day is a new discovery.  I love it.”

Esther’s work is featured on the cover of this month’s publication: CHARLESTON FINE ART GUIDE – May Issue

Dewees Inlet is a fun, dynamic place to watch nature: the tide moves quickly, dolphins regularly cruise looking for food, and there is a wide selection of birds.  When schools of baitfish are moving through the area, the action really heats up!  The main dock on Dewees and the decks of the ferry are both great places to watch what’s going on.

We were lucky to be headed to the main dock the other day after a storm, and there was clearly something going on:  gulls and pelicans waited expectantly on the water, and the silvery flash of a dolphin’s dorsal fin was regularly visible above the waves.  The sun was low on the horizon, and we paused to watch for a few minutes.  I am trying out a new camera, so I thought I would see what I could catch in the waning light.

Pelicans were diving from short distances to catch fish, and they were being watched carefully by several laughing gulls floating nearby.  Remembering a time I had seen a gull sitting on a pelican’s head in that same location, I raised the camera, but it didn’t focus quite fast enough in low light.

We waited and watched.  The pelican dove again, opening its beak near the surface of the water:

Two laughing gulls swooped in to see if there was a chance the pelican might drop the fish:

It turns out that this is a fairly common occurrence called kleptoparasitism: when one organism steals from another as a more efficient means of procuring food that catching it themselves. Kleptoparasitism occurs across the animal kingdom: eagles steal fish from osprey, hyenas chase lions off their killed prey, flies scavenge half-eaten bugs from spiderwebs.  And in the inlet, we get front row seats for kleptoparasitism, watching laughing gulls attempt to grab a fish from a pelican.  Because gulls can’t dive beneath the surface for food, they watch the pelicans, who can dive farther.  As the pelican dives, he scoops up a large amount of water with the fish (2-3 gallons) which he drains from the pouch by lowering his head and pushing the water out the sides of the bill.  Sometimes fish or fish parts may be lost, providing a snack for the opportunistic gulls.  In the photo above, the gull on the right has found part of a fish atop the waves.  Below, the gull appears to be asking for a handout:

kleptoparasitism: gulls and pelicans

If you’re a gull, and you are tired of flying around, trying to guess where a pelican might drop a snack, the easiest thing you could do is find a high vantage point to watch for leftovers.  What could be better than sitting right on top of a pelican’s head?