Saturday morning weather for our walk was nice and cool. Although we did not find any new nesting activity, we did see some very interesting critters.
Find #1 - Whelk egg casing. I think this is an egg casing from the Knobbed Whelk, Busycon carica. Each section is filled with tiny whelks.
Find #2 - Mermaid’s Purse. It is an (empty) egg casing of maybe a Clearnose Skate.
Find #3 - A pair of Black Scoters, a coastal diving duck.
Find #4 - Two Forbes’ Sea Stars, Asterias forbesi, both returned to the water.
Find #5 - A Florida Horse Conch, Triplofusus giganteus. It is very interesting to see its bright orange body. If you look closely, you can see the operculum that it can use to close itself into its shell.
Lastly, Find #6 - A female Atlantic Blue Crab. In the second photo, you can see the shape of the abdomen looks sort of like the capital building and its claws are orange. Both of these indicators tell us that the crab was a female. Males have a narrower shape on the abdomen and blue claws.
Waties Island performs research and management activities regarding sea to conservation in accordance under SCDNR Permit Number: MTP500.
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