Progress in treating Chinese Tallow

This week, we could see visible evidence that the treatment of Chinese Tallow has begun.

Treated trees are beginning to experience a die-off, and the timing seems perfect– the trees still have enough leaves to circulate the herbicide through the plant, but the popcorn-like fruit has on developed to the point where they can be dispersed easily.

Whelk Egg Cases on the Beach

There are a lot of egg cases that wash up on our beach.  Most of them are laid by mollusks, and anchored in the sand.  If you stop by the nature center, you can see a lot of them– and most of the ones we see are from our most common whelk, the knobbed whelk.  The knobbed and lightning whelk egg cases have a two-sided edge to the capsules.  The channeled whelk has more of a hard, single chine, and the pear whelk is a little spiky.  There are some links at the end of this post to good shell sites.

The one we found most recently is from a channeled whelk:  note the single, fluted edge.  Whelks lay egg strings 2x per year (Sept-Oct. and April-May), although scientists aren’t sure whether each individual lays more than once a year.  They may be triggered to lay eggs by water temperature– according to SCDNR, they are triggered to lay egg chambers when the water temperatures reach 68 degrees F.

The first few chambers are often empty, and used to anchor the string into the sand.  Each capsule has about 35 eggs per chamber, and strings can be more than 150 capsules long.  Most of the egg strings we find on the beach are empty; you can see the tiny hole where the tiny mollusks have eaten their way out.  As they grow, they feed on each other in the capsules– you can find the shells of the weaker siblings in the stranded egg cases.

This case still has developing eggs within it– you can see the albumin in the chamber.  We threw the case back in the water in the hopes that the babies would develop.  They develop slowly– incubation time can range from 3-13 months.

In the nature center, you can see knobbed and lightning whelk egg cases, as well as the tiny shells left inside.  These kids at camp are investigating one of these cases:

http://www.mitchellspublications.com/guides/shells/articles/0024/

http://www.okeefes.org/Whelks/Whelks.htm

www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/Knobbedwhelk.pdf

http://amylyne.myweb.uga.edu/GSC/eggcase.html

http://www.jaxshells.org/whelk1.htm

A new whelk in the touch tank

This was another of the tidepool treasures we found on Saturday.  After careful consideration, googling, and perusing other web sites, we are pretty sure that this is a small pear whelk.

We know it is not a knobbed whelk, which is the most common whelk on the island, because it lacks the knobs on the shell for which it is known.  We did have some careful consideration about whether this is a channeled whelk, because the shells of those are found on the beach sometimes, but the channels are not clearly delineated in escalating size– so it is technically possible that this one is just too small, but the general consensus of the nature center staff is that it is a pear whelk.

Pear whelks tend to hang out deeper in the substrate than knobbed or lightning whelks, and it would make sense that it had been tossed up in the same storm that brought in the sea cucumbers

and the mystery object from previous posts.  I’m excited– I’ve only found a pear whelk once before, and it was long dead.

Stop by and visit the touch tank– check out this new specimen.

Sea Cucumbers on the beach

Sea Cucumbers washed up in rather large numbers this weekend.  These relatives of sea stars and sea urchins live along the sea floor.

We find them washed up on the beach fairly often after a storm.  This one was still alive, at the tide line, and you can see they are rather sticky with shells stuck to it.

Sea Cucumbers use tube feet to filter detritus and plankton from the water, ingesting nutrients that way.  According to Tideland Treasures (a book every beachcomber should have), a single sea cucumber may ingest and expel up to 200 lbs of sand and grit per year!

When startled, sea cucumbers contract into a tight ball.  Apparently, another defense mechanism they can employ is that of expelling some internal organs, which are regenerated fairly quickly.  Scientists have been studying this regenerative potential as it pertains to possibilities of healing human tissue.

While they have tube feet surrounding their mouths, they use them more for feeding than locomotion.  If you find one that contracts when you pick it up, it is still alive, and you may be able to return it to the water.  You may even be able to see the feet and mouth emerge if you are able to watch it in a tidepool.  We’ll have to try that next time!

Beachcombing mystery object:

Can you identify this plant or animal that washed up on the beach?  Possibly an egg case or something?  We found some just north of Osprey and some much farther up the beach towards Capers.  It is very cellular in nature and feels slightly spongy.

Big Surf this weekend yields treasures

Natural treasures, that is.  We had some East winds that kicked up the surf, and the water temperature is still about 70 degrees, which made for some great swimming on Saturday.  And on Sunday, it made for great beachcombing.  We walked the beach for an hour and found all sorts of interesting things– some we had never seen before and some we couldn’t identify.  Stay tuned for the tidepool series.

Barrier Island Eco-thon

Yesterday, you might have noticed kayaks in the water (ferry delay perhaps?) swimmers at Capers inlet, and runners on the beach. They were part of the Barrier Island Eco-thon, where competitors swim, bike, kayak, and jog their way from the Isle of Palms to Capers and back.

Here is a description of the activity from Active.com, where folks go to register for the event.

ENDURANCE Course ~ 35 mile SOLO or TEAM

~PADDLE 3 miles on Intracoastal Waterway to south end of Dewees Island by kayak, canoe, paddle board or whatever as long as human powered ~RUN 2 miles up Dewees beach ~SWIM 1/4 mile inlet to Capers Island ~RUN 3 miles up Caper’s boneyard beach ~CHECKPOINT returning in opposite direction to the IOP Marina. ~BIKE 18 miles across Breach Inlet bridge to Sullivans Island past Fort Moultrie before returning to the IOP Marina.

SPRINT Course ~ 23 miles as 2 person relay

~PADDLE 3 miles on Intracoastal Waterway to south end of Dewees Island by kayak, canoe, paddle board or whatever as long as human powered ~RUN 2 miles up Dewees beach ~SWIM 1/4 mile inlet to Capers Island ~RUN 3 miles up Caper’s boneyard beach ~TAG relay partner to return in opposite direction to the IOP Marina. ~BIKE 15 miles together across Breach Inlet bridge to Sullivans Island past Fort Moultrie before returning to the IOP Marina ~A scenic ferry ride will be provided for relay teams.

Next year, come out and cheer these competitors on– unlike the Marine Corps marathon, which is held on the same day, there are no crowd-thronged streets to provide moral support.  Just the few beachcombers enjoying an October day.

Vote for the Dewees Island Visitors Guide

Vote for my book in the
Best Blurb Books Contest!

Voting ends Nov. 9 View other entries »

Blurb, the publisher of the Dewees Visitor’s Guide, is having a contest for the best travel book. Let’s use this as a chance to get some press for Dewees– click the above link to vote for the visitor’s guide. The more votes we have, the more people will see the book and hear about the great things we are doing to promote a sustainable lifestyle and protect our beautiful environment. Tell your friends!

Phaeon Crescent Butterfly

The diminuitive Phaeon Crescent

Watch for this tiny butterfly near Huyler House pond, and at six pipes.  There is a beautiful blue spot on the top, with orange and brown spotted wings.  The lower photo shows the side view of this little butterfly.

Phaeon Crescents use frogfruit as a host plant for their larvae, and feed on the nectar of grasses and flowers.

Frog fruit is a host plant for Phaeon Crescent

SC Wildlife Magazine: Keep an Eye out for Mink

If you don’t get South Carolina Wildlife magazine, you are missing out.  This month there is a really interesting article about mink.  Mink are members of the weasel family, and are good swimmers, divers, and climbers.  The article below describes a sighting along the waterway between Dewees and Capers.  You are most likely to see them at dawn and dusk– so keep your eyes peeled.

Once abundant in South Carolina, there has been a fairly significant population decline in the last 50 years, possibly due to environmental contaminants.  The area north of Charleston has been a location for mink reintroduction, and some of you may remember a rather dramatic scene years ago, where a family of mink were released off Big Bend Dock, just as a Northern Harrier (Marsh Hawk) decided that this was an easy meal.

From the November/December article by Rob Simbeck:

Mink are active mainly at night, especially near dusk and dawn, and spend most of their time feeding.  They have excellent vision, hearing, and smell and are aggressive predators, supplementing a diet of fish with crayfish, salamanders, frogs, crabs, rabbits, squirrels, muskrats, young birds, mice, ducks and chipmunks.

Mink are fearless in defending themselves from predators that include bobcats, foxes, coyotes, great horned owls, dogs, and alligators, none of which are serious threats to their population.  Many are hit by cars, but development and wetland destruction are the prime threats, as they are for many other species.

Still, the signs are positive at the moment, given the efforts of the Furbearer Project to bring them back to areas that haven’t seen them for a while.  It’s a scenario that is thrilling quite a few wildlife watchers.  One is Henry Lemon, a Charleston pediatrician and avid outdoorsman, who dropped an email to DNR Marine Resources Deputy Director Robert Boyles about a recent encounter.

“I saw a mink (my first sighting ever) last eventing around sunset along a stretch of marshy shell bank along the Intracoastal Waterway between Dewees and Capers Inlet,” he wrote.  “I’ve fished for over twenty years in Charleston and thought I’d seen it all– but that brief glimpse of mink was one to remember.”

A subscription to SC Wildlife Magazine is only $12, and it’s well worth the money.