Snowdrops

Posted on March 23, 2019 by tspuckler

The young shoots of snowdrops emerging from the frost-covered ground provides anticipation for the beginning of Spring.

Snowdrops are in the amaryllis family and there are only a dozen cultivated species, mostly native to the deciduous woodlands of Europe and western Asia.

Flowering from January to March, it can naturally be found growing in the woods and by streams. The plants have two linear leaves and a single small white drooping bell-shaped flower.

Snowdrops have been known since early times, being described by the classical Greek author Theophrastus in the fourth century BC.

Celebrated as a sign of Spring, Snowdrops can form impressive carpets of white in areas where they are native or have been naturalized.

I enjoy seeing them in my yard as well as when I’m out and about in late Winter and early Spring.

Third Eye Herp
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Fragrant Bracket Fungus

Posted on March 16, 2019 by tspuckler

While on a hike in Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, I noticed a fair number of these white organisms.

Looking at its Latin Name, Trametes suaveolens, Trametes means “one who is thin,” while suaveolens means “sweet-smelling” in reference to the anise scent of fresh specimens.

It is found mainly on living or dead broad-leaved trees – usually Poplar and Willow. This fungi is known as a polypore; a type that forms fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside.

Most polypores inhabit tree trunks or branches while consuming the wood. They play a very significant role in nutrient cycling and carbon dioxide production of forest ecosystems.

Bracket Fungus is also known as Shelf Fungus, because they produce shelf- or bracket-shaped fruiting bodies called conks. Most of the fungus is hidden from view within the body of the tree and it consists of an extensive network of filamentous threads.

Seeing these fungi on an otherwise dreary day added some brightness to the woodland environment where they reside.

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American Tree Sparrow

Posted on March 9, 2019 by tspuckler

I often see these small birds while hiking on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath. This is a northern species that visits the United States in the Winter. It can tolerate very harsh weather and low temperatures if it has a good food supply.

American Tree Sparrows are mostly gray with a rufous crown and ear stripe. Their upperparts are streaked brown. There is one dark spot in the center of the breast; another good identification characteristic of this bird is its bi-colored beak.

In the Winter, they are gregarious and form flocks, sometimes hanging out with other bird species. They mainly search on the ground for seeds, but they also may ascend on plants, to look for seeds, berries and invertebrates.

Their preferred habitat is weedy fields with hedgerows or shrubs, usually along forest edges or near waterways. American Tree Sparrow often visit backyards, especially if there’s a birdfeeder.

This species breeds in the far north and is rarely seen outside of northern Canada in the Summer. It is fun to watch, as it adds its color and song to our sometimes drab Winters.

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Spotted Dorid

Posted on March 2, 2019 by tspuckler

In Central California this is often the most common sea slug around, though this impression may be due to the fact that its orange coloration makes it one of the easiest to find.

While the body shape is consistent, there are several color forms associated with age: the smallest often appear pure orange, medium individuals (1-1/2 inches long) are dark brown with white spots and large examples (3 inches) are light orange with distinctive white spots.

This species lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California, Mexico. It also lives in Japan. It feeds on bryozoans.

It was neat to experience this a shell-less marine gastropod in the wild.

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Purple Sea Urchin

Posted on February 23, 2019 by tspuckler

The largely unnoticed creatures of kelp forests and tidepools often look like something out of a sci-fi movie. Strange sea anemones, odd fish and brightly colored Sea Slugs are fixtures in an underwater landscape. The Purple Sea Urchin is right at home in this environment; with its bright color and sharp spines. It’s hard to tell whether it’s a plant or an animal, let alone a species of this planet.

Despite its extraterrestrial look, it is an animal related to a starfish. Like the starfish, it lives along the rocky shores and sea floors on the Pacific Coast in shallow areas affected by the crashing waves. Also, like starfish, sea urchins have tube feet, but unlike the five legs of a starfish, tube feet cover the whole spiny external part of the sea urchin and enable it to move slowly using hydraulics.

Sea urchins feed mostly on algae and decaying organic matter, although they are known to eat kelp and sponges as well. The mouth of the sea urchin, located on the underside of its body, has five calcium carbonate teeth.

The sea urchin actually uses these teeth to “dig” into rocks, where it lodges itself for extended periods of time. In fact, if a sea urchin carves out a hideout for itself at a young age, it can grow too large over time and get stuck in its own hole.

Unfortunately, large groups of sea urchins can actually be detrimental to kelp forests. Sea urchins feed upon kelp and often eat the stems of the plant found near the rocky ocean floor. This effectively kills the entire kelp plant. It is often sea otter predation on the sea urchins that keeps sea urchin populations in check and preserves the kelp forests.

However, the sea urchin is not defenseless against these hungry predators. Its first line of defense is its sharp spines, which many divers can tell you are no joke. The next line of defense is the tiny stinging structures found in their spines, called pedicellarines.

Purple Sea Urchins are considered an indicator species. They are very sensitive to changes in their environment, and usually are one of the first in their ecosystems to show signs of distress when the water quality starts to decline. Stress in sea urchins often shows itself as drooping spines and a lack of movement.

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Aggregating Anemone

Posted on February 16, 2019 by tspuckler

This organism was quite abundant and frequently seen on my quest for Pacific Ocean tidepool creatures.

Their green color comes from an endosymbiotic (living within the anemone mutually benefiting both organisms), photosynthetic algae in their tentacles and body.

The tentacles can be retracted inside the body cavity or expanded to catch passing prey. When not submerged in the water, they pretty much look like blobs covered with fragments of shells from things they’ve eaten.

Aggregating Anemones catch prey that comes within reach of their tentacles and immobilize it with the aid of their venom-filled stinging cells within their tentacles.

The tentacles are triggered by the slightest touch, firing a harpoon-like filament into their victim and injecting a paralyzing neurotoxin. The prey is then transported to the anemone’s mouth and engulfed.

Despite the potency of its venom to its prey, sea anemones are harmless to humans. I stuck my finger near this one and it wrapped around it, trying to pull my finger into its mouth!

The closest relatives of these amazing creatures are jellyfish and corals. This was a fun animal to make an acquaintance with on my trip to California.

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Ochre Sea Star

Posted on February 9, 2019 by tspuckler

While tidepooling near San Francisco, I came across a number of these cool creatures. They are relatively large sea stars, with five arms and a rough texture. Their short spines on the upper surface are arranged in wavy patterns.

Most of them are either orange (ochre) or purple, and there is no explanation as to why they come in two dramatically different colors. The bottoms of each of its five stout arms are covered with thousands of tiny tube feet tipped with suction cups.

Ochre Sea Stars are classic intertidal animals. They have been called a “keystone species,” as their presence or absence significantly affects the entire community in the intertidal zone.

One of this animal’s favorite foods is mussels. Although slow-moving, it does wander about, searching for prey. When it finds a mussel, it wraps a its arms around it and is able to pull the mussel’s shell slightly apart.

To eat, sea stars extrude their stomach out through their mouth. They then lay their stomach on the soft tissue of their prey. Digestive juices from the stomach dissolve tissue and the stomach absorbs the dissolved material.

Also commonly known as the Pacific Sea Star, it can regrow a lost arm, though it may take a year to do so. It was a great experience to encounter these impressive, colorful tidepool residents.

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Pacific Red Octopus

Posted on February 2, 2019 by tspuckler

One of the unquestionable highlights of tidepooling in California was seeing this cool creature – the first octopus I’ve ever encountered in the wild. The Pacific Red Octopus doesn’t seem to be as picky when it comes to its diet as many other species of octopus and will consume whatever food they can find, like crabs, clams, barnacles and scallops.

An octopus usually collects food at night and then retreats to its den to eat at its leisure. It kills its prey with venom secreted from its salivary glands, then cracks the shell with its sharp beak.

It can also drill a hole in the snail’s shell and inject a chemical that separates the snail’s flesh from its shell. An octopus deposits empty shells outside its den in a pile – commonly called an “octopus’s garden.”

Although it has excellent eyesight, The Pacific Red Octopus uses touch and smell to find food; thousands of chemical receptors and millions of texture receptors line the rims of its suckers for the purpose of detecting food.

Like all octopuses, it can change its color and texture, making its appearance highly variable. Color can vary from a deep brick red, to brown, to white, or mottled mixtures of the three.

These are thought to be among the most intelligent of all invertebrates. The presence of individual personalities is a hallmark of intelligence, and the Pacific Red Octopus was the first invertebrate in which individual personalities were demonstrated.

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Opalescent Nudibranch

Posted on January 26, 2019 by tspuckler

While on a tidal pool adventure at Pillar Point, California, I came across this brightly colored marine invertebrate. Though it is small, only growing to about 2 inches, it is one of the prettiest and most colorful of the sea slugs.

The Opalescent Nudibranch feeds mainly on hydra-like marine organisms such as sea anemones. It sometimes attacks other sea slugs and will eat smaller specimens of its own species. It can be found around tidepools, as well as on rocks, pier pilings and mudflats. It can also be found from low-tide line water to water up to 100 feet deep.

Not only is it beautiful, but this creature is also a model organism and used in studies into classical conditioning, memory consolidation and associative learning, the structure of neural circuits and neural physiology. In addition, it is widely used in studies of ecology, pharmacology and toxicology.

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Red Rock Crab

Posted on January 19, 2019 by tspuckler

As its name implies, this crustacean is often found in and around rocky places and features reddish-purple coloration.

It can grow to more than 10 inches across, but 4 to 6 inches is more common. Its large claws are tipped in black and they have a wide, fan-shaped body.

This cool creature crushes barnacles with its large pincers and eats them. It also eats smaller crabs, sea cucumbers, and many other intertidal invertebrates, as well as dead fish.

While searching tidepools, I saw this “shell” move. It didn’t take long to realize that it was not a shell at all, but rather a juvenile Red Rock Crab, which can be white with a pattern of dark lines.

I enjoy finding these hard-shelled creatures, whose other common names include Red Crab, Cancer Crab and Red Cancer Crab.

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Tim Spuckler's Blog

Reptile Ramblings and More

Yearly Archives: 2019

Snowdrops

Fragrant Bracket Fungus

American Tree Sparrow

Spotted Dorid

Purple Sea Urchin

Aggregating Anemone

Ochre Sea Star

Pacific Red Octopus

Opalescent Nudibranch

Red Rock Crab