susanhewitt's Journal

On Friday, January 19th, 2018, a friend of mine (Charlie Whitman) drove Ed and I north from NYC to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet up with another old friend from Massachusetts (Jay Cordeiro), so that Charlie could give Jay a full set of "New York Shell Club Notes" to place in some deserving institution, since the NYC shell club is now, finally, defunct. It was a relatively nice day with temperatures in the 40s and a little sun, although there were still piles of ice around here and there, ice-covered ponds, slabs of ice on the beaches, and so on.

We all met up briefly in a small parking area not far west of the Long Wharf. Charlie and I noticed that on the shore below the rip-rap rocks there was a small sand beach with several very promising-looking full drift lines of mostly white shells. We could not spare any time to search the drift right then, because all of us except Ed and I needed to go eat at Pepe's Pizza.

However, when it was time to return to NYC, Charlie took a little detour back to Long Wharf Park, where he and I started combing the beach drift. It was now low tide and even more beach was exposed. The beach drift was far richer in species than we had imagined, so we spent almost an hour there. We also both took sediment samples home with us.

Here is what we found. The micro species are marked with an M.

Hydobia totteni -- numerous shells -- M
Littorina littorea -- several fresh shells
Littorina saxatilis -- one broken shell
Assiminea succinta -- one shell -- M
Bittium alternatum -- one broken shell -- M
Crepidula convexa -- several fresh shells
Crepidula fornicata -- live
Crepidula plana -- one shell
Neverita duplicata -- several shells
Eupleura caudata -- several shells
Urosalpinx cinerea -- several shells
Mitrella lunata -- one fresh shell -- M
Busycotypus canaliculatus -- four of them
Tritia obsoleta -- countless shells
Tritia trivittata -- some shells
Boonea sp. -- many shells -- M

Geukensia demissa -- live
Anadara ovalis -- a fragment
Anadara transversa -- one small valve
Argopecten irradians -- many fragments
Crassostrea virginica -- with flesh still inside
Mulinia lateralis -- one valve
Ensis directus --paried valves
Macoma balthica -- paired valves
Gemma gemma -- paired valves -- M
Mercenaria mercenaria -- paired valves
Petricola pholadiformis -- one valve
Mya arenaria -- paired valves

A total of 28 species of shelled mollusks! I am assuming that the drift on this little beach at Long Wharf Park is not normally so extremely rich in species -- perhaps this abundance of beach drift had something to do with the recent prolonged extreme cold snap as well as the snow storm / nor'easter that happened a couple of weeks ago.

We also found several other kinds of marine life:

Snail Fur
Atlantic Horseshoe Crab
Trumpet Worms
Bay Barnacle
Fragile Barnacle

Sea Lettuce -- Ulva lactuca

In mid-December 2017, I had a 16-day trip to Sanibel Island, in Lee County, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. It was gorgeous, and I made a lot of observations there. I also met up for three days with two other citizen scientist malacologists, although neither of them is on iNaturalist.

My husband and I came back home to two or three mild days of winter weather in NYC. Then suddenly a prolonged and extreme frigid weather spell hit New York City and the whole of the northeast and central part of the country. It was hard to get through -- even indoors with steam heat it was cold.

But that eased up recently, and I was able to get back to Randall's Island, which is currently my favorite local iNat destination.

I am not a birder, but I managed to see Red-breasted Mergansers for the first time on Sanibel, and then saw some a couple days ago on Randall's!

As usual, I am shelling a lot on both islands, but I try to record as many other species of organisms as I reasonably can.

You would not think that Sanibel and Randall's have much in common at all, but surprisingly, seven marine mollusk species which are present on Sanibel are also present on Randall's! They are: the Hard Clam, the Atlantic Bay Scallop, the Eastern Oyster, the Dwarf Surf Clam, the Angel Wing (I found one fragment of a valve on Randalll's), the Eastern Melampus, and the Shark Eye.

One really interesting thing about the beaches on Randall's Island is that you can find valves of the Atlantic Rangia there, an estuarine species. But that is another story all by itself!

I love iNaturalist!

It was great to see @finatic and @jaykeller again! They were kind enough to take me iNatting in the Tijuana River Valley and in Border Field State Park, both of which were wonderfully atmospheric places -- like going back in time to the Old West.

On my final weekend, finatic drove me to Mission Trails Regional Park (a terrific wilderness area) and to a canyon in La Jolla, where we met up with jaykeller. On that trip we were joined by @cedric_lee and @alex_bairstow. We walked, and then hiked, and then pushed our way through the vegetation as far up into the canyon as it was possible to go without using machetes. We saw a lot of interesting organisms, but we failed to find the small native land snail species that was recorded there back in 1953.

Alex had previously gone beachcombing with me at Cardiff Reef, where he had demonstrated his sharp eyesight and an impressive knowledge of the local shelled marine mollusk fauna, especially considering he had only started learning to identify them the previous fall.

Thank you BJ and Jay! Apart from everything else which was great to see and learn, it was fascinating for me to be introduced to three species of native Californian land snails -- extraordinary survivors in the chaparral, which is a very dry shrub landscape that most of the time is only moistened on-and-off by sea fog at night.

I relentless picked the brains of those around me -- and in a few days I learned more about Southern Californian natural history than I have done in the previous 40 years. Wonderful!

I am hoping to increase the number of non-marine mollusk species which are known from Randall's Island. I have not done much dedicated searching yet, but I hope to do more looking, on land and in freshwater.

Here are all the elements of the fauna that are currently known. Note that so far only three of these are entirely or partly based on my records -- those three are marked like this (S).

FRESHWATER:

• Viviparus georgianus -- Banded Mysterysnail -- one shell washed up on the Wards Island beach (S) -- could perhaps be from some distance away
• Physidae sp. -- Tadpole Snails -- in the freshwater pond within the freshwater wetlands

TERRESTRIAL:

• Succineidae -- amber snails -- one found near Icahn Stadium
• Cochlicopa lubrica -- one near Central Road, and more recently one in the freshwater wetlands woodland under a log (S)
• Discus rotundatus -- one in the Urban Farm (S), and some near Central Road (S)
• Deroceras sp -- on the east stretch of Hell Gate Circle
• Cepaea nemoralis -- colonies in many different places on the island (S)

Other than the wetland area, the park mostly tends to be dry, and the influence of humans is historically very strong. Nonetheless I am certain there are more species of non-marine mollusks to be discovered here.

Wherever people go, they take stuff with them, and most often they leave some of it behind, either deliberately or accidentally. Some of these abandoned objects are ugly, and some are quite beautiful.

Sea shells have been considered to be beautiful by humans for millennia. The oldest jewelry ever found, over 10,000 years old, was made from seashells that were strung together into a necklace.

Therefore, not surprisingly, when biologists including myself are searching to see what they can find in places like the intertidal zone on Wards Island and Randall's Island in Manhattan, part of the estuary of the Hudson River, we do occasionally find shells from far-distant parts of the world.

So far we have found:

Two valves of an exotic Anadara species (4 more since then!) (and another two on August 19th for a total of 8!)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/6484705

Two faded and worn shells of a Turritella species (one more since then for a total of 3!)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/6484760

Two beads made from the gold ring cowry (another two since then!) (and another one on August 19th for a total of 5!)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5643978

One tropical top snail species (another one since then!) (and another completely different species on August 19th.)
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/6771040

And one Indo-Pacific small conch off the southern end of Wards Island.
Shown in the image below

Who knows what I might find next?

UPDATE:
From the same little beach on Ward's Island on July 27th:

Two more valves of that same Anadara species

One more shell of a tropical top snail

Amazingly: One shell of Indothais lacera

And this kind of thing happens to some extent almost everywhere, even in the least likely, far-flung places.

A lot of people seem to think that the best places to throw away a shell is on a beach, no matter where that shell came from originally. If they even know where their shell was from. People tend to think the shells they find in a shell shop are local, even though most are from the international shell trade and were actually collected live in the Philippines.

What could possibly wash up on (be found live on) the shore of the Harlem River (right in the heart of New York City, one of the most urban areas in the world) that would be of considerable interest to naturalists?

I naively assumed there would be very little at all. But I was wrong!

First I should explain that the Harlem "River" is not actually a river -- it is a tidal inlet, and so is the East "River". They are both part of the complex geography of the estuary of the Hudson River. Thus the Harlem River is saltwater, not freshwater, but the water may almost never be at full seawater salinity, because it is an estuarine environment.

On Randall's Island Park during low tide, there is a very small sand beach on the Harlem River. There is usually some beach drift there, and it is quite interesting. So far I have found three crab species, a jellyfish species, a comb jelly, and various species of green, brown, and red algae.

With a lot of careful and thorough searching over a number of visits, I /we have also managed to find a surprising number of marine mollusk species, including four live species and quite a few fresh-dead shells in good condition.

The species I have found so far are listed here, in decreasing order of commoness.
...................
BIVALVES

Softshell Clam -- Mya arenaria, including small live individuals
Atlantic Jacknife -- Ensis directus, many fresh paired valves in good condition
Dwarf Mulinia -- Mulinia lateralis", many single valves
Baltic Macoma -- *Macoma petaluma , some paired valves
Eastern Oyster -- Crassostrea virginica, single valves, fairly common.live ones at low tide
Atlantic Ribbed Mussel -- Geukensia demissa, a few sets of paired valves, several single valves
Atlantic Rangia -- Rangia cuneata, single valves, AN INTERESTING ESTUARINE SPECIES!
Hard Clam -- Mercenaria mercenaria, one live juvenile, some broken pieces of adults
Blue Mussel -- Mytilus edulis, two valves

GASTROPODS
Eastern Mudsnail -- Tritia obsoleta including three or four live ones, and a lot of empty shells. Also eggs of this species laid on red algae.

.........................................................
June 3rd 2017, I found:

MORE GASTROPODS!
Shark Eye -- Neverita duplicata -- one broken shell
Eastern White Slippersnail -- Crepidula plana, live inside the Shark Eye shell

And a few days ago on June 1st I found these small, white, very fragile shells, each of them as a complete shell with paired valves:

MORE BIVALVES!
Northern Dwarf-tellin -- Ameritella agilis (formerly Tellina agilis)
Glassy Lyonsia -- Lyonsia hyalina (by June 18th a total of three intact shells)
Shining Macoma -- Macoma tenta (only one so far)

These three species are very surprising for such an urban locality, the Shining Macoma being the biggest surprise of all, as this species was thought to be very particular about where it lives, and it is usually only found far out on Long Island where there is very little pollution.

..............................................

When we look at a gorgeous beach strewn with beautiful sea shells, like West Gulf Drive on Sanibel Island, on the Gulf of Mexico, it is a soothing sight of great beauty to us humans. It seems peaceful and lovely, clean and fresh.

However... all those lovely mollusk shells are telling a different story if you look a little more closely, and think a little more deeply.

Every empty mollusk shell represents a death. Here are untold millions of deaths. Vast infant mortality. Countless juveniles that never made it to adulthood. Countless young adults that never had the chance to live a long life.

Yes, a few of these external skeletons represent snails or clams that made it to adulthood, reproduced, and presumably died peacefully of old age in their sandy bed.

But SO MANY of the snails and clams died what we would consider to be horrible deaths at the "hands" of predators.

So many clams were drilled by moon snails or murex predators! So many clams were crunched into pieces by sting rays!

So many gastropods, seemingly secure in their strong shells with apertures guarded by a strong operculum, had their castle systematically ripped open by a box crab or torn to pieces by who knows what skillful and ruthless predator!

Of course I am not trying to suggest that the clam or snail suffered agonies of anxiety as the end approached and it felt its defenses being breached for the final time.

And it is true that many gastropods shells show successful repairs after predation attempts that did not prove fatal.

It's not all death and destruction.

Or is it?

I suppose one easy answer is, yes it is wrong because the animals may come to rely on hand-outs, and may cease to be able to support themselves via natural foraging.

But of course, many of the animals that we tend to want to feed, such as pigeons, sparrows and squirrels, are living in the cities as a loose part of what I like to call the human ecosystem, a system that we seem to take with us wherever we go in the world, and which often consists of animals and plants that we ourselves have introduced to areas, either accidentally or deliberately.

In and around the cities, many animals are reliant on human scraps or human trash for survival.

I do not do any wholesale or regular feeding of "wild" animals, but I have occasionally fed birds, or fish, or even mammals that are not pets.

Is this reprehensible?

I personally think in my case (which is not egregious) the joy that comes from the simple act of generosity of occasionally sharing your food, outweighs the possible harm to the wildlife. And I think it is important for people a few times in their life, one way or another, to experience some sort of direct personal connection with the wild, so that they come to feel a real kinship with the rest of nature.

Also see this observation:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4631137

I would be interested to hear other people's comment on these ideas.

I am back in NYC now, after three very lively weeks in San Diego North County, Southern California, Although I was quite busy with other necessities, and although the trip was not primarily a vacation, I managed to spend a fair bit of time making about 450 iNat observations. Three quarters of the observations were of marine mollusk shells that had been washed up on the beaches close to where my husband and I were staying.

I worked much harder searching for interesting local shells than I have for many decades, motivated by knowing that my observations would be useful to science and to other naturalists. :)

Because of my increased dedication, I did very well, finding more species than I have ever done before in this area, including several that I had never seen before. I have to give full credit to BJ (@finatic) for letting me know about a particularly good spot that he discovered after he surveyed all the State Park beaches from Oceanside to the Border.

I also need to thank @jannvendetti , @cedric_lee , and @silversea_starsong (James) for coming all the way down from Los Angeles to meet up with BJ and myself, making that day into a wonderful iNat meet-up. :)

I should also "thank" the local authorities for replenishing the beach sand in the area a few times during recent decades. Yes, replenishing beaches is a bizarre artificial practice which presumably disrupts the intertidal and subtidal fauna, but on the other hand, because the sand is pumped in from 60 foot offshore, it brings up onto the beaches shells of several species that live at that depth, species that would almost never be found by a beachcomber like myself, except possibly after a major storm, and maybe not even then.

And of course I also give my sincere thanks to everyone who put an ID or a comment on any of my observations. Although I know most of the shelled marine mollusks quite well, it was great for me to learn something about the local plants, fungi, insects, and even mammals!

Each summer for a little more than two months, I go every day to run laps for an hour in the city pool at the end of my street in Manhattan. The pool is almost-olympic-sized, close to the East River, and surrounded by trees. We are not allowed to take electronics onto the pool deck, otherwise I would record more insect observations from there.

A lot of insects fall into the pool or are knocked into the pool, and most of them drown. But I discovered accidentally that some of the larger-bodied insects can recover and "come back to life" if they are fished out of the pool and left in the sun to dry out for 10 or 15 minutes.

Until today, my only iNaturalist record from the pool water was a male horntail, which I carried home in my pool shoe, so I could photograph it. Today there was a large, mostly black wasp in the pool with iridescent blue-black wings (kindly ID'ed a few hours later by @mdwarriner as the Blue-winged Wasp). I brought the wasp home in a drink container so I could take some (not very good) photos of it before releasing it.

I try to rescue all the wildlife that I find in the pool.

Here is a casual list of animals that I have found in that pool over the last 10 years:

Blue-winged Wasp - three times this summer
Chinese mantis - once, about 7 years ago
Horntail - once, this summer
Honey bees
Green June beetle - once, this summer
Small yellowish, dappled scarab-type beetles which fall from the London Plane trees [Oriental Beetles]
Lady beetles
Katydid - twice, once this summer
Dragonfly - once
Damsel fly - once
Moth caterpillars, which fall in from the London Plane trees
Numerous small flies -- they don't survive
Large cockroach - once

And last but not least:

A juvenile rat -- once

Dragonflies fly low over the pool very often, but most of them don't touch the surface and don't drown.