plant/animal reference) to get a bigger picturePurple varnish clams | Moon snail | Nucella lamellosa |
Data keeper | Freeland Town Park | Profiling |
It was a gung ho group that showed up at Freeland Town Park on May 9th. Nancy Bartlett arrived via kayak and Sharon Dunn brought along her cute as a button new fluff-ball of a puppy, Chaco. Bob Buck headed up the team of nine and reports that the high point of the day for him was finding a tiny 5 rayed sea star tucked among the mussels on the side of a rock. Libby Hayward was surprised by the presence of many highly frilled bright orange
Nucella lamellosa (snails). Nancy Bartlett spotted a clump of nudibranch eggs and her husband, Tom got a good explanation of what moonsnails eat from Eugene Thrasher. Eugene dug a moonsnail out of the sand and discovered that it had its mantle wrapped around a good sized clam, apparently intending to dine on the unfortunate bivalve. One rather startling finding at this beach was the incredible number of nonnative purple varnish clams (Nuttallia obscurata) now being found there. A sample dig using a small shovel yielded a dozen of the 2 inch bivalves in just one scoop. This clam was first documented in Washington waters in 1993 having previously been noted in the Strait of Georgia. It is native to Asia.