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The WFSU Ecology Blog

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Seagrasses and Sand FlatsWildlife in North Florida- Critters Big and Small

Photo Feature: Bedazzled Predator

by Rob Diaz de Villegas April 21, 2011
by Rob Diaz de Villegas April 21, 2011 0 comment
Rob Diaz de Villegas WFSU-TV

Horse Conch shell covered in bivalves

IGOR chip- habitat 150It kind of looks like one of those vintage ’80’s jackets adorned with mirrors and sequins- mollusk style.  This horse conch’s got a little bit of everything on it, the result of an interesting reversal of roles in this seagrass bed on Bay Mouth Bar.

In this ecosystem, a horse conch is the top predator.  This football sized snail eats a lot of the other large predatory snails, of which Bay Mouth Bar has plenty, from tulip snails to whelks to moon snails to the kind of strange white baby ear.  Some of those, especially the lightning whelk, get pretty large, but not as large as a horse conch can get.  The landscape reigned over by these snails is diverse as well, featuring brittle stars, sand dollars, sea squirts, spider and hermit crabs, polychaete worms, and a large variety of bivalves.

This horse conch took on a lot of that diversity right on its shell, it’s top dog of the habitat as well as practically being a habitat itself.

HC_1So what are some of the critters taking up residence on this horse conch?  You may notice structures, like this one, that look like plants.  These are bryozoans, also known as moss animals.  Bryozoans are colonial animals, consisting of individuals called zooids.  They are covered with cilia that filter their food from the water.
HC_2In the photo to the right, you can see another kind of bryozoan (the tentacles on the left), and a hermit crab in snail shell.  On the right side of the photo is a familiar sight to readers of this blog- an oyster.  We’re used to seeing oysters in clumps and reefs, as they like to build on each other to make their own habitat.  But how does an oyster reef start out?  Oysters don’t build in mud, so reefs start out when oysters build on rocks or other hard surfaces.  This large snail isn’t likely to turn the seagrass bed its in into an oyster reef, but it is interesting to see young oysters building on a new surface.

HC_4And in this photo, in addition to an oyster spat, are barnacles (the roundish objects towards the right).  All of our boaters out there know these little crustaceans, who like oysters and some other bivalves build on hard surfaces (like the hull of a boat).

Once I sort through all of the photos and videos from Sunday’s trip to Bay Mouth Bar, I’ll be adding some to the Bay Mouth Bar species page.  As you can see from the variety of life just on this dead snail, it’s got a lot going on.  I look forward to going back!

4-23-11: CORRECTION- the snail shell the hermit crab is in was initially listed as crepidula.  This has been fixed.

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Rob Diaz de Villegas

Rob Diaz de Villegas is a senior producer for WFSU-TV, covering outdoors and ecology. After years of producing the music program OutLoud, Rob found himself in a salt marsh with a camera, and found a new professional calling as well. That project, the National Science Foundation funded "In the Grass, On the Reef," spawned the award winning WFSU Ecology Blog. Now in its tenth year, the Ecology Blog recently wrapped its most ambitious endeavor, the EcoCitizen Project. Rob is married with two young sons, who make a pretty fantastic adventure squad.

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Florida milkvetch

Florida milkvetch (Astragalus obcordatus) in the Munson Sandhills

When I test out a new camera, I usually head to a random spot in the Munson Sandhills and take a series of videos and photos. This small flower caught my eye, as almost nothing was in bloom. I identified it as Florida milkvetch (Astragalus obcordatus) in iNaturalist, and it was confirmed.
I then saw a photo of this plant in a Facebook group for native plant enthusiasts. It turns out this is kind of a rare plant, and one botanist went so far as to classify it as imperiled. It pays to keep your eyes down by your feet when walking in the sandhills.

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Cedar waxwings eating glossy privet berries.

Cedar waxwings eating glossy privet berries.

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iNaturalist

iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

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