Day 68 - Intertidal ramblings

Unlike yesterday, today I did go for a walk, a ramble along the beach and the thickets and back home.  An exploration of the intertidal - one of my favourite spaces, when each day is different.

It was an interesting morning, starting with that Mupli beetle on the wall as I descended the stairs of our building, the call of the sunbirds and  of course crows and parakeets.  There is the ominous sign of a parked road milling machine...yikes, they are going to damage our perfectly good road is it?  It is the road on the beach that is all dug up.  But where is the logic in these matters.

On to the beach front road - and the Sea Grape trees were all showing those green-gold new leaves - what a lovely sight.  I walked until the end, peeking at the waters of the Bay, in the hope of dolphin sightings, but no such luck.  The Bay looked quiescent today, gentle waves.  At the southern end of the road, I trudged onto the sands and stopped and stared at the waters for a while.

It is nice to hear the roar, and then the hiss as the waves hits the shore, and the foam effervesces, back and forth, the sound rising and falling.  The vastness of the sea, shimmering waters, tiny fishing boats in the distance.  A Whimbrel flew by, going south.  Crows waited at the shore line keeping an eye out for unsuspecting wedge clams.  Three pigeons waddled on the shore too, as if out for a morning walk.  The doggies lay all curled and fast asleep in the wet sands.

When I stand still, the ghost crabs dance around me in the intertidal zone, a small hole here, a bigger one there, a sideways dart to my left, a hole being dug to my right.  They are like ghosts in the sand, vanishing as people walk by.  

This one was close to my feet, and I could see the pink tips on the crab claws.

Today was hermit crab day - I saw three of them. One in a spindle shell, one in a murex and the third in the tower shell.  This one in the  Spindle was pretty active, and showed sign of life, the other two looked kind of dazed.  I moved the shells close to the water and the waves washed over them, and in a trice they were gone!  

I wonder where they went - hermits as far as I know can't swim, but they walk, and burrow in the sand.

Hermit crabs are such interesting little creatures - imagine living life in someone else's shell all your life.  And they do not leave the shell, ever, since they have soft bodies.

I read that they have hooked legs, to go and hook inside the shell, so that the shell doesn't come off as they move.  

But they do need to move to larger homes as they grow! One shell exchange happens it seems.  The BBC video is fascinating.  

  

Today's interesting find for me was Purpura bufo - I was seeing these shells for the first time.  I think they probably got washed ashore along with this tree trunk that they were clinging to.  

Some had fallen into the sand - but seemed still alive.  Can you see the body inside?

The thick and purply shell conceals a carnivorous snail.

This snail drills into the shells of barnacles, mussels, limpets, and even other snails using its radula (rasping tongue) and acidic secretions.  Once the hole is made, it sucks out the soft tissue of its prey.  It sounds like that robber fly that sucks the life out of its prey.

There's some connection between these snails and purple dye in the old days, I am not sure about it.

A little further down, fisherman Shanmugham greeted me with his big grin, he was clearing his net out as usual.  And there were many moon crabs, still alive.  So we threw them into the waves, and they vanished, much to the disappointment of the waiting crows.

I reached Valmiki Nagar beach, and the sand berms.

It was about a foot high - I am at the lower level.  It's interesting, I aways see this berm or sand cliff only the Valmiki nagar side.  More south, the slope is more gentle during low tide.

I wandered back, watched the clam fishermen feel for clams with their feet, five terns flew south, and the Urbaser machine attempted to clear the beach.

I stopped at the thickets area and was rewarded with a Brown Shrike sitting on the barbed wire, along with a drongo and bee eaters.  

And then it was back home and so the day began.

Oh later in the day, I did see the sand wasp digging away in my mother's garden but that is a post for another day.