Pelagic Red Crab update

Just a quick update about Pelagic Red Crabs (Pleuroncodes planipes).  We have continued to survey for them since the discovery of live crabs on Salmon Creek Beach on 24 January 2017.  We haven't found additional live animals, but on 4 February 2017, I found some claws and legs:

 

And a few of these:

 

This is a pellet made up of Pelagic Red Crab pieces.  (Many birds cough up pellets of indigestible prey parts.)

I'm not sure which species of bird ate these Pelagic Red Crabs, but my guess would be a gull.  Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) have been documented feeding on Pelagic Red Crabs in southern California during previous El Niño years (Stewart et al. 1984).

P.S.  I've written about pellets before — for examples, see "Identify the Prey in the Pellet" on 25 November 2014, and "Rounded and flattened" on 2 November 2015.

  

Rounded and flattened

 

Have you seen a White-tailed Kite pellet before?  I hadn't until about a month ago.  This is similar to an owl pellet — the kite coughs up a pellet of the prey parts that can't be digested, e.g., fur and bones. (Kites primarily feed on small mammals.)  This is one example, although some pellets are smaller than this.  I read that the dimensions of the pellets can vary depending on the size of the prey that the kites have eaten recently. 

Most of the pellets I've seen are rounded like this one.  And although it's probably difficult to tell from the picture, the pellets are somewhat flattened.

So there's your lesson for the day.  Now you can tell everyone that you know what a kite pellet looks like.

:)

 

Identify the Prey in the Pellet

I know, you've been waiting and waiting for the answers to the Identify the Prey in the Pellet game.

Last night I showed this picture of a gull pellet with the remains of mystery prey items:

 

The next image is the same picture with some of the mystery items identified.  Are you ready?

 

There are at least four identifiable prey items: a Channeled Whelk (Nucella canaliculata); two species of crabs — a Flat Porcelain Crab (Petrolisthes cinctipes) and a Granular Claw Crab (Oedignathus inermis); and what I think is a fish bone.  Let me know if you can identify more!

I've shown pictures of a Granular Claw Crab before — see the post from 23 April 2013.

I haven't shown a Flat Porcelain Crab (Petrolisthes cinctipes).  So here you go — a gull's-eye view (below).  Note the elongate, smooth, flattened claws.  Their size, shape, and texture made them easy to identify in the pellet.

 

And if you're interested in playing another round of Identify the Prey in the Pellet, here's another gull pellet.  (The identity of the prey is below the picture.)

 

This gull pellet is dominated by one species found growing in clumps along wave-exposed rocky shores. 

The picture below reveals this species when it's alive, so don't scroll down unless you're ready for the answer:

 

 

The pellet was full of individual Gooseneck Barnacle plates (Pollicipes polymerus), a common prey item of gulls in this area.

I hope you enjoyed playing the game!

 

A new game

Here's a new game for you — Identify the prey in the pellet!

Below is a picture of a gull pellet.  Gulls cough up compacted pellets of previously swallowed prey parts that they can't digest.  Pellets are interesting because they offer clues about the gull's recent food items.  They're miniature treasure chests of mystery objects that tell a story about the gull's interactions.

Can you identify the different types of prey in this pellet?  I'll show you two pictures — one of the pellet in its original state when I first found it.  And a second photo when I spread the pieces apart to make it a little easier to see the individual items.

 

If you're into playing games at different levels, the hardest level in this game would be to look at only the first photo (above) — no peeking at the second photo (below)!  However, if you need some help (like I did), go ahead and look at the second photo, too.  I'll reveal the answers regarding some of the prey items tomorrow.