The hunter at dusk

 

 

Leaving work just after sunset tonight (15 January 2026), I caught a glimpse of a Long-tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata) bounding across the road.  I pulled over to see if it would appear again, and it did.  In fact, it kept running back and forth from one side of the road to the other.  It was getting dark, so a photo was difficult, but I kept watching because the weasel was so active:

 

 

 

And then I saw another flash and I realized that another animal was involved.  The weasel was chasing a Brush Rabbit (Sylvilagus bachmani).

 

The next sequence was amazing -- the rabbit would dash out from the bushes and start running down the road, and then the weasel would appear and start to chase after the rabbit.  This happened at least 4-6 times!  Here's a sample:

 

 

 

I wasn't sure what was going to happen, but in the end, the weasel ended up capturing the rabbit!  I've never seen a weasel subdue prey before.  It felt like it took longer, but according to my camera time stamps, the weasel subdued the rabbit in about 1 minute:

 

 

 

Wow!

Successs

  

Leaving work tonight (17 September 2025), we noticed a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) perched on top of a telephone pole.  I turned around and pulled off the road nearby.

We watched for a few minutes and then the owl crouched and took off, gliding down towards the ground:

 

 

 

It landed among the grass, but at first I couldn't tell if it had caught anything:

 

 

  

But then the owl looked up and I could see something in its bill.  This happened quickly, and looking through the camera I couldn't tell what it was, but zooming in later, the prey was visible:

 

 

 

A garter snake!  

It didn't take long for the owl to swallow the snake.  

The next views showed off those large yellow eyes:

 

 

 

 

 

And then the owl flew up to a nearby cypress tree.  The light was just right for a great view of its talons:

 

 

An unexpected encounter!  You never know what you'll see on the way home from work.

Catch of the day

  

While out early working during the low tide this morning (27 May 2025),  we were in the middle of a survey when Eric heard a splash and turned to see a River Otter (Lontra canadensis) swimming not too far away from us.  (We were somewhat hidden by a rock.)  Eventually the otter caught a large fish and it climbed up onto a rock and starting eating.  

Although we only had a point-and-shoot camera, Eric was able to take a short video.  I think this is a Striped Surfperch (Embiotoca lateralis), but if you have a different opinion, please let me know!  [If you can't see the video player in the e-mail, click on the title of this post above to find the video on the NHBH web page.]

With gratitude for sharing coastal habitats with otter and fish!

The flip side

  

Last week I was watching a small group of Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) along the shore of Bodega Harbor.  At first they were resting, but then they started feeding among the cobbles, actively flipping stones in search of prey.

Below is a short video clip showing the active turning-stone behavior.  [At ~12 seconds, a Black Turnstone (Arenaria melanocephala) enters the frame from the right.]

The turnstones appeared to be quite successful finding prey.  Sometimes it was hard to tell what they captured, but several times I could see small shore crabs in their bills:

 

 

Crab for lunch!

Tool chest?

  

We had to do some field work in Monterey County yesterday, but we arrived a little early, so had a few minutes to observe a few sea otters while eating lunch in Pacific Grove.  

The first sea otters we saw were actively munching on sea urchins -- above, and next two photos:

 

 

 

But then our attention was drawn to a hard slapping sound, and we turned to see an otter trying to crack open a large mussel against a rock that was balanced on the otter's chest:

 

 

 

Several times we watched this otter dive down, bring up a rock and a mussel (or clump of mussels)...and then use the rock like an anvil -- hammering the mussel against the rock.

 

Sea otters are known to do this, but I hadn't photographed it before, so here are a few more images.  (Tool-use by mammals aside from humans is rare.)  In each picture, look for a rock resting on the otter's chest and a mussel between the otter's paws.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were reading up on this behavior at the end of the day and came across an interesting research paper about tool use by sea otters just published in May 2024.

 

It turns out that using rocks as tools to access hard-shelled prey might be especially important for female otters in areas where their preferred and easier-to-process prey (e.g., abalone and urchins) aren't as common.  And using the rocks to open hard-shelled prey can prevent tooth damage and give the otters access to an alternative food source that otherwise wouldn't be available by biting alone.

Law et al. 2024. Tool use increases mechanical foraging success and tooth health in southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis).  Science 384: 798-802.

 

Blending in

  

Well, I need to take a better photo, but here's a quick one for the record.  This looks like Corambe pacifica, a nudibranch I haven't photographed yet.  It was on a bryozoan colony on a piece of drift kelp.

Along with Corambe steinbergae, this species is a bryozoan specialist. Its coloration and patterning looks just like the bryozoan prey.

For an introduction to these intriguing nudibranchs, see "Ay, Corambe!" on 20 September 2013 and "A story with a point" on 17 August 2014 (this one includes a link to a great video!).

Who's the culprit?

  

This is a scene we came across after finishing field work this morning (9 May 2024).  Some empty-looking whelks (Nucella ostrina) on the sand...and upon closer inspection, their opercula nearby (the operculum is the "trap-door" on the bottom of a snail's foot that seals the opening to its shell when the snail is pulled in).

It looked like the snails had been eaten by a predator, but we couldn't recall seeing this before, so we looked around a little more.

We found even more evidence that something had been eating both whelks and limpets.  Here are a few examples, including snail shells and overturned limpet shells with most of the soft parts missing, but with a thin ring of tissue, evidence that they had been eaten recently:

 

 

So...who was responsible for eating these snails and limpets?

 

We weren't sure, but we kept looking, and Eric eventually spotted a clue.  Tracks in the sand around some of the predated shells:

 

 

 

After thinking through the possibilities, we're guessing these footprints might belong to a rat (!).

 

Rat predation on intertidal invertebrates has been documented previously (Thanks to Sergio!), but we don't recall seeing it locally before.  Maybe because there was a lot of sand at this site it was easier to notice the empty shells and the tracks in the sand.

 

Here's a close-up of one track in case anyone can help us with an identification.  The track was ~1 cm across.

 

 

 

You learn something new every day!

One-way flight

  

Quick shot of a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) with prey, an American Coot (Fulica americana).  You can see the lobed feet of the coot.  Photographed flying over Bodega Harbor today, 20 March 2024.

Mine!

 

 

We've been busy with sea star surveys this week, but I couldn't help taking a quick photo of these two Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) fighting over an Ochre Sea Star (Pisaster ochraceus).  

 

The gull on the left was trying to swallow the sea star when gull on the right flew in and started pulling on one of the sea star's rays.  (If you're wondering, the second gull was eventually successful at pulling the sea star away from the first.)

Barnacles, yum!

  

Back in late June, someone kindly alerted me to the presence of some Onchidoris bilamellata over at Doran Beach.  I swung by and took a few quick photos.  I still need to go back to see if I might be able to get some better pictures, but I thought I'd share this one for now.  

Onchidoris is unusual among nudibranchs in that it feeds on barnacles (!).  The mottled brown-and-white nudibranch is in the top center of the photo.  In the bottom right you can also see a nice chiton (note the shell plates) next to the barnacles. 

I wrote about Onchidoris ~8 years ago, so for some more photos and a little more info, check out the post called "The barnacle-eaters" on 24 June 2014.

Lower limits

 

 

Whew, I'm finally getting over a heel injury...and it's just in time for spring field work!  Eric and I were doing some intertidal surveys this afternoon (1 April 2023) and Eric took this nice photo of Ochre Sea Stars (Pisaster ochraceus) —  some feeding on very large California Mussels (Mytilus californianus).

An unusual ending

  

I took a short walk in Walpole, MA, today (26 September 2022).  I ended up at a small pond and started noticing a few interesting animals in the warm afternoon sun (more on that later).  I was taking photographs and noticed a dragonfly a bit further away along the shoreline.  It was a female ovipositing (laying eggs), so it was in the same area long enough for me to snap a few distant photos.  

When I finished photographing the first subject, I decided to take a quick look for the dragonfly as I wasn't certain which species it was.  I was scanning for a dragonfly in flight and wasn't having any luck when I noticed a fluttering movement near the ground.  I looked down to see this:

 

 

I couldn't believe it, but the dragonfly had been caught by a Bull Frog (Lithobates catesbeianus)!

 

And amazingly it looked like this was a Great Blue Skimmer (Libellula vibrans), a dragonfly that used to be rare when I last lived in Massachusetts.  It sounds like Great Blue Skimmers (a southern species) have become more common in Massachusetts during the last 18 years, but they are still infrequently encountered.

 

Here are a couple of different angles:

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.  Many thanks to Blair for helping to confirm the dragonfly identification and the current status of Great Blue Skimmers in Massachusetts.

Eating peanuts

  

Here's a fun story.  In Monterey County, I came across an Ida's Mitra snail (Atrimitra idae, formerly Mitra idae).  Although we see their shells occasionally in Bodega Bay, I haven't seen a live snail in the field, so I was excited to find one.

I have read that Ida's Mitra specializes on eating an unusual prey item —  peanut worms (sipunculans).  I've always been curious about how that works, since peanut worms often live deep within rock crevices.  

After photographing this individual, I looked up to see a second Ida's Mitra not too far away.  I took a quick photo and noticed something brown that I wasn't sure about.  I was under the impression that Ida's Mitra's body was primarily white, so I wasn't sure what the brown part might be.  Here's the next photo and then a second even closer image from a slightly different angle:

 

 

 

 

Ahh!  This snail was eating a peanut worm!  That brown object is the posterior end of Phascolosoma agassizii, a common peanut worm in rocky shore areas.

I waited a while to see what would happen and took a couple more photos for the record:

 

 

 

 

I didn't see the position of the peanut worm change very much.  Later I read about two possible feeding strategies in this family of snails — (1) the snail could rasp a hole in the peanut worm's skin and then extend its proboscis into the peanut worm to access the inner tissues, or (2) the snail could swallow the peanut worm whole and digest it once it reached the stomach.  I can't say for sure which was happening here, but my instinct was that the snail was swallowing this peanut worm.

Later I found a different individual under water with its siphon fully extended, apparently searching for prey (it's likely they can detect the scent of a peanut worm in the water).  The siphon is the tubular structure above the head:

 

 

And I also encountered a very pretty juvenile snail:

 

 

 

Although I'm a big fan of peanut worms (see below), it was amazing to see this feeding behavior in the field.

 

 

 

The Dove Snail Attacks!

I had a bit of an eyebrow-raising experience today.  I was trying to photograph a common snail, the Carinate Dove Snail (Alia carinata).  This marine snail can be found in a variety of habitats, e.g., rocky shores in tidepools and among surfgrass and seaweeds and in harbors among eelgrass.  It's fairly small (most individuals are probably ~10 mm long), elongate, and usually brownish/black in color.  Here's an example:

 

 

This species is common enough that you can overlook it.  But I needed a photograph, so I was looking at several of them under a microscope today when I came across one in a puzzling position.  I wasn't sure what was going on at first:

 

 

 

So that's the snail, with its siphon extended up and to the right and its foot flat against the surfgrass blade (in this photo the foot has blue highlights).  You can see the snail's short tentacles, and you can also see a small dark eye on the right hand tentacle.  But what's below the tentacles?  Here's a side view:

 

 

 

Ahhh!  The snail had extended its proboscis (a tubular feeding structure) into an egg capsule filled with developing larvae.  It was vacuuming up the veliger larvae!  I hadn't seen this behavior before, so I wasn't sure I was interpreting it correctly at first, but there was no doubt.  The snail reached around inside the egg capsule and cleaned out almost every developing larva.  (The egg capsule/larvae belong to a different snail species, Lacuna marmorata.)

 

Even better, Eric wasn't far away and he came over just in time to capture a video of this fascinating feeding behavior (see below).  

 

I loved learning something new and unusual about a common local snail.  In some ways the name "dove snail" suggests a rather sedate snail, but I'll never look at Alia the same way again!

 

And here's the best part — the video!  Watch for the snail approaching the egg capsule, inserting its proboscis inside, then using suction and its tongue-like radula to ingest the tiny larval snails.  You'll see the radula flicking in/out at the tip of the proboscis.  (At this stage, the larval snails have shiny little shells.)

 

 

 

Many thanks to Eric for a memorable video!

 

Anemone buffet?

  

We often see Shag-Rug Nudibranchs (Aeolidia loui) eating Aggregating Sea Anemones (Anthopleura elegantissima), but I haven't observed them eating Brooding Sea Anemones (Epiactis prolifera) as often.  

Below is an even closer view.  Epiactis broods its young around the base of the column, so those little dots of various sizes are juvenile sea anemones.  This view made me wonder if the nudibranch eats the young anemones?

 

 

P.S.  For a couple of nice views of Brooding Sea Anemones with large broods see "Ring around the Anemone" on 18 February 2021.

Disappearing act?

Back in December, I was trying to photograph this fish in the low intertidal zone:

 

 

I turned my head for a second and when I looked back I couldn't find the fish again.  I started scanning the pool, and then I noticed a silvery green-blue color out of the corner of my eye:

 

 

 

Whoops!  The first fish had been caught by a second fish!

 

I could use some help with the identifications.  Any ideas?  I'm wondering if the first fish is a Topsmelt (Atherinops affinis).  The second fish appears to be a sculpin, but I'm not sure which species.  If you have any thoughts about either one, I'd be interested.