Left on the shore

The short trail through the woods at Buttle Lake starts and ends at spots along the shore of the lake. I walked down to the water's edge to look at some red plants that I'm still trying to identify. Near the water, I found the big cheliped of a crayfish.

Signal Crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus.

This is our native crayfish, the only one found on Vancouver Island. They're known as the Signal crayfish for the white to pale blue patch at the claw joint, here barely visible in this sun-bleached cheliped. The cheliped could have been left behind after a recent moult, just as crabs leave their old carapaces, legs and all, on the beach.

Where I found it, beside those pinkish sands. More on this later.

I saw this one 6 years ago, in a creek off the Oyster River.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

El sendero que seguí en el bosque en la orilla del Lago Buttle empieza y termina cerca del agua. Bajé al borde del agua para observar unas plantas rojas desconocidas (sigo sin identificarlas todavía), y allí encontré el quelípodo de un cangrejo de rio.

1. Cangrejo de rio "Señal", Pastifastacus leniusculus. Este es nuestro cangrejo de rio nativo, y el único que se encuentra aquí en la isla. Se conocen como el cangrejo "Señal" por la marca blanca o azul pálido en la articulación de la  pinza, aquí apenas visible en el quelípedo blanqueado por el  sol, que probablemente abandonado después de una muda, al igual que los cangrejos de mar dejan sus caparazones con todo y patas en la playa.
2. El sitio donde lo encontré, cerca de esas arenas color de rosa.
3. Vi este hace 6 años, en una rama del rio Oyster.

Oyster River crayfish

I spent a morning at the Bear Creek Nature Park with friends, visiting the fish hatchery on the Oyster River. The river here meanders, sprawls through a wetland, branches out into hatchery channels and side streams. It's mostly shallow and dark, even as the overhead greenery turns yellow and rains down. In a muddy pool, we found a crayfish.

Signal crayfish (also crawfish, crawdad), Pacifastacus leniusculus. Under about 6 inches of water, competing with the reflections from trees overhead.

There is only one native crayfish species in BC – the Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). This species can be identified by its uniform brownish coloration, white or light coloration of the claw joint, and the smooth surface of its carapace and claws compared to that of nonnative species. (Fishnbc)

They have a white to pale blue-green patch near the claw hinge [me: here it's blue-green], like the white flags that signalmen used for directing trains—hence the name. (Wikipedia)

This critter appeared to be about 3 inches long. (It's hard to be sure underwater because of the refraction.) We caught one in the Campbell River a few years ago; it was a bit bigger. They usually grow to about 3 1/2 inches, but can reach as much as 8 inches, given, I imagine, a healthy diet of leftovers and a long life. (Wikipedia) They can live as long as 20 years. Which I find amazing.

Bullies, devourers, thieves, and pacifists.

Continuing with the July assortment, these are animals in my aquarium and on local shores.

The bullies first.

Crabby. All blue-eyed innocence, except for those menacing pincers.

Crabs are fun to watch; always busy, always on the move. I had three in the aquarium, and they were thriving, molting and growing, scrambling everywhere, re-arranging rocks three times their size, rolling snails and tearing the sea lettuce. All well and good, until they grew big and fast enough to attack their tank mates.

There were three big rockweed isopods, inoffensive seaweed grazers, bigger than the crabs. They'd come in with seaweed long ago. The crabs grabbed and ate two; I caught ol' blue-eyes in the act.

They ate one of the big hermits. And my old red shrimp. There was no need for that: I've always fed them well.

So I fished them out of the tank and hauled them down to the beach, where they strutted into the waves, waving pincers, ready for action. They didn't know about fish and gulls yet.

The remaining residents of my tank breathed a sigh of relief. Or would have, if they were breathers.

Signal crayfish, Pacifasticus leniusculus. Identified by the white markings at the wrists.

We found this crayfish, dead, floating in the shallows of the Campbell River mouth. Another aggressive predator: they will eat anything, from rotting vegetation to live fish and their own relatives. My son had one that got in among his goldfish, ate them all, and grew very big.

They're a freshwater crustacean, but tolerate brackish water, freshwater mingled with tidal surges.

A bright orange starfish. (Blood star, maybe?) Stories beach. A notorious predator.

The Monterey sea lemon. Trundles around slowly, eating sponges and other sessile animals (fixed in place, like barnacles.) On Stories beach, at the south end of Campbell River.

Pale pink and green anemone in my tank. It arrived as a mere speck on a shell, and now has grown to half an inch across. I rarely feed these; they thrive on copepods and other plankton. Including, possibly, all those baby hermits.

Orange-striped green anemone, Duodumene lineata.

This one was on Stories beach, but a few tinier ones came home with me on a stone full of barnacles for my Leafy Hornmouth snails. I counted seven tonight after I cleaned the tank.

The tiniest of the fishermen; a two-tentacled worm (a Spionid) in a hole in an old shell. They catch detritus, which slides down the tentacles into the mouth.

Another, with leftover sand grains around the mouth. The worm cleans off the edibles, and spits out the sand.

One of my hermits, a Hairy.

These guys eat leftovers, dead critters, seaweed, hydroids and diatoms when they can. Totally inoffensive. Except when they see one of their friends with something good; they're not averse to rolling him over and stealing his food. Especially if he is smaller than they are.

It's a dog eat dog world in there.

A bully, a devourer of barnacles (Leafy Hornmouth snail), and the pacifist limpet, who putters mildly about cleaning algae off the rocks and the glass.