Tag Archives: gastropod mollusc

The Turnstone and the Slipper limpets

10 Tuesday Nov 2026

Posted by in birds, molluscs, seaside

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It seems I’m not the only one to have noticed all the Slipper limpets while wandering along the English south coast’s shingle beaches (see my blog of the same name, published on 31 October).

The difference, though, between me and the Turnstone is that I was only noticing the limpets’ empty shells, whereas the Turnstone is looking for those that still contain something edible.

Somewhat surprisingly, this avian sleuth seemed to be finding quite a lot of shells worthy of its investigative skills, and even some that contained remnants of limpets, which it then proceeded to extract using its strong beak.

Though I didn’t take photos, I noticed that the Carrion crow population that inhabits Weymouth’s beaches were also very adept at locating intact Slipper limpet shells. These they would grab with their beaks, fly up to a height of around 20 feet above the pavement, then let go of, sometimes repeating these actions several times, until the shell had smashed open sufficiently to feast upon the unfortunate creature living within. Slipper limpets are obviously quite delicious!

Slipper limpets

31 Saturday Oct 2026

Posted by in coastal fauna, molluscs, seaside

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If you’ve ever walked along a shingle beach, you’ll know they can be challenging on the ankles and the leg muscles so I only ventured on to the beaches at Eastbourne and Rye Harbour once at each place. When I did, I noticed an abundance of these shells, which seem to be Slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata). They are gastropod molluscs, and they are an odd shape with, what The Marine Life Information Network website describes as a ‘large aperture [that] has a shelf, or septum, extending half its length’. They also have an odd method of cohabitation: ‘Slipper limpets are commonly found in curved chains of up to 12 animals. Large shells are found at the bottom of the chain, with the shells becoming progressively smaller towards the top.’ Check out the website for an illustration of this, and for more information about these fascinating sea creatures.

Dog whelk

19 Saturday Apr 2025

Posted by in molluscs, seaside

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Following Thursday’s post about Common periwinkles, it occurred to me that I should probably have explained more clearly where I found them … or, even better, show you. So, the photo below, taken a few years ago, shows Penarth Pier. As the Severn Estuary has the second greatest tidal range in the world, at high tide the water usually covers the stony beach (and almost comes up to the pier’s walkway at the very highest tides) and at low tide you can walk out on the sand and rocks under the end of the pier, sometimes further. The periwinkles were found under the pier, living on the support structures, as was today’s subject.

The Dog whelk (Nucella lapillus) is common around Britain’s coastline, found in particular where its food, mussels and barnacles, live. The Marine Life Information Network’s website goes in to gory detail about this gastropod’s feeding methods, how it uses its proboscis to push or bore a hole in its prey’s shell, how it drugs its prey then injects it with digestive enzymes to turn its victim in to a mush that can be sucked out. I never knew the Dog whelk was like the Hannibal Lecter of the marine world.

Feeling sluggish

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in fungi, nature, nature photography, slugs

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Once the rain stopped this afternoon, I went out for a wander, looking to see if there were any new fungi after the dampness of recent days. What I found were shell-less terrestrial gastropod molluscs, big fat slippery slimy slugs that had at least partially devoured many of the tasty-to-them, newly sprouted mushrooms.

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Isn’t it interesting that we use a lot of ‘slug’ idioms and expressions in the English language? If we are fighting, we are also slugging it out. If we’re working hard at a task, we’re slugging away at it. If we’re having a shot of alcohol, we’re having a slug of the drink. Well, today I saw many literal illustrations of the word sluggish: all those terrestrial gastropod molluscs, like the Leopard slug (Limax maximus) in my photos, were looking decidedly sluggish as they sleepily digested the hefty portions of fungi they’d consumed for their lunch.

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In case you’re a gardener and think I should have killed this creature, this slug is actually one of the good guys. It won’t damage healthy living plants, preferring fungi, rotting plants and even other slugs, and it recycles nutrients, helping to fertilise the soil.

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