An assortment of egg cases

26 Thursday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in fish, molluscs, seaside

Tags

beachcombing, Buccinum undatum, catshark, catshark egg cases, Common whelk, Common whelk egg cases, ray egg cases, shellfish egg cases, Weymouth beachcombing

Taking a mini break in Weymouth in the winter was something of a gamble, particularly with the dismal weather we’ve been experiencing this year. I was reasonably lucky except on the Wednesday, when gale force winds saw huge waves rolling in along Weymouth Beach but, as the heaviest rain held off till the afternoon, I managed a quick stomp around Lodmoor, then walked back along the top of the beach to see what the weather had blown in.

First up were several of these egg cases, which have been confirmed as belonging to the Common whelk (Buccinum undatum) though, as the national recorder pointed out on IRecord, the vacant spawn balls float and get blown long distances from where they were laid, so their presence is not evidence of where the Common whelks live.

Next, I spotted this pale-coloured egg case, which I believe is from a catshark, though I’m not sure if it was produced by a Nursehound (Scyliorhinus stellaris) or a Small-spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula). Unfortunately, I didn’t measure the egg case, and it seems the case colour can be variable. The Dorset Wildlife Trust website entry for Nursehound states that ‘Nursehounds [and presumably other catsharks] lay their eggs amongst seaweed. The egg cases have curly tendrils that wrap around the seaweed to prevent the egg case from floating away’.

This last find is proving the most difficult to identify, as there are many similar-looking egg cases – the Shark Trust has an excellent downloadable chart but, once again, I don’t know the exact size of the case. The egg case seems to have been produced by a species of ray and, looking at which rays are found in the waters off the Dorset coast, it may be a Spotted ray egg case (Raja montagui), but that is pure speculation. Suffice to say, I have learned my lesson when it comes to trying to identify beachcombing finds – I will definitely be measuring what I find, and taking more detailed photos as well.

Scallop shells

22 Sunday Feb 2026

Posted by sconzani in molluscs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Aequipecten opercularis, beachcombing, Chlamys varia, Great scallop, King scallop, Pecten maximus, Queen scallop, scallop shells, Scallops, Variegated scallop, Weymouth beachcombing

In the absence of any new wildflower finds from my break in Dorset, I thought I’d feature seashells this week, in particular the various beautiful Scallop shells I found during a wander along the high tide line. In my ignorance I thought a Scallop was a Scallop, i.e. just one species, but I soon discovered I was very wrong and that I may have seen the shells of at least three different species on Weymouth beach, and that they can be tricky to tell apart.
[** Thanks to a comment from one of my much more knowledgeable followers, I now know that only 3 of the shells shown here (photos 3, 5 and 6) are Scallop species. Obviously, I have a very steep learning curve to climb when it comes to identifying finds at the seaside!**]

I had just thought I would take and share some pretty photos, so I didn’t measure the lengths of the shells, or count their radiating ridges, or examine the size and symmetry of the ‘wings’ on the bottom edge, or even check whether the bowl-shaped shells were attached to other bowl-shaped shells or to flat shells, all features which might have helped with their identification.

From what I’ve read online, the three most likely species of Scallop in this location are Variegated scallop (Chlamys varia), Queen scallop (Aequipecten opercularis), and Great (or King) scallop (Pecten maximus). I’m fairly sure at least two of the shells are the latter species, Great scallop, as they seem to be the only local species that has a bowl-shaped shell attached to a flat shell, and I found a couple of flat shells.

On the Dorset Wildlife Trust website I read one particularly interesting fact about the Variegated scallop that I did not previously know: ‘In common with many other shellfish, the variegated scallop starts life off as a male and changes sex several times during its lifetime.’ Reading about these and the other mollusc shells I noticed but didn’t photograph has definitely piqued my interest in learning more so I’ve just been looking at potential guide books to help with future identification. If you have any personal recommendations, please do share their details in the comments.