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Janthina janthina, the Violet Sea-snail, now (or more like was) coming to a beach near you
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
I was forwarded a very interesting article by the Los Angeles Times about the “rare purple sea creatures washing up on SoCal beaches”, but as usual the LA Times hid it behind a paywall, so successfully covering everything up with banner that you can’t read the title. If you subscribe but missed it, here’s the link. But there’s more than one way to shell a…shell. [This is kindness-to-cats month.]
So here’s a few links to other articles, videos and whatnots. But first, just a little Wikipedia info about Janthina janthina (this sounds like a song, first recorded in 1928 and a big hit in 1960 for Ray Peterson; even Bob Dylan sang it – uniquely styled, as usual – on his first album in 1963. Can you name it? Googling not allowed.)
Janthina janthina, is a marine gastropod mollusk in Family Epitoniidae, Subclass Caenogastropoda, Class Gastropoda, Phyla Mollusca. The large subclass Caenogastropoda contains about 60% of all gastropods, including: periwinkles, cowries, moon snails, murexes, cone snails, turrids and wentletraps, with the last the probable closest relative to our little violet snails. But these classifications have been shifting lately. Its common names include: violet sea-snail, common violet snail, large violet snail and purple storm snail.
These Violet Sea-snails are pelagic (ocean-going) found worldwide in the warm waters of tropical and temperate seas, especially the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. They float at the surface, buoyed by trapped bubbles stabilized by their own secretions, feeding primarily upon hydrozoans such as Velella velella – the By-the-wind Sailor – and the Portuguese Man o’ war. They are often found in large groups and sometimes become stranded on beaches when they are blown ashore by strong winds. which is probably what’s happening now, up and down the California coast. The snails are an element of the neustron, organisms living on or near the surface of the water. Their larval form veliger are free-swimming, but adults cannot swim and can create their bubble rafts only at the water’s surface.
Their almost-smooth paper-thin shell is reverse countershaded because of its upside-down position in the water column, lightly purple shaded on the spiral of the shell, darker purple on the ventral side. The animal has a large head on a very flexible neck. The eyes are small, located the base of its tentacles. There is no operculum (door), shell height is up to 1.5″ high, and slightly wider. They begin life as a male, then change to female. Eggs are retained by the female until they develop into the larval form. No news on how they taste and if they are poisonous.
Some varied and interesting links:
The Natural History of Bodega Head – Great additional photos!
Greater Good – Rare Purple Snails Spark Climate Fears on California Shore
Marin Independent Journal has a sometimes-paywalled article, so they’ve been seen up there
Phys Org – Rare purple sea creature found on SoCal beach: Could warming waters be the reason why?
Two Videos:
ZZZZZ
All About Bird Anatomy | Cornell Lab
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
This is a gift (free!) [Link] from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to the birders of the world. It’s interactive, a game, a learning experience, and fun. Fiddle around with it and you can get something like this:
Click on one system (as skeletal below), select a part (carpometacarpus & digits below) and it’s highlighted, press the little information button, and information, including pronunciation, appears.
If you know anything about human anatomy, you may be surprised how many organs and organ names we share with birds. Funny thing, that. It’s one of the supports of the theory of evolution.
Putting it in flashcard mode gives you an apparently endless series of questions like the following (there are somewhere over–maybe way over–100 parts identified); look for the reddish part below:
You can select one, some or all of eleven settings for the flashcards (feathers, nervous system, skeleton, etc.) on the right side of the screen.
I must have done about 80 flash cards and was surprised by how much I knew (good guesser). Anyway…check it out. Being able to name the scapulars versus coverts is actually useful knowledge when you’re trying to ID a bird or know what someone else is talking about when their obscure descriptions are filled with arcane terminology. And…the next time you eat a chicken (nuggets or flamin’ wings don’t count) you can pull out the trachea, wave it around, and you’ll know exactly which part you’re waving, thereby immensely impressing your friends.
Here’s their advertising blurb:
Coming soon: A link to the 90-minute Zoom panel discussion of the new Avilist, the One Avian Checkist To Rule Them All. Watch for it.
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
This story hit the Wall Street Journal a week ago, but that site and nearly every other site I checked that stole it or referenced it had it behind a paywall. Here’s a few that aren’t.
BBC Earth, with narration by none other than David Attenborough.
The U.S. Sun, source of this aerial photo below of the Uluwatu, Bali temple. Watch where you step.
The New Zealand Herald.
There were a few other sites I found, including TicToc, blahblah, ZzZz, etc., that didn’t add anything significant, just more of the same, but here’s a link to an open access scientific paper in Scientific Reports that discusses it in detail. Graph and abstract below. Look for the final comment.
Cohort dominance rank and “robbing and bartering” among subadult male long-tailed macaques at Uluwatu, Bali. [LINK] Jeffrey V. Peterson, Agustín Fuentes & Nengah Wandia. Scientific Reports, volume 12, Article number: 7971 (2022)
Abstract
Robbing and bartering is a habitual behavior among free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) at a single site in Bali, Indonesia. The behavior consists of three main elements: (1) a macaque takes an item from a human; (2) the macaque maintains possession of the item; then (3) the macaque releases or hands off the item after accepting a food offer from a human. In this paper, we analyze data on individual variation in robbing and bartering among subadult males in relation to dominance rank. Using focal animal sampling we collected 197 observation hours of data on 13 subadult males from two groups (6 from Celagi; 7 from Riting) at the Uluwatu temple site from May 2017 to March 2018, recording 44 exchanges of items for food from 92 total robberies following 176 total attempts. We also measured dominance rank using interaction data from our focal animals. Dominance rank was strongly positively correlated with robbery efficiency in Riting, but not Celagi, meaning that more dominant Riting subadult males exhibited fewer overall robbery attempts per successful robbery. We suggest the observed variation in robbing and bartering practices indicates there are crucial, yet still unexplored, social factors at play for individual robbing and bartering decisions.
Thievery and extortion apparently go a long way back in the primate evolutionary tree. Then again, birds steal food and nesting material from each other all the time, so I guess we can blame our dinosaurian or reptilian ancestors; but then again, fish steal nests and food from each other, not to mention spending much of their time actually eating one other, the ultimate in theft; then again there are tens of thousands of obligate parasites species among the roundworms, tapeworms and flukes, so…I don’t know…don’t trust anybody or anything, I guess. Oh well.
A Ruddy Good Day, mate! Malibu Lagoon, 27 July 2025
[By Chuck Almdale; Photos by Lillian Johnson, Ray Juncosa, Armando Martinez & Chris Tosdevin]
Last month we were surprised to see three Ruddy Ducks in the lagoon, and our lagoon statistics revealed their prior presence in June only two times in 45 years, on 6/24/07 and 6/27/10. This month we had nineteen: two females with families of eight and nine ducklings. No males to be found; probably hiding in waterside brush, busily molting feathers. A few peculiarities of the Ruddy: they cannot walk upright on land, can sink straight down into the water without leaving a ripple; sometimes lay their eggs in the nest of grebes or other ducks; their seventy-one different names* include blatherskite, dumpling duck, little soldier, sprig-tail and water partridge; 75% of their diet are water plants.
The day was cloudy and ever-so-slightly cool, but Malibu Beach in July is surprisingly balmy; our range today was 64-70°F (8-11:30am), but average for the past six years is 66-72° for the same time of day. No broiling in the sun here in July; that’s August and September, when you can fry an egg on the sand.
How many people have never noticed the baby-blue eye-ring on the Mourning Dove? Check it out next time you see one staring at you from your window-ledge flower pot where it just built its nest.
The Pied-billed Grebe was still on its nest in the reeds. I thought it had gotten inundated and left, but I was looking in the wrong spot until Chris Tosdevin pointed my nose at it.
There were a few Caspian’s among the Royal Terns on the beach. Around 9am the Royals were making a terrible racket, then most flew away. It’s tough to tell that this is a Caspian below, but that’s what the extent of the dark undersides of the primaries indicates…and you can just barely make out a dark tip on that red-looking bill.
There are some swallows nesting under the PCH bridge back in the very dark recesses that I think are Barn Swallow, not Cliff, but it’s so dim there I can’t really tell. Nearly all of what flies under the bridge are Barn. But all the swallow species like sitting on this bare tree right next to the bridge’s west end, although there’s just one lonely juvenile (incomplete dark breast-band) Barn Swallow below.
Ruddy Turnstones are back, still in most of their bright breeding colors.
And we had a scattering of Least and Western Sandpipers in the SW corner of the lagoon, along with other sandpipers, plovers, herons and egrets.
We had a good variety of plovers although not in large numbers.
Look closely at the bird’s left foot above and you’ll see a snipped of the “semipalmation.”
Phalaropes are another group of birds we don’t see a lot of, and when we do, 90% of the time they’re Red-necked Phalarope. But this time we got a Wilson’s, the one with the longest, thinnest bill, decked out in what looks like the plainest juvenile plumage available. The three phalarope species are among the few dozen “polyandrous with sexual dimorphism reversal” species on the planet. I wrote a short blog series about them a while back. (Link) They’re an interesting group of birds, and most of the women I know enjoy reading about them (can’t imagine why).
Don’t hold your breath waiting for another Red Phalarope to drop in.
We spotted ten starlings in a palm tree next to the small golf course on the other side of the western wall. First twelve left, leaving seven birds, then five left, leaving five birds, then the remaining eight left.
It’s just an optical illusion that this pelican poked its bill clear through its wing.
It’s tough to tell exactly what this male Bushtit is thinking, but it’s definitely pondering something.
It can be very hard to identify distant flying cormorants, but this crook in the neck ID’s this bird below as Double-crested. As the currently-range-expanding Neotropical Cormorant is very similar, albeit smaller, I like to point out that it does not have that little bit of orange flesh over the eye that you can see on this bird.
Red-breasted Mergansers are back from nesting to the north. This one looks exceptionally flat-headed. Some sort of weird optical illusion?
And Heermann’s Gull numbers continue to grow, from 13 last month to 36. The most we’ve ever had, out of 307 appearances at the lagoon, was 350 birds on 4/26/15. Compare that to California Gulls who out of 282 appearances have topped 1,000 birds 21 times. I don’t know how far south of their nesting site on Isla Rasa they travel in their post-breeding dispersal, but I’ve seen them up near the Olympic Penn. in Washington. I’m fond of them because they’re very easy to identify in all their plumages.
Mother and child: the Gadwall edition.
This thing is so beautiful that it just has to be edible. But how?
As we were leaving we spotted our last species of the day, who had just captured what may be its first meal of the day. Any fish ID-ers out there? Top smelt?
*Ruddy Duck names listed in Audubon Society Enclyclopedia of North American Birds, John K. Terres, editor. 1980
Malibu Lagoon on eBird as of 7-27-25: 8693 lists, 2796 eBirders, 321 species
Most recent new species seen: Nelson’s Sparrow, 11/29/24 by Femi Faminu (SMBAS member). When the newest species added to the list was seen on a date prior to the most recently seen new species, there is no way I can find to easily determine what that bird is. Another minor nit to pick about eBird.
Birds new for the season: Red-breasted Merganser, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Western Snowy Plover, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone, Least Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, Royal Tern, Brandt’s Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Green Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Nuttall’s Woodpecker.. “New for the season” means it has been three or more months since last recorded on our trips.
Many, many thanks to photographers Lillian Johnson, Ray Juncosa. Armando Martinez & Chris Tosdevin.
Upcoming SMBAS scheduled field trips; no reservations or Covid card necessary unless specifically mentioned:
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun. August 24, 8:30 (adults) & 10 am (parents & kids)
- We may do something in early Sept. on a Saturday.
- Coastal Cleanup at the Lagoon, Sat. Sept. 20, 9-12
- Malibu Lagoon, Sun. Sept. 28, 8:30 (adults) & 10 am (parents & kids)
- These and any other trips we announce for the foreseeable future will depend upon expected status of the Covid/flu/etc. pandemic, not to mention landslides, at trip time. Any trip announced may be canceled shortly before trip date if it seems necessary. By now any other comments should be superfluous.
- Link to Programs & Field Trip schedule.
The next SMBAS Zoom program: October 7, to be announced.
The SMBAS 10 a.m. Parent’s & Kids Birdwalk has again resumed. Reservations not necessary for families, but for groups (scouts, etc.), call Jean (213-522-0062).
Links: Unusual birds at Malibu Lagoon
9/23/02 Aerial photo of Malibu Lagoon
More recent aerial photo
Prior checklists:
2025: Jan-June
2023: Jan-June, July-Dec 2024: Jan-June, July-Dec
2021: Jan-July, July-Dec 2022: Jan-June, July-Dec
2020: Jan-July, July-Dec 2019: Jan-June, July-Dec
2018: Jan-June, July-Dec 2017: Jan-June, July-Dec
2016: Jan-June, July-Dec 2015: Jan-May, July-Dec
2014: Jan-July, July-Dec 2013: Jan-June, July-Dec
2012: Jan-June, July-Dec 2011: Jan-June, July-Dec
2010: Jan-June, July-Dec 2009: Jan-June, July-Dec
The 10-year comparison summaries created during the Lagoon Reconfiguration Project period, remain available—despite numerous complaints—on our Lagoon Project Bird Census Page. Very briefly summarized, the results unexpectedly indicate that avian species diversification and numbers improved slightly during the restoration period June’12-June’14.
Many thanks to Marie Barnidge-McIntyre, Femi Faminu, Lillian Johnson & Chris Tosdevin for contributions made to this month’s census counts.
The species list below was re-sequenced as of 12/31/24 to agree with the California Bird Records Committee Official California Checklist, mostly. If part of the right side of the chart below is hidden, there’s a slider button inconveniently located at the bottom end of the list. The numbers 1-9 left of the species names are keyed to the nine categories of birds at the bottom. Updated lagoon bird check lists can be downloaded here.
[Chuck Almdale]
| Malibu Census 2025 | 2/23 | 3/23 | 4/27 | 5/25 | 6/22 | 7/27 | |
| Temperature | 57-70 | 54-64 | 56-64 | 63-68 | 66-73 | 64-70 | |
| Tide Lo/Hi Height | H+4.79 | H+4.15 | H+4.29 | H+3.78 | H+3.31 | L-0.46 | |
| Tide Time | 0526 | 0433 | 0957 | 0909 | 0824 | 0605 | |
| 1 | Brant (Black) | 1 | |||||
| 1 | Canada Goose | 2 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 1 | Cinnamon Teal | 5 | 6 | ||||
| 1 | Gadwall | 9 | 35 | 10 | 24 | 25 | 20 |
| 1 | Mallard | 6 | 22 | 21 | 26 | 20 | 40 |
| 1 | Green-winged Teal | 16 | 6 | ||||
| 1 | Surf Scoter | 15 | 6 | ||||
| 1 | Red-breasted Merganser | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 1 | Ruddy Duck | 17 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 19 |
| 2 | Pied-billed Grebe | 7 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| 2 | Western Grebe | 30 | 30 | 25 | 4 | 2 | |
| 7 | Feral Pigeon | 5 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 5 | |
| 7 | Mourning Dove | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| 8 | Anna’s Hummingbird | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| 8 | Allen’s Hummingbird | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 2 | American Coot | 45 | 55 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 | Black-bellied Plover | 30 | 21 | ||||
| 5 | Killdeer | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 4 |
| 5 | Semipalmated Plover | 2 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | Snowy Plover | 2 | 3 | 13 | |||
| 5 | Whimbrel | 5 | 8 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 5 | Marbled Godwit | 2 | 8 | ||||
| 5 | Ruddy Turnstone | 4 | 3 | ||||
| 5 | Dunlin | 1 | |||||
| 5 | Least Sandpiper | 14 | 5 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 5 | Western Sandpiper | 16 | 34 | 4 | |||
| 5 | Spotted Sandpiper | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 5 | Willet | 8 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 5 | Greater Yellowlegs | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Wilson’s Phalarope | 1 | |||||
| 6 | Heermann’s Gull | 1 | 13 | 36 | |||
| 6 | Ring-billed Gull | 12 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| 6 | Western Gull | 55 | 20 | 20 | 70 | 79 | 52 |
| 6 | California Gull | 105 | 1 | 2 | 82 | 5 | 1 |
| 6 | American Herring Gull | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Glaucous-winged Gull | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Caspian Tern | 11 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | |
| 6 | Royal Tern | 5 | 10 | 21 | |||
| 6 | Elegant Tern | 2 | |||||
| 2 | Red-throated Loon | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Pacific Loon | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Common Loon | 4 | 10 | ||||
| 2 | Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | 5 | 12 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Pelagic Cormorant | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 2 | Double-crested Cormorant | 25 | 25 | 25 | 7 | 18 | 98 |
| 2 | American White Pelican | 5 | |||||
| 2 | Brown Pelican | 29 | 200 | 25 | 157 | 138 | 118 |
| 3 | Snowy Egret | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | Black-crowned Night-Heron | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| 3 | Green Heron | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Great Egret | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 3 | Western Cattle-Egret | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Great Blue Heron | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | |
| 4 | Turkey Vulture | 2 | |||||
| 4 | Osprey | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 4 | Cooper’s Hawk | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Bald Eagle | 1 | |||||
| 4 | Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Red-tailed Hawk | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 8 | Belted Kingfisher | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 8 | Nuttall’s Woodpecker | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Peregrine Falcon | 1 | |||||
| 8 | Nanday Parakeet | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Cassin’s Kingbird | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Black Phoebe | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Say’s Phoebe | 1 | |||||
| 9 | California Scrub-Jay | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | American Crow | 26 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| 9 | Common Raven | 2 | 9 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 9 | Oak Titmouse | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Tree Swallow | 5 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Violet-green Swallow | 5 | |||||
| 9 | No. Rough-winged Swallow | 17 | 20 | 7 | 1 | 5 | |
| 9 | Barn Swallow | 10 | 20 | 18 | 22 | 20 | |
| 9 | Cliff Swallow | 3 | 7 | 24 | 24 | 12 | |
| 9 | Bushtit | 5 | 25 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 20 |
| 9 | Wrentit | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 | |||||
| 9 | Northern Mockingbird | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | European Starling | 1 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 25 |
| 9 | Western Bluebird | 1 | |||||
| 9 | House Finch | 9 | 26 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 5 |
| 9 | Lesser Goldfinch | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Dark-eyed Junco | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 9 | White-crowned Sparrow | 7 | 5 | 1 | |||
| 9 | Song Sparrow | 8 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| 9 | California Towhee | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Spotted Towhee | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||
| 9 | Hooded Oriole | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Brown-headed Cowbird | 2 | |||||
| 9 | Great-tailed Grackle | 2 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 1 | |
| 9 | Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| 9 | Common Yellowthroat | 2 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| 9 | Yellow-rumped Warbler | 8 | 3 | ||||
| 9 | Wilson’s Warbler | 1 | |||||
| Totals Birds by Type | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 78 | 91 | 50 | 55 | 54 | 81 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 144 | 339 | 104 | 176 | 163 | 227 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 8 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 21 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 86 | 76 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 61 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 183 | 52 | 26 | 161 | 106 | 116 |
| 7 | Doves | 5 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 14 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| 9 | Passerines | 92 | 160 | 115 | 103 | 103 | 110 |
| Totals Birds | 615 | 742 | 325 | 517 | 459 | 631 | |
| Total Species by Group | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | |
| 1 | Waterfowl | 8 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 2 | Water Birds – Other | 9 | 9 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | Herons, Egrets & Ibis | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | Quail & Raptors | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Shorebirds | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| 6 | Gulls & Terns | 7 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | Doves | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 | Other Non-Passerines | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| 9 | Passerines | 20 | 25 | 22 | 21 | 16 | 16 |
| Totals Species | 66 | 71 | 55 | 46 | 42 | 54 |
Our Mailing Address changed
[Posted by Chuck Almdale]
New Address:
SMBAS, PO Box 4189, Malibu, CA 90264-4189
If it appears otherwise anywhere on our vast blogsite, please let me know.
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 