Get Wild

You hoist your beach chair up higher on your shoulder as you walk up to ramp to the beach. You shift your chair and bag a few more times while you make your way up and over the sand mountain. Smiling as you make your way to your spot, you start to picture your beach day — boogie board rides, a cute beach read, shell hunting, dolphin spotting…

But what shells are really out there that you can find? And what other sea animals are swimming unseen in that great big blue ocean?

Ocean City is home to a spectacular wildlife scene. Yes, there are seagulls, lots and lots of seagulls, but there are so many more creatures worthy of a camera click if you spot them.

We went in search of the answer to up your vacation (or home) game. After all, if you are searching for shells, it’s good to know what you’re searching for.

“It’ll depend on what tide it is, what beach you’re on, and if we had any significant weather events. There’s a lot that can be out there at any given time. Most beaches will have a variety of different shells and some seaweeds that will come up,” said Sue Slotterback, naturalist.

You might find shells like surf clams, Jingle shells, oyster shells, razor clams, moon snails, crab shells, and stone crab shells. If you’re lucky, you might also find whelk shells and pieces of sand dollars.

As you start on your beach walk, you see some clumps of green on your walk. Nudging the clumps with your toe, you find that they’re soft and green — that’s seaweed.

“It’s kind of seasonal. Like we have land plants in different seasons, we have seaweed,” said Sue.

Above your head swoops a gray bird in search of clams.

Depending on the season, you might find herring gulls, laughing gulls, black skimmers, piping plovers, ring billed gulls, different sandpipers, semipalmated sandpipers, and red knots.

One of the most dramatic beach finds is driftwood.

“With storm erosion, the trees fall in and drift out into the ocean and then you find them waterlogged. Sometimes they’ll have barnacles on them. Other driftwood you might find is from something man made — dock, boat, house. It’ll go out there and marine life will take it over,” Sue said.

As you make your way back to your beach chair and umbrella, you stick your feet back into the dry sand.

“Sand is made mostly of quartz and then there’s broken up pieces of shells, which depends on where you are. Right on the beach, you’re getting whatever’s been brought down by the nearest river and that’s going to fan out. The big thing is that the slope of the beach is directly related to the size of the sand. That’s why you get the nice flat beaches in Wildwood because the sand grain is fine. Cape May has steeper beaches and the sand is coarser,” Sue said.

The next morning, you decide to take a kayaking trek through the bay. Different ecosystem entirely. Or is it?

“The bay is kind of like a nursery for the ocean. Seventy percent of the animals who live out in the ocean find their start in the back bay,” said Sue.

You might see a fish swim past you, but there are also crabs and shrimp milling around.

“Minnows stay in the bay. They’re the primary food sources for other things — birds, crabs,

other fish. Flounder adults live out in the ocean but their larvae find its way back into the salt marshes. There’s higher temperature, an abundant food source, and shallow waters. It’s a perfect nursery. Then, they’ll move back out into the ocean,” Sue said. “You also get sea horses back in the bay if you’re really lucky. They stay basically back in the marshes. Blue claw crabs will be found in those back bay areas, but you’ll get other crabs back there as well, like spider crabs. Another good food source is sand shrimp. They only get to be about an inch, inch and a half long.”

Another cute sea creature that wanders around the salt marsh is the diamondback terrapin.

“They are the only reptile in this area that lives in the salt marsh. They are the only turtle that lives in the salt marsh. While they have a tolerance for salt water, they also have a tolerance for fresh water but they can’t live exclusively in either for long. You’ll have fresh water turtles that only live in water, and sea turtles that only live in the sea. You don’t find either of those in the salt marsh.”

You might also find seaweed floating past your kayak.

“All of your seaweeds start out attached to something, could be a piling, could be a rock, could be a shell. With wave action or if something’s eating them, they get pulled off. They’re not like land plants. They have a fruiting body,” said Sue. “It has to attach to something hard and it keeps it in its ideal habitat where it gets the amount of water and sunlight that it needs so it can grow. It’ll keep on growing until conditions change, maybe the amount of sunlight or temperature.”

As you paddle, you start to notice vertical man-made wooden platforms dotted throughout.

“It’s hard to miss all of those man made nesting platforms that are out on the salt marsh for the ospreys. They come up here from Southern Florida to Brazil. They’ll come back to the same nest every year. They have their chicks and fly back down. They mate for life, but they don’t winter together.

“The males arrive first and their job is to reconstruct the nest. The females will come back within a week. They’ll go through their courting ritual. Once she is on egg, she won’t leave the nest but a few times a day he’ll take over. She will come back in 15 minutes until the chicks fledge, which is in August,” said Sue.

Guided marine life tours

Want to learn more about the beach and bay?

Sign up for an eco-tour for advanced paddle boarders or a morning nature tour by kayak, both of which are offered through Baycats, 316 Bay Avenue.

You can also go on a guided beach walk through Corson’s Inlet on Tuesdays at 9am or Wednesdays at 6:30pm in July and August. - Bird and fox photos by Susan Allen, @what.sue.seas. Marine life photos by Danielle Meeker, Aquarist/Environmental Educator and Devin Griffiths, Marketing and Communications Specialist, The Wetlands Institute.