They breed ‘em big out here - 17th December

Another day off for me and while the rest of the crew go mist-netting, I take myself off to Thinornis Bay to continue my intertidal wanderings. I’d been out there with Brigitta earlier this week, but we only had time to go “Gosh, it’s pretty here” before heading back to work checking nests, so it needed a repeat visit. The fact that you can walk there without petrel boards is a major bonus, as I really don’t want to be walking on boards on my day off. The limpets are huge! They are probably a species of Cellana limpet, but as I don’t have my seashore guide with me, I can’t be certain. I can say for certain though that these guys are about four times the size of the biggest limpets on the mainland.

Limpets

I can, however, tell you the species of chiton. This one's species name is pelliserpentis (Latin for snake-skin) and as their mantle looks just like a snake skin, this is one that I won’t forget in a hurry. Chitons are molluscs too, just like the limpets, but have 8 small shells rather than one big one and have teeth on their tongues which are made of iron! They creep around the rocks living off whatever they can scrape off the rocks with their tongues. And again, these guys are massive.

Sypharochiton pelliserpentis

The very first animal I saw when I leapt onto the rocks that first day, apart from Melanie and the old team, were the tiny snails that live at the top of the spray zone. These guys live all over New Zealand, with the same species living on the rocks at home in Dunedin.

There are also barnacles at the same tidal height, lots of them, just in the right places to rip into my knees when I kneel down to take pictures. These are crustaceans like lobsters and I always imagine them as little shrimps sitting on their heads waving their hairy legs out into the current to catch whatever might be floating by. I could spend hours here, but with the end of my half day off fast approaching, I reluctantly packed up and went back to the hut for lunch.

Snails and barnacles