Whether you're strolling South County's beaches, wandering through a
Block Island meadow, or hiking along a woodsy path in Foster, you can't
help but notice Mother Nature's summer bounty. Flowers wave in the wind,
birds swoop, insects chirp, shells appear from the waves, crabs tickle
your feet.
You look, you sniff, you admire, you listen, and then you say . . . So
what is that flower? What's that bird's name? Is that a steamer or a
mussel? What do you call that kind of seaweed? What's making that sound?
In the guide on these next pages, we supply some key info on many common
sights and sounds of a Rhode Island summer.
For their help on this story, we thank John Torgan, baykeeper for Save
the Bay, and spokesman John Martin (we can recommend Save the Bay's
great guidebook The Uncommon Guide to Common Life on Narragansett Bay,
$14.95); Eugenia Marks, spokesman for the Audubon Sciety of Rhode
Island; Debra Strick, spokesman for New England Wildflower Society; and
Todd McLeish of the University of Rhode Island News Bureau, who located
the Web sites that allow you to listen to the noises of birds and
insects.
FUNKY NAMES
Dead Man's Fingers: Nickname for Green Fleece, a tubular spongy seaweed
that's dark green to yellow; grows 3 feet long with bushy, Y-forked
branches that look like fingers.
Mermaid's Purse: This black packet is a case for skate eggs. After the
eggs hatch, the empty capsule washes ashore.
Lady Slipper or Slipper Shell: A mollusk often found in groups, piled
high on rocks, especially after a storm.
Sea Necklaces: These long egg casings of the whelk are 2 to 3 feet long,
with up to 100 individual casings that hold 20 to 100 eggs each. Often
found washed up on shore.
Sea Stars: Formal name of starfish. Found up to 12 inches wide on rocky
shores, tide piles, dock pilings and bay bottoms. One sea star can
devour 50 young clams in a week.
Shark's Eye Snail, a/k/a Moon Snails: Some think these mollusks look
like a shark's eye. The voracious eaters can destroy soft-shelled clam
beds.
SHELLS
Jingle Shells: A mollusk that can be gold, silver, black or yellow, with
a small hole in the top. Often made into necklaces and windchimes, they
make a jingling sound when shaken together, or when waves crash on
beaches strewn with them.
Mussels: Blue mussels, which appear black, are the ones people eat. In
shallow water, they're found attached to rocks and pilings. Ribbed
mussels have corduroy-like lines on the shell and are usually found
partially buried in marshes. They're not commonly eaten.
Oysters: They have the characteristic teardrop shape, in all sizes, from
dime-sized to seven or eight inches. They grow gnarled on rocks and some
have pearls, but not necklace-quality (those come from cultured oysters).
Periwinkle: The most common snails in Narragansett Bay. Their small dark
shells are often found attached to rocks. They're edible after a light
boiling in seawater.
Quahogs: Hardshell clams, generally round, which have different names
depending on their size, from small little necks, top necks and cherry
necks to the larger chowder clams.
Scallops: Bay scallops can be found year-round in shallow to moderate
depth water.
Softshelled clams: Called "steamers" on menus, these clams are oval,
with brittle shells easily crushed. They live under the mud and provide
the characteristic squirt when you step on wet sand.
Surf clams: Large hardshell clams, a favorite for ash trays or soap
dishes. Clams are generally cut up for clam chowder and the like.
SEAWEEDS
Rockweeds: Long brown seaweeds with leather-like air bladders that are
fun to pop. The bladders give them buoyancy. They're often found
attached to rocks, shells and docks.
Sea Lettuce: This green seaweed looks like a translucent sheet of
lettuce as it forms big mats on the surface of the water. White or black
when dry. Used in salads and soups.
Kelp: Long, thick brown seaweed that grows 3 to 5 feet. It looks like
lasagna noodles, and some of the species is edible.
Irish Moss: This reddish-brown seaweed got its nickname because it grows
in Ireland, where it was used in cooking and medicine before Europeans
introduced it to this area. It is commercially harvested and used as a
thickener in soups and dairy products.
Eel Grass: Not a seaweed, because it has roots and it flowers. It grows
in clumps under water 4 to 9 feet deep, has long flat blades of grass
that turn brown or black when out of water, and helps support scallop
beds.
CRABS
Blue Crab: Olive green with bright blue claws (females have red claws).
Likes shallow, brackish water, eelgrass beds and muddy bottoms.
Green Crab: Up to 2 1/2 inches long and 3 inches wide, it's dark to
light green, with yellow mottling. Often called "the angry crab" because
it's an aggressive fighter and moves quickly. Found on rocky shores,
salt marshes and tidal pools.
Hermit Crabs: Not true crabs, but they earned the name because they live
in shells created by other mollusks and withdraw into their shells when
threatened. They search for new shells when they grow too big for their
old ones. Found in rocky tidal zones, tidal pools, salt marshes and open
shores.
Horseshoe Crabs: Found in shallow and deep water. The average size is 24
inches long and 12 inches wide. They live 9 to 11 years and are
considered "living fossils" because they date back at least 360 million
years.
Lady or Calico Crab: White to yellowish grey with reddish purple mottled
spots. These aggressive swimmers are called lady crabs because of the
pretty color patterns, though males have the same coloring. Often found
buried in the sand with only its eyes protruding.
Japanese Shore Crab: A relative newcomer to Narragansett Bay that's now
commonly found under rocks and pebbly shores.
JELLYFISH
Contrary to popular belief, most jellyfish don't sting.
Comb Jellies: Small oval-shaped jellyfish that are bioluminscent, so
they create light. At night, they glow a soft green and often look like
a streak behind a paddle or fishing line. Harmless.
Moon Jelly: They're bell-shaped and pulse along near the surface of the
water. They have four yellowish-pink rings in the center of the bell.
Especially common this time of year. They don't sting, but their toxins
can irritate the skin.
Lion's Mane: These have large groups of red and purple tentacles that
extend below a large pulsing bell. Size ranges from a half-dollar to
eight feet across. The tentacles have stinging cells that can cause a
feeling of numbness or a skin inflammation. Often wash up on beaches and
should be avoided by barefoot beach combers. Most common in late spring
to early summer.
Portuguese Man-O-War: These stingers can inflict serious pain. Most
common after storms from the south, they have a gas-filled bladder, a
fin and long streaming tentacles. If you see one, alert the lifeguard.
Seagoose Berry: Much like the comb jellies, they're not true jellyfish.
They're about the size of a marble and can light up under water. They
turn scarlet when threatened. Harmless.
SUMMER BIRDS
To hear their calls, see Web sites at Sounds of Summer.
Great Egret: The largest white-colored heron in the region, seen wading
in fresh and salt water ponds, marshes, mud flats, ponds and coves from
spring to early fall.
Orioles: Bright black and orange birds that live in hanging nests.
Catbirds: Cousins to the mocking bird, they're all grey with a darker
grey cap. The call sounds like a cat or a baby crying.
Sanderling: Also known as sand pipers, these little grey birds run along
the edge of the beach, at the wave line.
Eastern Towhee: A little smaller than a robin, with black on top, a
white chest, and otherwise rust colored. Found in wooded areas.
BUTTERFLIES
Tiger Swallowtail: Yellow with black stripes. Found in wooded areas.
Monarch: Orange and black. Usually found along the coast, especially
when they start migrating south in August.
Black Swallowtail: Black with orange and blue markings. Found in fields.
American Copper: About a half-inch long and predominantly orange with
black markings. Found in fields.
Common or Clouded Sulfur: Yellow with smudgy black edgings. Found in
fields.
FLOWERS
Beach plum: This native shrub blooms in May, but the fruit is a sign of
summer and early fall on coastal dunes. Used for jam.
Bearberry: Hardy evergreen ground cover near seashore. Pinkish flowers
in the spring followed by large red berries in late summer.
Chicory: Seen along roadsides and often considered an invasive plant.
Flowers close in afternoon; used as an herb and coffee substitute.
Goldenrod: With small yellow flowers arranged in a cluster, it's found
in dry fields. Often blamed for summer allergies, but it's ragweed,
which blooms at the same time, that causes the problem.
Joe-pye Weed: Tall plant with dramatic mauve or purple head that blooms
in late July and August. Found in damp meadows.
Pickerel Weed: Spiked purple flowering plant found in fresh water ponds
July through September.
Rose mallow: Tropical-looking flower lasts only a day, but each
moist-habitat plant has lots of blooms. Mostly white, pink if you're
lucky.
White wood aster: Knee-high butterfly attractors in late summer through
fall.
SUMMER NOISES
Cicadas: Sounds like a buzz. (People may confuse this noise with that of
the peepers that come out in March.)
Crickets: Count the chirps. Legend holds that if you count the number of
chirps per minute, you can tell the temperature outside. The noise is
caused by the crickets rubbing their legs on their wing veins, giving
off a percussion sound.
A variety of insect songs, including those of the cicada and cricket,
can be heard on www.naturesongs.com
. Click on "insect sounds" on the site and search for the ones you want to
hear.
Katydid: Night singers, they get their name from their song: "katydid,
katydid, katydid."
To hear a katydid, check
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/whershberg/page/index.htm. Scroll down the
page to find a big blue box featuring a sample audio of the northern
tree katydid.
Nighthawks: A high-pitched, short bleating sound. Often heard in the
city, because they hunt at night, over lights (at places like the State
House and Thayer Street in Providence).
Nighthawk noises can be found on
www.enature.com, where a simple search will lead you to the
nighthawk noise and that of many other animals, birds and insects.
Squirrel: The scolding -- a chee-chee-chee sound -- is sort of like the
buzz of a raspberry sound you make with your lips.
The grey squirrel is the state mammal in North Carolina, so its noises
can be found on
www.naturalsciences.org, a site from the North Carolina Museum of
Natural Sciences. Scroll down to "funstuff" and then click on "North
Carolina state symbols" and then "mammal."
