Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

whelk

  • Whelk egg cases

    Telling your whelk egg case strings apart, Southern New England to Mid-Atlantic division: This is the egg case of the channeled whelk, Busycotypus canaliculatus. Note how the edges of each individual capsule comes together as if pinched, giving each capsule a sharp edge. This is the egg case string of the knobbed whelk, Busycon carica.…

    mthew

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  • Natural Object: Whelk Egg Case

    You may recognize this if you live on the east coast of the U.S. south of Cape Cod: it’s a whelk egg string. Here in the NYC region, we have two types of big whelks, the channeled and the knobbed. The knobbed is the state shell of New Jersey and Georgia, should you ever be…

    mthew

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