Island NatureExploring nature on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and beyond

It is not often that you see a living horse clam on the surface of the beach unless you have taken the effort to dig one out yourself. That’s why Jocie and I initially thought that the Pacific gaper (Tresus nuttallii) that we found at Miracle Beach was dead. We quickly realized otherwise after touching [...]

In my last post I wrote about finding weird but fascinating Horse Clam siphons sticking out of the sand and trying to identify the species based on what could be seen on the surface. Fortunately it is a lot easier to separate the Fat Gaper (Tresus capax) from the Pacific Gaper (Tresus nuttallii) if you’ve [...]

One of the fun things that you can do with your kids at the beach is look for the dramatic siphons of the Horse Clam (Tresus sp.) at low tide. Most people don’t connect the somewhat grotesque looking tube sticking out of the sand with the feeding apparatus of a clam but that is indeed [...]

I love turning over rocks in the intertidal zone – you never know what you might find! This rather suggestive looking image is the siphon of a Horse Clam (Tresus sp.) that I found underneath a rock at Florencia Bay in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. I usually see just the tip of the siphon (see photo [...]

One of the clams that we discovered on Tuesday at Goose Spit was the Butter Clam (Saxidomus gigantea). Clams belong in the Phylum Mollusca, Class Bivalvia and are characterized by having two shells or valves. They are filter feeders and take microscopic organisms out of the water that they draw into their bodies through a [...]

We’ve been pretty much house bound over the last couple of days due to the weather here in the Comox Valley – high winds and lots of rain. We made a few short forays out for walks around the neighbourhood between squalls but for the most part hunkered down. When I woke up this morning [...]

After Monday’s deluge there was a break in the weather yesterday and we made the most of it, taking the kids to Air Force Beach in Comox to enjoy the sun. Surprisingly, we had never been to Air Force Beach before despite the length of time we’ve lived in the Comox Valley. We’ll definitely be [...]

Walking on the beach at Goose Spit in Comox this weekend got me thinking about clams. I always enjoy sorting through seaweed in the strand line and taking a closer look at shells that have washed up on the shore before returning them back to the beach where I found them. On this walk I [...]