I stopped at a local park with a clear running brook to look for some
aquatic mollusks today. The kudzu is just starting to sprout and I haven't
seen much poison ivy yet. Very nice day indeed to climb around a streambed.

I did find some mussels and plenty of Corbicula.

I'm wondering about some items I found next to a pile of feces around high
water mark.

Don't worry, I was careful.

It looks as though there were a couple of dozen opercula mixed with tiny
globose gastropods (about 3mm). In the feces, it looked like there were
crushed remains of some sort of mollusks.

Elsewhere, I did find two beat-up gastropods that might fit with the largest
of the opercula. The more intact gastropod (looks like Campeloma) is 33mm in
length.

So I figure that some sort of animal gorged itself recently on the local
supply of operculate snails....And the opercula and juveniles washed out of
the evidence during a rainstorm. I could find Physa but no intact Campeloma
(or whatever it is) in the brook.

Hope this animal delicacy repopulates.

David Kirsh
Durham, NC