A fan of phoronids

It's getting late, but here are a couple of quick photos of phoronids (Phoronopsis harmeri) from pools on the tidal flats in Bodega Harbor this week:

 

 

I've always been impressed by the elegant feeding tentacles (lophophores) of these fascinating animals.  For more information about phoronids, you can review the post called "Ebb and flow" on 26 July 2017.

P.S.  Hi, Amy!

Top dollar

Recently I experimented with taking extreme close-ups of a Pacific Sand Dollar (Dendraster excentricus).  The spines on the top (aboral) surface are club-shaped, which creates very interesting patterns:

 

 

Beautiful, aren't they?

P.S.  I've written about sand dollars on the NHBH a few times, but the first post called "Petals and grooves" is a good introduction if you'd like to learn more about these fascinating relatives of sea urchins.

 

Nearshore bloom

If you've been near the ocean recently, you might have noticed that the water looks very brown.  To document this algal bloom, I took a few photos tonight (28 August 2018):

 

 

 

I haven't heard which species of phytoplankton are dominating this event, but if I learn more details I'll add some information to this post.  

If you're interested in learning about algal blooms in general, this document "A Primer On California Marine Harmful Algal Blooms" from the Kudela Lab at UC Santa Cruz is a good place to start.

 

Up-and-coming star

 

A beautiful juvenile Bat Star (Patiria miniata) in the rocky intertidal zone on 12 August 2018.  It was only ~6 mm across!  We don't often see them quite this small.

Blending in with the crowd

I'd been hearing about a few Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) observations recently, but I hadn't seen one myself yet this summer.  So I decided to try to find one in Bodega Harbor today (25 August 2018).

To make a long story short, after a couple of hours of searching, I finally found one!

My first view was on the tidal flats.  I had been scanning through thousands of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) and Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla).  A few times I thought I heard a Baird's Sandpiper calling, but I couldn't find it.  Just when I was about to give up, I spotted it in the distance.

Below, you can see all three species of sandpipers:

 

The Baird's Sandpiper is on the left, a Western Sandpiper is on the right, and a Least Sandpiper is in the center foreground.

Here's another comparative view, with a Baird's Sandpiper and a Western Sandpiper:

 

This time the Baird's Sandpiper is on the right.  Note the much browner coloration overall, especially on the breast.  One of the most helpful characteristics to look for to separate Baird's Sandpipers from Western and Least sandpipers is the primary projection, i.e., how far the wing tips (the primaries) extend beyond the tail.  Although it can be subtle at first, Baird's Sandpipers have a noticeably longer primary projection, giving them a long, tapered appearance.

The birds flew off, but when I was walking back to the car, I found the Baird's Sandpiper again.  This time it was feeding along the wrack line:

 

This is a juvenile bird, so it's looking quite "sharp"— the feathers have nice neat edges, producing a scaly appearance on the back.

 

The Baird's Sandpiper was feeding very actively.  One time it caught (and ate) a large beach hopper (see below)!

 

P.S.  These smaller sandpipers can be hard to identify.  If you're interested in practicing, here are a few more photos and hints.  

First, a Western Sandpiper.  Note the (1) black legs; (2) relatively long, thick bill; and (3) overall gray appearance, with reddish highlights, especially on the scapulars (where the wing meets the back) and the mantle (back).  (There's quite a bit of variation in Western Sandpiper characteristics, but these are good ones to look for.) 

 

Second, a Least Sandpiper.  In contrast to the Western Sandpiper, note the (1) yellowish legs; (2) shorter, relatively narrow bill; and (3) overall brown appearance, especially on the neck/breast. 

 

Now here's a quiz (below) — which is the Western and which is the Least?

 

 

That's correct!  The Western Sandpiper is in the foreground and the Least Sandpiper is in the background. 

I can still remember the first time I was with a birding group that was identifying small sandpipers.  They all looked the same to me then, but after you look at enough of them, it gets easier to tell them apart.  If you focus on each bird and finding all of the important characteristics, with time and practice it will get easier to identify them. 

P.P.S.  For more photos of Baird's Sandpipers, you can review the post from 22 August 2016.

 

Preening

 

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) at the entrance to Doran Regional Park on 18 August 2018.

 

2001: A Natural History Odyssey

It's hard for me to believe, but this is post #2001 on the Natural History of Bodega Head!  

Some of you might remember that I created a few mosaics for post #1000, so here's another for post #2001.  This photo is made up of a combination of many of the photos used previously in the Natural History of Bodega Head posts:

 

You can click on the image above for a slightly larger version.  But since the individual images are small, it's fun to look at an even larger version of this mosaic and to scan around to remember different pictures from the past.  To do that, you can either view the 2001 mosaic on Flickr and use the magnifier to look around...or, the best option is to download a full-sized version of the 2001 mosaic from Flickr (click on the download arrow at the lower right corner and choose "Original" size) and then zoom in to look at the pictures up close.

The past 6.5 years with the Natural History of Bodega Head have been quite an odyssey!  I'm so thankful for all of your support during this journey.  Maintaining this blog is more meaningful because of all of you.  I hope that it has opened your eyes to both familiar and new plants and animals, and that it has offered a celebration of the place where we live.  

With gratitude,

Jackie

Knot too shabby

 

There are some nice-looking Red Knots (Calidris canutus) in Bodega Harbor right now.  Here's a series of one individual from 18 August 2018.  The photographs were taken on the tidal flats on the inside of Doran Beach. 

Feeding:

 

"Clamming" (Check the bill!):

 

Stretching: 

 

For more information about Red Knots, review the post called "A short migration? Knot." from 1 May 2012.

The hunters

The light was challenging for photographs during our pelagic trip to Bodega Canyon and Cordell Bank on 19 August 2018, but here are a few pictures of jaegers:

 

Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) at eye level

 

Pomarine Jaeger from below

 

Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus) 

For a little more information about jaegers, you can review the post called "The chase is on!" from 2 September 2013.

P.S.  "Jäger" means "hunter" and refers to the aggressive feeding behavior of these birds, i.e., chasing other birds to force them to give up their food.

Offshore grays

 

Buller's Shearwater (Ardenna bulleri), offshore near Bodega Canyon on 19 August 2018.  The gray tones of the shearwater matched the grays of the ocean yesterday.

Paddling in the Pacific

 

Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) spotted at sea during the return trip from Cordell Bank on 19 August 2018.

 

Sleepy one

 

Eric and I noticed a very sleepy Barn Owl (Tyto alba) perched on a fence post along the side of the road this morning (18 August 2018).  It looked a little damp, too, so perhaps it had a long night of hunting in the fog?  (Eventually it found its way to a more sheltered roosting location.)

Beauty and grace

 

A juvenile White-spotted Rose Anemone (Cribrinopsis albopunctata, formerly known as Urticina lofotensis)

 

Waxing crescent

 

Waxing crescent moon from Cotati, 14 August 2018

 

Keeping a low profile

 

A beautiful flatworm that we've encountered a couple of times this year.  Originally we thought it might be Acanthozoon lepidum, but we now think it's Pseudoceros canadensis.  [Longer story, but there appears to be an error in the flatworm key in The Light and Smith Manual.  See corrigendum at the end of this post.]

With a close-up view (below) you can see both the marginal tentacles (sometimes called pseudotentacles because they're simply upturned folds of the margin) and two clusters of eyes.  

The main cluster of eyes (cerebral eyes) appears as more than 20 black dots a bit behind the marginal tentacles (they're situated over the brain of the flatworm).  The second cluster (marginal eyes) is harder to see, but look closely and you'll see tiny black dots scattered between the marginal tentacles (click on the image for a larger version).

 

I'm a little puzzled by this flatworm.  It's the first time we've seen this species, and we found it twice within the last month in two different places.  Has it been around and we just haven't encountered it?  Is it more common this year?  And if so, why?

Eric and I took some nice video of one individual and put together the clips to show the wonderful body movements as well as some of the important characteristics.  Enjoy!  (If you can't see the video below, click on the title of the post to go directly to the web page.)

Pseudoceros canadensis from Jackie Sones on Vimeo.

CORRIGENDUM (15 August 2018): I've changed the name of this flatworm from the original post.  We were confused about why we couldn't find any other records for Acanthozoon lepidum.  So we continued to look around and Eric finally encountered photos of a similar flatworm identified as Pseudoceros canadensis.  Although the key in The Light and Smith Manual says that Pseudoceros canadensis has a smooth dorsal surface (as originally described), this species was later re-described with dorsal papillae.  The flatworm in these photographs has dorsal papillae (look for the small bumps in the video close-ups).  So we followed the key to Acanthozoon, but we now feel that the key is wrong.  I've corrected the name to reflect that we now believe this is Pseudoceros canadensis.

Little ones

We've recorded over 16 species of chitons in the Bodega Bay area, and I think I've shown ~11-12 of those on the blog so far.  There are still quite a few species to document, so here's a new one.

This year Julia introduced us to a wonderful chiton called Leptochiton rugatus.  This is a small chiton — at full size, it only reaches lengths of ~12 mm (~0.5 inches).  Most of the individuals we've encountered have been ~6-7 mm long.

During the past few months we've taken a few photos of Leptochiton rugatus for the record.  Here's a nice view of three individuals on a patch of Derby Hat Bryozoan (Eurystomella bilabiata):

 

And a closer view of one individual:

 

Leptochiton rugatus tends to occur underneath cobbles or boulders that are surrounded by sand.  Eric managed a couple more close-ups.  Here's one on the local granite:

 

And another on a dark background that shows off the slightly orange coloration:

 

You can click on the images for larger versions.

Up and down

Have you been looking up at the stars recently?

This morning we were looking down at some.  Here's a nicely patterned and textured juvenile Bat Star (Patiria miniata) to start your day:

 

A seaside club?

Sometimes we find dragonflies washed up on the beach, but last night I was surprised by this one:

 

This wasn't a species I had seen in Sonoma County yet, so I was a little confused at first.  

 Here's a view from the side showing the beautiful blue-gray colors:

 

And here's a close-up of the abdomen — note the expanded segments at the end of the abdomen giving it a clubbed appearance:

 

There's a family of dragonflies known as clubtails, but species in that family have eyes that are separated.  Below you can see that the eyes of this dragonfly are large and touch in the front:

 

Meet the Pale-faced Clubskimmer (Brechmorhoga mendax)!

Pale-faced Clubskimmers are found in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.  They prefer rocky streams with flowing water, including riffles and pools — definitely not beaches!  (The closest record I can find to Bodega Bay so far is a stretch of the Russian River in Healdsburg.)

So, how did it end up on the beach?  Was it dispersing, then blown offshore, then washed in?  Was it displaced by the inland fires and smoke?  With only one occurrence, it's impossible to know, but I'll be watching to see if any other inland species appear on the coast.

Here's a head-on view showing the pale face:

 

Here's one more picture for the record, showing the small amber spot at the base of the hind wings:

 

Have you seen a Pale-faced Clubskimmer close to the coast in Sonoma County?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Long in the tooth

Okay, remember the mystery photo from last night?

 

Here's another view from the tail end.  Note that the dorsal fin (on the left side) is relatively small and falcate (curved backward):

This is a Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps).  It washed up on Salmon Creek Beach on 7 August 2018.  The entire animal was ~11 feet long.

The next photo shows a close-up of the head and flippers.  Note several features: the squarish, blunt head (the species name "breviceps" means "short head"; a very small underslung jaw; and short rounded flippers set relatively close to the head.

 

Because the lower jaw is so unusual, here's a closer view (below).  Birds had been pecking at the whale, which created a very bloody image.  So I changed this photo to grayscale so the blood wouldn't be too distracting:

 

Also unusual are the very sharp, fang-like teeth (only in the lower jaw).  They can make this whale look somewhat shark-like:

 

 

Pygmy Sperm Whales are rarely seen at sea.  They're generally found in deeper waters offshore (outer continental shelf and beyond) in warm temperate and tropical zones.  From studies of stomach contents of stranded animals, it appears that they primarily eat deep-water cephalopods (squid and octopus) using suction-feeding:

 

Figure modified from Bloodworth and Marshall. 2010.  Feeding kinematics of Kogia and Tursiops (Odontoceti: Cetacea): characterization of suction and ram feeding.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology 208: 3721-3730.

The Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences will be doing a necropsy to determine the cause of death.  Because Pygmy Sperm Whale specimens are rare, the skeleton will be preserved at the California Academy of Sciences. 

Many thanks to Connor for letting me know about this whale.  And to Sue Pemberton for confirming the identification and providing the information about its final disposition.

Mystery on the beach

Whew, it's been busy lately.  So, here's a mystery photo for you (below).  Note that this photo is a bit graphic — it's a dead animal that's bloody because birds have been pecking at it.  If you're not interested in seeing something like that, don't continue reading this post.  

This animal washed up near Salmon Creek on 7 August 2018.  

It's rare to see one, so I thought it would be helpful to document it for the record.  I'll reveal more about its identity tomorrow night.