Green Eggs and Sand

  

Eric spotted these amazingly green fish eggs last week.  They were on the side of a boulder in the intertidal zone along the shoreline of Drakes Estero.  I'm not sure which species of fish laid them, so if you have any thoughts about that, I'd love to learn more!

Here's a close-up so you can appreciate the color:

 

 

 

 

And here's a photo of sand from 2008.  I'll admit, there's no real connection to the green eggs above, except that it lets me use the title "Green Eggs and Sand"...which sounds a little like Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham".   :)

 

 

 

Surrounded by light

  

Sanderlings (Calidris alba) feeding on the beach in reflected light from the bluffs at Point Reyes.  

The blue and gold light surrounding the Sanderlings was quite something.  I couldn't decide which photo I liked best, so here's a series:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steppin' out

 

 

Near the end of a walk at Point Reyes today (26 November 2021) we encountered a large flock of Long-billed Curlews (Numenius americanus) feeding along the shoreline.  The afternoon light really brought out the colors in their feathers.

 

 

 

 

There were upwards of 50 birds in this flock by the time we left them.  Here's a small part of the group:

 

 

 

Such beautiful birds in such beautiful light!

 

Twilight

 

 

A twilight thank you to wild places and to you for exploring them with me!

 

Greenery

Sola green (tentacles of the Sunburst Anemone, Anthopleura sola):

 

 

 

Sculpin green:

 

 

 

 

Siphon green (clam siphon):

 

 

 

Super

 

 

The ocean was super calm today and the sunset was super saturated.  A nice combination!  Photographed 22 November 2021.

Anemone addendum

Okay, last night I shared a couple of photos of Ten-tentacled Sea Anemones (Halcampa decemtentaculata).  There's lots to be intrigued about with this species.  One of the notable things is the variation in color patterning.  

Below are a few more examples — interesting patterns sometimes show up on the oral disc (like flowers or snowflakes); occasionally there's a beautiful maroon color on the disc or the tentacles; other individuals we found were brownish overall but nearly transparent:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having such variable color patterning might help to thwart predators, making it harder for them to develop a search image for a consistent color form.  [For another example of this in brittle stars, see the post called "Colorful discs" from 1 October 2016.]

 

One of the more notable color forms had a remarkable combination of white, gray, and brown patterning which made it look like bits of shell or other debris mixed in with the gravel on the bottom of the tidepool.  (We started calling this form the "moustache-type" since the dark bar across the white on the central disk looked like a moustache.)  It's hard to tell that this is a sea anemone, especially from a distance, because the overall anemone shape is disrupted by the color pattern.  It was very effective!  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

 

For the record, Eric's sharp eyes also spotted a few tiny juveniles (less than 5 mm across):

 

 

 

We hope you enjoyed this introduction to Halcampa!  [Another fun fact: This anemone was first described by Cadet Hand, the founding director of the Bodega Marine Laboratory, back in 1954.]

 

P.S.  I know some of you will be wondering — those purple bits in the background of some of these images are sea urchin spines.

 

Hanging ten?

 

During the last few low tide series, we've been busy doing surveys and haven't had much time to look around in the tidepools, but tonight we went out for a little while just for fun.  We wanted to try to find a Ten-tentacled Sea Anemone (Halcampa decemtentaculata), and we were successful!  

Here are two different individuals.  I'll include a little more information about this species in another post, but we wanted to share a couple of examples tonight.  Photographed on the Sonoma Coast on 20 November 2021.

 

 

 

A beautiful little anemone!

Layers of sunset

 

 

Layers of sunset from Bodega Head, 19 November 2021

 

A softer view

  

Well, I tend to be an early-to-bed-early-to-rise sort of person, so I wasn't sure if I'd catch the eclipse early this morning.  But I woke up and looked at my watch a little after midnight, so here you go!  For the record, a view of the partial lunar eclipse from Cotati, 19 November 2021.  It was mostly cloudy at the time, but there were brief glimpses of the moon in the breaks between clouds.  A softer view of our orbiting friend.

Little one

  

A quick photo from the local tidepools tonight (17 November 2021) — a wonderful sea anemone, Aulactinia incubans, ~1 cm across.

Cruising the coast

  

For comparison with the Merlin (Falco columbarius) posted a couple of nights ago, here's a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) photographed last week on 11 November 2021.

Merlin, the Magician

  

Whew!  We've been attending a virtual meeting during the last few days — which means a lot of time looking at a computer screen.  So it was nice to get out for a walk around the neighborhood in the late afternoon, and even nicer to see a Merlin (Falco columbarius)!

If you're not familiar with them, Merlins are small falcons, a bit larger than American Kestrels but smaller than Peregrine Falcons.  They're generally darker than kestrels...and note the relatively dark face and the pale stripe above the eye:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Merlin was joined in this tree by an American Crow, making it easy to compare the size difference:

 

 

 

Merlins are ~10-12" long with a wingspan of ~24-25", while American Crows are ~17.5" long with a wingspan of ~39".

Warm enough

  

It didn't necessarily feel unusually warm at the coast today, but as I was doing some monitoring work a couple of butterflies flew by me.  This Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) landed nearby, so I took a quick photo.  There were also quite a few bees and flies out and about, so later I checked the air temperature record.  It reached about 63°F (17°C) this afternoon.  Warm enough!

Afternoon nap

 

 

Surfbirds (Calidris virgata), Bodega Head, 10 November 2021

 

Swimming south

  

California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) swimming south near sunset on 9 November 2021.

Early evening view

  

A quick shot of the crescent moon and Venus, photographed from Cotati on 7 November 2021.

Friends in the drift

Whew!  We're finishing up field work soon, but after a quick lunch along San Diego Bay today we found a large piece of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) washed up along the shoreline and noticed a couple of nice invertebrates on the drift kelp:

 

 

Proliferating Sea Anemone (Epiactis prolifera) — a beautiful orange individual with many juveniles visible around her column. 

 

 

 

 

The "disappearing" nudibranch Corambe sp. on a bryozoan colony (Membranipora sp.).  Look closely to spot the circular shape of the nudibranch. They're incredibly well camouflaged, with white lines and brown splotches to match the bryozoan (which is the nudibranch's prey).

I've written about Corambe before, so for more info check out the post called "Ay, Corambe!" from 20 September 2013 and "A story with a point" from 17 August 2014.  The latter post has a link to Eric's excellent Corambe video — worth watching!

Two volcanoes

  

We've been working the low tides this week, so I'm running out of time tonight, but here's a quick photo of two Volcano Keyhole Limpets (Fissurella volcano) taken in San Diego.  This is more of a southern species, but we've been keeping our eyes open for them in Bodega Bay.  If you spot one in Sonoma County, I'd love to hear about it!

Sea and sky

  

Whew, lots of low tide work down here in San Diego.  Here's the view to the west as we finished up tonight (4 November 2021).

Spotted and striped

Just a quick photo of some nice Long-armed Brittle Stars (Amphiodia occidentalis) that Eric discovered in the intertidal zone in San Diego today:

 

 

The lowest individual is upside down, but check out the interesting color patterns, especially the spotting on the central disc between the arms.  [You can click on the image for a larger version.] 

 

There's an older NHBH about this species from 2013, so if you'd like to see a video of this species in action, see the post called "Fastest digger in the West".

A button!

  

Wow!  Was I surprised to see this little "button" in the intertidal zone today (1 November 2021).  We're doing some field work in the San Diego area, and I looked down to see this Blue Button (Porpita porpita) among the rocks.  I've always wanted to see this species, and this is my first!  

Blue Buttons are pelagic colonial hydrozoans related to By-the-Wind Sailors (Velella velella), and like Velella they're blue when alive (see link to photos below).  But when the animal has died the floats that are left behind are a silvery transparent color.

Having a more tropical distribution, I didn't know Blue Buttons could be observed in California, but there are at least half a dozen records in iNaturalist from about Oxnard (Los Angeles area) down to San Diego.

Here's another photo on a rock:

 

 

For a nice photo of a living Blue Button, see this NOAA Ocean Explorer web page.  And here's another beauty taken by David Liittschwager.

Now if only I could find a live one!