A festive fourth

  

Red Sea Urchin (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) from Mendocino County in late May 2026.

 Happy Fourth of July! 

Rock star?

  

Whew, we were busy with field work during the low tides this past week, but we managed to take a few photos on the side.  

Here's one that Eric took in Mendocino County today (23 May 2026) -- a beautiful Daisy Brittlestar (Ophiopholis kennerlyi) on the underside of a rock with clusters of small tubeworms. 

Coastal view

  

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) with Sea Palms (Postelsia palmaeformis) in the background, 31 May 2025. 

Little one

  

A tiny Six-armed Sea Star (Leptasterias sp.) photographed in Mendocino County on 31 May 2025.  This juvenile sea star was only ~3-4 mm across from arm tip to arm tip.  

If you look carefully, you can see some of its tube feet extending away from its arms.  And the small red eye spots at the tips of the three arms in the foreground are also visible. 

Rather than releasing eggs into the water column, Leptasterias broods its embryos and the young sea stars crawl away from the adult.  Back in 2012, I shared photos of an adult Leptasterias with its brood of embryos and an image of an adult with many juveniles in the surrounding area (it's likely the juveniles recently crawled away from the adult).  To review those photos, check out the post called "Four brooders in one" on 29 February 2012.

P.S.  Thanks for the great photo, Eric! 

Skyward

 

 

A blowhole sending spray skyward in Mendocino County on 9 June 2024

Role model?

  

Two Henricia pumila sea stars in a shallow pool in the low intertidal zone.  The one on the left is likely older than the one on the right, but growth rates in juvenile sea stars are highly variable, so it's hard to say for sure without knowing more about these individuals.  Photographed in Mendocino County on 9 June 2024.

Local colors

Okay, I know this might seem like an unusual photo for the NHBH, but I couldn’t resist…and there’s a natural history connection!  We worked in Mendocino County today, conducting intertidal surveys during the early morning low tide.  But in the afternoon we made a few stops in Fort Bragg and Mendocino, including the Mendocino Art Center.  There’s a fun exhibit about kelp there, and a bonus was this amazing exhibit about dyes made from local mushrooms.  

I’m new to this world, but the dyed-wool examples above were made with different species of mushrooms.  The exhibit is about the collaboration between Dorothy Beebee (illustrator) and Miriam C. Rice (dye pioneer).  It showcases fabrics made with local dyes (including mushrooms collected from Mendocino County) and others on loan from the International Mushroom Dye Institute.  

I haven’t been able to check it out yet, but a documentary film called Try It and See: The Story Behind Mushroom Dyes will be available at www.mushroomsforcolor.com and www.myramadecolor.com.

Such a beautiful earth-toned color palette!

Mottled

  

Whew, we've had a busy week of field work during early morning low tides.  At the end of our surveys today in Mendocino County, Eric photographed this wonderful Six-armed Sea Star (Leptasterias sp.).  Thanks, Eric!

Along for the ride

 

 

Well, I've wanted to share this photo for a while, but it's been a little busy since Michael first let us know about this fascinating observation in mid-September.  

 

Meet Coronula diadema, sometimes known as a whale barnacle!

 

A young Humpback Whale washed up in Fort Bragg on 12 September 2022.  Michael was part of a team from the Noyo Center that went to document it and he took a few photos of the barnacles living on the whale.  It's not often that we get to see this species of barnacle up close as they live exclusively on whales!

 

You can see that the barnacles are quite rounded; they're often described as cask-shaped (or barrel-shaped).  They have sets of very prominent ribs and in some cases there is black coloration visible if the tops of the ribs have worn away or broken off.  The black is whale skin!  The barnacles anchor themselves in the whale's skin by incorporating it into the inner parts of their shells.

 

If you zoom in and look at the central area of the barnacle, you can see the orangish membrane and a pair of tiny white shells embedded in the membrane.  In other barnacle species, those plates (called scuta) help the barnacle close up entirely (like a trap door), but in Coronula diadema the plates are highly reduced.

 

 

 

  

These barnacles were alive when photographed, and the feeding appendages (known as cirri) were extended in one of the individuals (see below).  In Coronula, the appendages are relatively short.  Interestingly, I read that they have small hook-like structures at the tips of the cirri, perhaps indicating that they feed on larger types of zooplankton.

 

 

 

I can't help sharing one more close-up.  Check out the tiny "beads" at the base of the barnacle shells.  I don't recall seeing this texture in other barnacles.  That's new shell growth (barnacles add new shell at their base) and it's likely the beaded texture is worn away with time.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to Coronula diadema!  Many thanks to Michael Brito and the Noyo Center for sharing these wonderful photos.

Going up

   

A nice orchid from a coastal grassland in Mendocino County on 11 September 2022.  I think this one is Hooded Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana).  You can also see this species along the Pomo Canyon Trail or the Kortum Trail.

The largest toothed whale

  

I know it would be better to see this animal alive, but we don't get to see Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in this area very often.  This one washed up in Mendocino in late July.  I heard about this observation from Alisha, and Abbey kindly shared photos from 29 July 2022.

Abbey mentioned that folks at the Noyo Center in Fort Bragg recorded this as a 27-foot long male.  The tongue was missing and the scratch marks on the whale's skin indicate a possibly attack by Orcas.

Here's a closer view where you can see the large, square head and the narrow lower jaw.  Sperm Whales can have 18-26 pairs of teeth.  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

 

 

Adult male Sperm Whales can reach lengths up to ~62 feet, so this whale is likely a younger male.

Sperm Whales are more often found in deeper waters — over the continental slope and far offshore, so we don't get to see them near shore that often.  (I've seen a small group of Sperm Whales once on a pelagic trip to Cordell Bank and beyond — a memorable experience, but regrettably I didn't have a camera at the time.)  

A few fun Sperm Whale facts: They can dive as deep as 3200 m (2 miles!) and for more than 2 hours.  They can live for 70 years and possibly longer.

With many thanks to Abbey for taking the time to document this Sperm Whale and sharing photos with us!

Ghost bees

  

Up in Mendocino County last week we noticed these small whitish bees flying very close to the ground.  They were very fast flyers, and didn't land very often, so it was easy to lose sight of them as they disappeared into the grassland or along the trail.  This is one of the only photos that came out well enough to share.  

My guess for this bee?  Perhaps a species called Melissodes pallidisignata, sometimes called a Pale-marked Long-horned Bee.  

I first wrote about this species back in 2012.  If you'd like to see a photo from Bodega Head, check out the post called "Mint green and fuzzy" from 25 July 2012.  And note that while the photo above is a male, the females look quite different!  See the post called "Pollen-covered chaps" from 31 July 2013.

A forest of palms

Wow, the Sea Palm (Postelsia palmaeformis) was really tall in Mendocino County this year!  Here's a photo of Eric making his way through a Sea Palm forest on the way to our study site:

 

 

 

Okay, perhaps you guessed that the Sea Palm isn't really over four feet tall, but it was luxurious up there.  There were lots of nice, extensive patches of this charismatic kelp!

 

Family resemblance

  

After field work in Mendocino County today (15 July 2021), we had a nice view of a couple of juvenile Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) with their parents.  

Note the shorter bill with a black tip, the tawny edges on many of the feathers, and the pale pink legs. 

 

 

 

 Below is an adult for comparison:

 

 

 

In sun and fog

  

We had to do some field work in Mendocino County today (8 February 2021).  On the walk down to the study site, we passed this beautiful Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis).  In the first view (above) there was a hint of sunlight.  A little later we noticed it sitting on a fence with fog and trees in the background:

 

 

Winging it

 

Another beautiful view of dense kelp in the low intertidal zone on the Mendocino coast — this one is Winged Kelp (Alaria marginata).

Spring transition

After field work near Mendocino on Sunday, we were walking up a coastal bluff and noticed some shallow pools off to the side of a small stream running along the rocks towards the ocean.  Looking down, some movement caught our eye:

 

Little wriggling tadpoles!

We followed the stream up to a small wet seep near the bluff.  Soon we saw tiny, newly-metamorphosed froglets (~1 cm long) jumping among the vegetation.

This one landed and nestled on the leaf of a Seep Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus):

 

And here's one with wet feet:

 

Good luck little treefrogs!

Fantastic Five

 

While working in Mendocino County this weekend we noticed many of the low intertidal kelps looked very healthy.  This is a beautiful patch of Five-ribbed Kelp (Costaria costata).  Many of the blades were nearly 6 feet tall.

P.S.  For a little more information about this species, see the previous post called "Puckered up" from 22 August 2012.

Morning light

I've been sorting through some older pictures recently.  This one, with Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) and fog, is from August 2012.

Ocean colors

 

Off the Mendocino coast in May 2012.