The Natural History of Bodega Head

For Eric’s summer class, we used a small plankton net to collect some plankton near the mouth of Bodega Harbor during a flooding tide last w...

    Last week I came across an Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochraceus ) that was noticeably blue.  It's a little hard to tell from the phot...

    Juvenile Short-spined Sea Star ( Pisaster brevispinus ) photographed in late December 2024.  This individual was only ~20 mm across (arm...

    Juvenile Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochraceus ), about 6 mm across, on 30 December 2024

    Okay, this isn't a recent photo, but I've been busy working on a presentation about sea stars...so here you go!  A young Short-s...

    Whew, I'm finally getting over a heel injury...and it's just in time for spring field work!  Eric and I were doing some intertid...

    So cool!  This is a female Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochraceus ) spawning. We had to work a little late tonight, but it paid off because...

    Although you might have heard that sea stars use their tube feet to grab hold of mussels and to pull the two valves open slightly (enoug...

    Whew!  It's been a busy week.  Sorry for the lack of posts!  Here's a photo from field work this evening.  You might remember th...

Maybe I keep thinking about stars recently because I've been hoping and hoping that the night skies would be clear enough to see Co...

Many of you are probably familiar with the common intertidal sea star in this area, the Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochraceus ).  Ochre ...

I've been busy with field surveys recently, so here's a quick photo from the rocky intertidal zone:   Ochre Sea Stars ( Pisas...

On 28 April 2019, Barbara was exploring the rocky intertidal zone with her family.  They saw something unusual under the boulders:   ...

  Somehow I missed them when I was taking this picture in the field, but when I was reviewing photos, I noticed two peanut worms ( Phas...

I've been working on a few projects recently, so I ran out of time tonight, but here's a nice sea star photo from last month:   ...

  Close-up of a very spiny Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochraceus ).  The rounded white spines (or tubercles) are calcareous projections ...

A close-up mystery photo (below).  Somehow, it reminded me of the Olympics, with everything so sparkly and glittery.  [Click on the photos f...

I haven't had a chance to post this mystery close-up photo.  Do you recognize what animal this is?   Below is an expanded view...

We've been busy with field work during the weekend.  During one of our sea star surveys, Eric noticed an Ochre Sea Star ( Pisaster ochra...