The Natural History of Bodega Head

    With ocean temperatures quite warm recently (in the 17-18 ° C or 62-64 ° F range) and with El Ni ñ o conditions present in the Pacific O...

    So we were walking at Dillon Beach this week and Eric looked down to see this large clam shell wedged in the sand under water.  It wasn...

    Once again Eric and his summer students found some beautiful jellyfish polyps in Bodega Harbor.  This photo is from 28 June 2023.   I sh...

    Last week we observed many of these colorful jellyfish washed up on beaches in Truro and Provincetown, MA.  It looks like this is Pelagi...

    It's a good time of year for jellyfish polyps in Bodega Harbor.  Eric captured these ethereal images on 6 March 2022.   To learn mor...

    I'm running out of time tonight, but here's a nice photo that Eric took tonight — a microscope view.   For a hint about what the...

Spring winds pushed some gelatinous animals on shore yesterday.  Here are some examples, shown in order from the animals we encountered most...

Okay, here's the follow-up to last night's post, " The little one with the long tentacles ."    Below is another photo s...

 Answer: "Why, yes!" replied the sea anemone.     This Giant Green Anemone ( Anthopleura xanthogrammica ) appeare...

A few nights ago , I promised to show a few more examples of the gelatinous animals that might wash ashore on local beaches at this time of ...

  Stephanie sent some gorgeous pictures from Dillon Beach today, and she kindly allowed me to share them with you.   This is a ...

Last week, while walking a beach in Chatham, MA, Eric and I came upon a mystery blob on the sand:   Luckily, Eric soon discovered a...

Two more images from the boat trip on 30 July 2016:   We had nice views of a large male Steller Sea Lion ( Eumetopias jubata ) among...

Yesterday afternoon, while looking offshore from Bodega Head, I noticed a few light-colored animals near the surface.  At first I thought th...

...jellyfish are washing up on the beach? Stranded jellyfish aren't necessarily directly related to hot air temperatures, although we ...

I haven't started with a mystery close-up in a while, so here you go.  Can you guess what type of animal this is?   Here's an...