River rocks

 

Not from Bodega Head — how'd you know?  ;) 

We arrived for a meeting late in the day, so I just had time for a quick photo.  This is from the South Fork of the Merced River near Wawona (south entrance to Yosemite National Park) on 14 October 2014. 

Something colorful, something new

On 15 September, Eric and I noticed some very small scallop shells washed up on Salmon Creek Beach.  Here's an example:

 

We were impressed with the diversity of shell colors and patterns:

 

Pick your favorite!

 

 

These are juvenile Rock Scallops (Crassadoma gigantea).  Not only did we discover how diverse their shells can be, but by looking at them up close, we learned something new.

 

Did you notice the row of teeth below the hinge?  (To me, it almost looks like a line of small arching waves.)  This feature is called a ctenolium.  The teeth guide the byssal threads that the scallop uses to attach to the substrate when it's young.

 

Low evening light

 

The swell continued to build today, and the wind let up in the afternoon.  Low evening light from the west lit up the tops of the 12-foot waves.

 

All the way...

...from Alaska!

 

Eleven-foot swell started to impact the coast this afternoon (11 October 2014).  NOAA reported that it originated from a storm in the Gulf of Alaska.

 

Tiny bubbles

It might be hard to tell what these are, but do you want to try?

 

I think they look like tiny bubbles at first, but I'll give you a hint and reveal that those clear, shiny, reflective parts are actually transparent shells.

The grayish, opaque parts are the animals' body parts:

 

In some views (as below), you can see two small, rounded lobes — they can look a bit like a little "bowtie."  These are the velar lobes (or velum) that the animal uses to swim.

 

In each view, I've zoomed out a little further.  Now I'm showing the entire egg mass:

 

These are the larvae, or veligers, of Fiona pinnata, the pelagic nudibranch I wrote about on 22 September.  I photographed a few of the older egg masses to document the later stage embryos, but I haven't had a chance to show you these pictures yet.  I was impressed with the height of their shells!  The veligers hatch from the egg mass, swim in the plankton for a while, then undergo metamorphosis into a juvenile nudibranch similar to the one I showed in last month's post (they'll lose these beautiful larval shells at metamorphosis).

 

Be dazzled!

 

Many of you will remember what this is.  After a big swell in late September, squid egg capsules started washing ashore on the outer coast.

I posted a picture similar to this last winter and shared some information about the capsules — see "Dislodged from the deep" on 15 January 2014.

Then I posted pictures of newly hatched squid paralarvae and their beautiful chromatophores — see "Something about cephalopods" on 16 January 2014.

Now you get to see something even better — a video of these wonderful chromatophores in action!  Although the still photos are attractive, it's much more informative to see how fast the chromatophores can change.

Enjoy and be dazzled!

 

Squid chromatophores from Jackie Sones on Vimeo.

 

Selenelion

No, that wasn't a typo for "sea lion."  ;)  Selenelion is a term for the rare celestial event occurring early in the morning of October 8th — a nearly simultaneous lunar eclipse and sunrise.

Just in case you're reading this on Tuesday night, the lunar eclipse occurs between 1:45-6:05 a.m. on Wednesday morning, with a peak between 3:25-4:24 a.m. Pacific Time.

I don't know if it will be clear if enough to see the eclipse, as it's been quite foggy during the past few mornings.

The moon is visible now (~8:30 p.m.): 

 

But I had to take these pictures in between strands of fog streaming by:

 

Let me know if you catch a glimpse of the eclipse or even the selenelion!