This morning as I was doing my rounds at the marine lab I noticed a pile of eggs next to one of the bat stars (Patiria miniata) in a large table. Somebody, or more likely, multiple somebodies, had spawned overnight. I have absolutely zero time to deal with another ongoing project right now, but I…
Author: Allison J. Gong
Becoming badass
Every year we are fortunate to watch a pair of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) raise young in a tree across the canyon. We’re not always sure if the parents are the same birds every year, and I think this year’s female is a different bird from last year. Her mate may be the male who…
Making babies
Every year, in June, my big whelk lays eggs. I have a mated pair of Kellettia kellettii living in a big tub at the marine lab. I inherited them from a lab mate many years ago now, and they’ve been nice pets. They’ve lived together forever, and make babies reliably. As June rolls around I…
A new site and a new understanding
I’ve always known staurozoans (Haliclystus ‘sanjuanensis’) from Franklin Point, and it goes to reason that they would be found at other sites in the general vicinity. But I’ve never seen them up the coast at Pigeon Point, just a short distance away. At Franklin Point the staurozoans live in sandy-bottom surge channels where the water…
Fishing in surge channels
This weekend we have some of the loveliest morning low tides of the year, and fortunately the local beaches have been opened up again for locals. The beaches in San Mateo County had been closed for two months, to keep people from gathering during the pandemic. For the first time in over a year I…
Graduation
It’s the time of the year for students to graduate from one stage of their education to the next. We don’t have students of our own at home, unless you count the cats, but we graduated some 10,000 or so bees! Let me explain. Since the car accident and head injury in 2016, my activities…
Unusual numbers of the usual suspects
Today was the first time I’ve gone out on a low tide since before the whole COVID19 shelter-in-place mandates began. Looking back at my records, which I hadn’t done until today because it was much too depressing, I saw that my last time out was 22 February, when the low tides were in the afternoon….
A different sort of coral
I’m willing to bet that when you think about coral, what comes to mind is something like this: The reef-building corals of the tropics are indeed spectacular structures, incredibly rich in biodiversity and worthy of a visit if you ever get the chance. These coral colonies come in many shapes, as you can see in…
Hovering
We have all heard about hummingbirds and their ability to hover and fly backwards. These tiny feathered jewels are a delight to observe. They are birds of the New World, and I feel sorry for people living in parts of the world that don’t have hummingbirds. Where I live, on the coast of Northern California,…
Altercation in the air
We Californians are all under a state-wide mandate to stay at home, to minimize the spread of COVID-19 this spring. School hasn’t been cancelled, but all classes have converted to distance learning. I had four days to figure out how to deal with that. Fortunately we are in spring break this week, which gives us…