One of the important distinctions that my marine biology students learn about is the difference between organisms that are benthic and those that are pelagic. Organisms described as benthic live attached to or associated with a surface, often but not always the sea floor. In addition to the stationary sea floor itself, benthic organisms can…
Tag: natural history
Spying on the hunter
This afternoon I was hanging some laundry to dry on the back deck, when something reddish caught my eye. I grabbed the binoculars, peered down into the bushes, and saw a pair of ears emerging from behind a bush. Soon a very handsome coyote came out to bask in the sun. Just in case it…
Collateral damage
My home town of Santa Cruz made national news the other day, 23 December 2024, when a series of massive swells caused part of the Municipal Wharf to collapse into the ocean. People in the restaurants and other businesses had to evacuate immediately, and three people were dropped into the water of Monterey Bay (they…
I saw the light!
Last month I spent four days in the town of Egmont, BC. My husband and I had joined a friend on his annual excursion to the stomping grounds of his youth. We trailered the friend’s boat, Scherzo, up through Oregon and Washington and into British Columbia. We took a ferry and then ditched the car…
Black and white
One of my favorite seabirds is the pigeon guillemot (Cepphus columba). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithololgy, pigeon guillemots should be present along the California coast year-round, but I seem to see them only during the summer breeding season, when they forage close to shore. Having first to incubate eggs, and then to feed…
Meow!
For years now we’ve known that the world just beyond our back deck was owned by a variety of wildlife. We’ve seen coyotes and bobcats often enough to think “Good to know you guys are still there!” and of course we hear coyotes a lot more often than we see them. We’ve also known the…
A celebration of worms
Yesterday, 30 June 2023, was deemed by the National Museum of Natural History to be International Polychaete Day, and the Smithsonian had an entire day of talks and activities for visitors to learn about the marine segmented worms. And you know me: I’m in favor of any event that draws attention to the animals that…
An inadvertent voyeur
A week ago I was with a group of students at Moss Landing, where we spent a couple of hours watching birds on our way down to Fort Ord Natural Reserve for an overnight camping trip. The visit was well-timed: we arrived at low tide so there was a lot of mud flat exposed, meaning…
The odd couple
Today my co-teacher, Gabe, and I took our Ecology students up the coast a bit for the first field trip of the semester. We spent the morning at the bottom of Big Basin State Park, where we did a little walking and a lot of looking and talking. In 2.5 hours we traveled maybe a…
An ocean and a lagoon
Yesterday and last night California was hit by an atmospheric river bringing lots of rain and the flooding that comes along with it. Combined with a spring high tide, the storm surge gave us tremendous swells and surges along the shores of Monterey Bay. At this moment it isn’t raining and the sky is lifting,…