This morning I went to Natural Bridges. The tide this morning was the lowest of the season, but early enough that for the most part I had the intertidal to myself for a couple of hours. I always like those mornings best. I did meet a docent out there, and we chatted for a few…
Tag: rocky intertidal
Serendipity, once again
Sometimes things just work out, through no fault of my own. In terms of good minus tides occurring in daylight hours, this weekend’s tides are the best we will have all season. Today (Saturday 29 May) is the third of five intertidal excursions I have planned. This morning I went up to Pistachio Beach to…
Beauty at low tide
The rocky intertidal is coming into its full summer glory right now. The early morning low tides have been spectacular in May, and they’ll get better for the remaining few days of the month. This morning I went out to Franklin Point to poke around. Low tide was -1.8 feet (yippee!) at 06:13. And for…
A snail’s pace
As we speed towards the summer solstice the days continue to get longer. The early morning low tides are much easier to get up for, as the sky is lightening by 05:30. Even so, when traveling an hour to get to the site, it’s nice when the low is later than that. This past Saturday…
All dressed up with nowhere to go
For animals that do essentially nothing when you see them where they live, chitons have a lot of charm. They are the kind of animal that, once you develop the search image for them, you start seeing everywhere. It helps that they are easily recognized as being chitons because of their eight dorsal shell plates—nothing…
Through young eyes
On the penultimate day of 2020 I met up with my goddaughter, Katherine, and her family up at Pigeon Point to have two adventures. The first one was to find a marble that had been hidden a part of a game. We got skunked on that one, although the marble was found after we left…
In Memoriam
On the afternoon of July 31, 2020 the world of invertebrate biology and marine ecology in California lost a giant in our field. Professor Emeritus John S. Pearse died after battling cancer and the aftereffects of a stroke. John was one of the very first people I met when I came to UC Santa Cruz….
An exception to the rule
Biology is a field of science with very few absolutes. For every rule that we teach, there seems to be at least one exception. I imagine this is very frustrating for students who want to know that Something = Something every single time. It certainly is easier to remember a few rules that apply to…
Plants and algae as real estate
I’ve written before about the rocky intertidal as a habitat where livable space is in short supply. Even areas of apparently bare rock prove to be, upon closer inspection, “owned” by some inhabitant or inhabitants. That cleared area in the mussel bed? Look closely, and you’ll likely find an owl limpet lurking on the edge…
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…