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Favorite TOS Posts and Photos, 2013

Favorite TOS Posts and Photos, 2013

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Comb Jellies

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Wormwatching

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Barnacles On Top of Barnacles

Barnacles On Top of Barnacles

Thatched barnacles, Semibalanus cariosus, and goose barnacles, Pollicipes polymerus. There are plenty of impacts in the surf zone, and barnacles sometimes break away from their rocky homes and wash up on the beaches. These thatched barnacles, Semibalanus cariosus, the ones piled one upon the other, are among the most common barnacle finds along the wrack line. Here, you can see at least three…

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Meeting Melanosiphon

Meeting Melanosiphon

It was just over a year ago, on March 8, 2020, when I had a chance brush with Melanosiphon intestinalis. Being my first encounter, I was grateful, but even at the moment, it seemed this seaweed was past full prime. Below, in one of the first photographs I took, before I knew for sure what it was, you’ll get an idea of what I mean. Depending on your frame of reference, you may or may not agree…

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Flat-tip Piddock, Penitella penita

Flat-tip Piddock, Penitella penita

Flat-tip piddock, Penitella penita

A few days ago on the TOS facebook page I posted the photo above, along with this challenge: “Here’s a shell you don’t see on just any sandy beach. Any guesses about what it is?”  There were some great guesses but nobody really nailed it.  This is a piddock shell, probably the flat-tip piddock, Penitella penita.   Piddocks are bivalves – mollusks with two…

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Winter is a season of strong winds and big surf, forces that lend a seasonal flavor to the drift line. The strongest signal on my home beaches arrives in the form of bull kelp- drifting masses cast up with the first fall storms. Masses keep arriving, one after the other, all winter long. Bull kelp is attractive in the drift line, but it makes a more important contribution. It nutrifies the beaches. Beach hoppers, those happy little detritivores, appear to rejoice whenever a new mass is cast ashore. Drift kelp carries hitchhikers too, mostly invertebrates and algal epiphytes. You can lose track of time seeking rarely seen subtidal visitors still clinging to fresh drifted kelp. Bull kelp holdfasts sometimes attach to cobbles during the growing season, only to drag them ashore in the winter drift. Ever find a good-sized cobble, out of place on a lonely strand? Thank bull kelp.

The winter drift line is full of decay and treasure. The images below were selected to highlight some of the diversity That might be encountered on a seasonal beach walk. They are all finds from December through February over the last few years. I put them together to help myself, and you, imagine a stroll along the winter drift line.

It’s the season for lost floats and buoys | Here, local Dungeness crab trap buoys

Light stick | Offshore fishing

Spent fall salmon make an appearance in the winter drift line

Winter surf whips up sea foam, a product of phytoplankton breakdown | A source of nutrition on beach

Navigation light

Bull kelp, a signature find in the winter drift line

Expect marine mammal carcasses to wash ashore

Knife sheath

More shotgun shell wads than you might expect

Large cobble dragged ashore by bull kelp | Holdfast still attached

Seabirds take it pretty hard in the winter | Black-legged kittiwake

Unusual pelagic creatures show up in the winter drift line | Purple-striped jellies rarely appear outside Monterey Bay, California

Hagfish trap funnel

Winter surf casts up lots of long distance travelers

A common winter drift line find

Big winter surf will cast up oceanic drifters of all kinds

Winter storms can dislodge egg masses | here fish eggs, maybe ling cod?

You’ll see representation from several ecosystems in the winter drift line

Lost and drifted crab trap | recreational

Wishing you a winter season full of whatever you love

If you think you might enjoy seeing other things I’ve found washed ashore over the years, and over all the seasons, have a take a look at any of my Wrack Line pages.

Seasonal

Along the Winter Drift Line Winter is a season of strong winds and big surf, forces that lend a seasonal flavor to the drift line.

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One a cave wall, Mopalia, Leptasterias dead ahead

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It’s Earth Day. Let’s take care of the planet. Lined chitons, Tonicella lineata, depend upon it.

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Katharina tunicata nosing into the Saccharina

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A Blue Buoy’s Solitude by minustide

Source: minustide

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When winter's high tides and surf combine, there’s a good chance backshore pioneers like dunegrass, Elymus mollis, will lose their grip.

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Waiting for high tide

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A typical intertidal gathering on a vertical tide pool wall

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Redtail surfperch, Amphistichus rhodoterus, are sand-dwellers in the family Embiotocidae. They live in the surf zone along the Pacific coast of North America mostly north of Santa Cruz, California, USA. This is an Oregon  juvenile making a run for it in the swash.

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Mussel/limpet/barnacle - a familiar rocky intertidal trio

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In a crowded rocky intertidal world Katharina tunicata maintains a little open space.