Birds and a Few Invertebrates from Mission Bay and the San Diego River

A trip to the coast, mostly to photograph birds with the new 400 mm lens, yielded some nice invert images also.

Bat star, W. side of Vacation Isle at low tide

Odd purple sponges, to be determined. W. side of Vacation Isle.

Californiconus californicus. One of many, cruising the shallows at Ventura Cove.

Portunus xantusii, Swimming Crab. This one seemed almost dead, exposed at the low tide. Ventura Cove.

Little Blue Heron, strutting about at the San Diego River mouth.

Snowy Egret, partaking of the tiny minnows, San Diego River mouth.

Whimbrel, fishing with the rest. San Diego River mouth.

Extreme Minus Tide in Mission Bay, San Diego

In mid-December we had some extremely low tides in San Diego. December 13th brought an approximately minus 1.7 foot tide to Mission Bay! I explored the western side of Vacation Isle to see what the low tide might reveal.

Dallocardia quadragenaria, among the eelgrass.

Pteropurpura festiva, on the exposed rocks. Many of them had layed eggs, as shown below.

Crassispira semiinflata, found on the sand past the rocks.

Dialula sandiegensis, found clinging to the rocks after being stranded by the tide. 

I think this is Lepidonotus spiculus, a type of polychaete, but not 100% certain at this point.

Paraxanthias taylori, a Lumpy Crab, a creature I have never encountered before!

Our Trip to Northern California and the Oregon Coast in July

The coastline is very different in the north as compared to San Diego County! Nice muricids like Nucella lamellosa appear, as well as many other colder water-loving species. Some old friends are there also (like Olivella biplicata).

We started out on the coast in Humboldt County, exploring Trinidad, Clam Beach and Humboldt Bay.

Tidepools at Trinidad, California

Pacific Blood Star (Henricia leviuscula). One of a few scattered around the intertidal area. I love this brilliant color - and I have never observed them in southern California.

Leather Star (Dermasterias imbricata). Another fairly common sea star. The sea stars seemed fairly healthy, and I saw no sign of wasting disease.

Black Katy Chiton, Katharina tunicata. A common chiton of these northern beaches.

Gumboot Chiton, Cryptochiton stelleri. There were plenty of these huge chitons here and there amongst the rocks. I have never seen so many before. Probably 8-10 total over about two hours of exploring.

Another Gumboot Chiton - a good eight inches long.

Lepidozona mertensii, a very small but prettily-marked and colored chiton.

Doriopsilla albopunctata, a nudibranch that was abundant in the tide pools.

Did not see so many of these - Triopha catalinae.

Calliostoma ligatum - VERY common among the rocks.

Ceratostoma foliatum - interesting to see "in situ"

 We visited Clam Beach, just north of Arcata, on the second morning. Olivella biplicata had been revealed by the low tide.

The "typical" color morph

The less common white morph. This is what I've seen in Mission Bay in San Diego as well, in terms of abundances of the color morphs.

Lots of tracks in the sand left by the little olives!

Beach Hopper, Orchestoidea californiana.

Close-up

On the third morning we visited Humboldt Bay. The sheltered environment provided habitat for different organisms.

Beached crab - I think this may be a rock crab. I am not up to speed on my crabs!

A jelly of some sort in the extremely shallow water.

Nucella lamellosa along a rocky stretch of the bay.

A "colony" of Nucella lamellosa.

Eventually we headed north into Oregon and explored up the coast as far north as Otter Rock (just north of Newport).

I did not take as many photos in the field in Oregon, but here are the cleaned muricids collected along the way.

Nucella lamellosa, showing different color morphs and degrees of "frilliness".

Nucella ostrina, which is the name for the more northerly of what used to be called Nucella emarginata.

June Low Tide in Imperial Beach

On June 18, there was a negative low tide very early in the morning, so we made a trip of it to check it out.

There is a small breakwater on the north end of Imperial Beach, which has a lot of marine organisms typical of what one would see in a tide pool environment.

Then the beach stretches north towards the Silver Strand, and there were sand bars and unusual "rivers" along the edge of the water, some spots capturing a lot of shells and other marine debris.

Here are some of the organisms of the rocky jetty area:

A small Bat Star (Patiria miniata) with a tiny wentletrap (probably Epitonium tinctum) just to its left, and another wentletrap on the right (I only saw these in the photo afterwards!). I also saw one Pisaster ochraceus (Ochre Sea Star), which looked healthy. A good sign during this time of mass die-offs of sea stars along the west coast.

This is a bit of a mystery - but looks quite a bit like Aplidium sp. (a colonial tunicate). In Florida, this sort of thing washed up on the beaches is called "sea pork". There was quite a bit of this in the rocks of the small jetty, and more washed onto the sand.

I believe that this is Acanthinucella punctulata, a small muricid.

A fancy house for this hermit crab - Calliostoma canaliculatum, one of the prettier gastropods usually found off shore slightly.

The Striped Shore Crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes) - ubiquitous where there are rocks along our coast. This was an immature one - lighter than more matures ones.

Here are some organisms seen on the sandy beach north of the breakwater.

This was a new creature for me - a Spiny Mole Crab (Blepharipoda occidentalis). There were a few washed up along the sandy shore, and they were either dead or very lethargic (dying?). This one was one of the most healthy-seeming. I took lots of images at different angles. It was about 2.5 inches long. I have seen their carapaces on the sand, sometimes in very large numbers, in the past, but thought they were immature lobster carapaces. Now I know.

Posterior view.

Anterior view.

Ventral view.

A live Dendraster excentricus. A very common sand dollar species along these shores.

In a kelp holdfast this caprellid amphipod was hiding, very well camouflaged.

This is the "typical" mole crab that digs in the sand along the shore - Emerita analoga (the Pacific Mole Crab).

A gravid female E. analoga.

A live Olivella biplicata, burrowing in the sand.