South Lagoon Point

Megalorchestia columbiana

Megalorchestia columbiana

Pigeon guillemots

Working in the rain.

Cakile maritima

Lagoon Point monitoring team photo 2008

The best word to describe the South Lagoon Point team on their monitoring day was soggy! That seven member team, led by Libby Hayward endured steady rain from start to finish on June 3rd. They unanimously agreed that in spite of the rain, they had fun and saw a real diversity of intertidal life. The most charismatic species of the day was not on the beach but flying overhead. The team watched as about a dozen pigeon guillemots spent a busy morning flying from their boroughs in the bluff out to the water and the birds were also observed engaging in mating behaviors. The survey team checked out backshore plants European sea rocket (Cakile maritima) and seabeach sandwort (Honkenya peploides) which grew above the strand line and then after working their way down to the lower intertidal zone they discovered purple encrusting sponge (Haliclona sp.), and Kathy Fritts spotted a tiny blue topsnail (Caliostoma ligatum). One unusual find was that of the amphipod Megalorchestia columbiana, commonly called the pale beach hopper. As beach hoppers go, this species is relatively large, reaching a length of 0.8 inches and the base of its antennae are pale orange. It somewhat resembles the California beach hopper (Megalorchestia californiana) but does not get quite as large (to 1.1 inches) and the antennae are not as brilliantly orange as the California hopper.