Footprint Rock-May 28, 2009

Black oystercatcher

Footprint Rock team photo 2009

Dungeness crab

Haliclystus

Charlie Seablom’s team had beautiful sunshiny weather and a -2.4 tide when they made the long hike to Footprint Rock on the west side of Whidbey Island on May 28. The team was made up of five adult monitors with one sunbonnetted little one along to supervise. Melody Kuschnereit got a good look at a stalked jelly and Libby Hayward spotted a Dungeness crab (Cancer magister). Other highlights for the team included polychaete worms and a black oystercatcher.

Langley Seawall-May 28, 2009

Langley Seawall Team photo 2009

Melanochlamys

Langley Seawall team at work

Pisaster brevispinous

Lottia parallela

Phyllaplysia

The Langley Seawall team had a -2.6 foot tide to work with on May 28th and Yvonne Palka put together a team of seven to get it done. This beach is composed of a concrete seawall with a short stretch of rocky substrate and then a broad expanse of sand that supports eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds in the lower intertidal. Several tiny red velvet mites (Neomolgus) were seen scurrying about their business on the concrete seawall and peeking into its crevices revealed the hiding places of sea slaters (Ligia pallasii). Along the sandy expanse, the team found ghost shrimp and the tiny sea slug identified as Melanochlymus. As the team delved into the eelgrass they found a giant pink seastar (Pisaster brevispinous), eelgrass limpets (Lottia parallela),and eelgrass sea slugs (Phyllaplysia taylori).

Harrington Lagoon-May 27, 2009

Look at this

Harrington Lagoon team photo 2009

Checking it out

Moonsnail

Bristle cone worm

Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis

The tide rolled back to -3.5 feet on May 27th giving Donna Keeler’s Harrington Lagoon team a terrific opportunity to examine their beach. Dick Dent uncovered two big moonsnails and the team encountered numerous moonsnail egg collars that lay along the low tide line. One of the moonsnails clutched a drilled and empty littleneck clamshell in its massive foot, apparently the remnants of its lunch. Wendy Moon spotted a green sea urchin and the team found more than a dozen barnacle eating nudibranchs. Pete Berg found a large "naked" hairy hermit crab revealing the soft coiled abdomen that is usually tucked up into protective snail shell attire. There were also quite a number of ice cream cone worms (Pectinaria). In addition, the team dug up bristle comb worms which Whidbey monitors have found only on this beach. Bristle comb worms belong to the polychaete family Flabelligeridae.

Onamac Beach - May 27, 2009

12 Beach Watchers, one spouse and two Onamac neighbors met at 11:30 a.m. to monitor Onamac Beach. John C. and Duane H. arrived 30 minutes early to begin laying the 2 lines done at this beach.

Line One

Polychaete - Nephtyidae

Sand dollar front side

Sand dollar bottom

Shaggy moss nudibranch

Lined chiton

Line number one, the south line, started 50 feet out due to numerous huge driftwood logs. The most exciting thing found on this line were the hundreds and hundreds of mussels. There were mussels of all sizes, brown and blue. They were attached to the cobble and the gravel on the beach, halfway down the intertidal. It was noted that this phenomenon had not been observed in previous years on this beach. Some wondered if the Penn Cove Mussel Farm, across the bay to the north might have had a "mussel spat" spill last year.

This monitoring group also found several segmented worms (Polychaetes) and one in particular caught out attention - a Nephtyidae with its large parapodia and head tentacles. Further down a sand dollar. Dendraster excentricus, was found intact (a rare thing with all the wave action), and a large number of dogwinkles, Nucella Sp., as well as a shaggy moss nudibranch, Aeolidia papillosa. And last but not least this group found a stunning, huge lined chiton, Tonicella lineate, which for many of us was the largest we had ever seen.

Line Two

Cresent Gunnel Fish

Line two, the north line, was entirely different than line 1. There were very little invertebrates, or sea life. When we finally got down to where there was seaweed, the most exciting things were the numerous gunnels. One leaped out at Jan, who shrieked. That gunnel managed to wiggle itself about 4 feet over rocks and seaweed, and then disappeared down a mysterious hole. This eel-like fish has a long, spiny dorsal fin along its length.

MAJOR HIGHLIGHT - an Osprey

Osprey sitting

Osprey flying

The most memorable thing about this monitoring wasn't on the beach at all, but over our heads. A lonely Osprey came our way, hovered overhead, as if inspecting our work, and flew off. This bird returned again about 10 minutes later, to repeat the inspection. We were so captured by its presence that we failed to take pictures of it. This editor went to several of our Audubon folks who are Beach Watchers to see if they had any good osprey pictures and they came up with the following two, which they agreed to share with us on our website. For many of us, this was the first time we have seen this marvelous bird perform its hovering action mid-air. Quite amazing!

Following the monitoring, our hosts, John and Jan N. built a campfire and all who helped with the monitoring enjoyed treats and the experience of toasting their own hotdogs over the campfire. It was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Thanks to John and Jan for this report and their wonderful hospitality.

Cama Beach State Park - May 26, 2009

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We gathered at Cama Beach State Park for the South monitoring line area; it lies directly at the bottom of the road down to the resort cabins. This was a better day than last year when we were wet and frozen, but still very windy and we came prepared on this day at 10:30 AM, without any sunshine to cheer us. The low tide of -3.6 was expected to be at 12:48 PM and since this was our first beach of the year we knew we had to work diligently to get our work done in time. Duane H. and John C. established our start point from last year’s data and the line was stretched out toward the water’s edge. Because there were not as many of us as hoped for we had to make the decision to omit the North Line at the other end of the resort.
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Our findings were lucrative: many thick mussel areas as we progressed down, colorful welks near the lower sections, and at the very end of our line a huge moon snail, Euspira lewisii, for which this beach is so well known. The moon snail had its foot area extended and was sitting by an almost complete casing (rarely seen in one piece). For many of us this was an incredible first look at such a large, live one. Nudibranchs, Onchidoris, were in abundance and the area at the low intertidal was extensively covered with their egg masses. We also found a lined chiton, Tonicella lineata, which was very large, decorated with its signature diamond pattern on its back; there were many of them in the area.
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And while we examined our quadrats and worked the line, we had an observer watching us from about 100 ft away: a very healthy bald eagle, which watched us for awhile, took off, and then came back and landed again to ponder what we were all about. We thought he might be hoping we would provide him with supper. Thanks to the first crew for 2009 for all their help and to John and Duane for getting our first monitoring of the season off to a good start. Several folks staying at Cama came by to see what we were doing and learned a little about Beach Watchers and intertidal monitoring. Written by Judi McD. Pictures taken by J. Custer and J. McDougall.
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Rosario Beach-May 26, 2009

Team at work-Rosario

Rosario Beach team photo 2009

Quadrat work

Fucus sp.

Checkered periwinkle

Idotea wosnesenskii

It was a dauntless, nose to the grindstone group who descended on Deception Pass State Park’s Rosario Beach on May 26th. Sammye Kempbell organized the 8 monitors into two teams who set to work documenting 17 quadrats full of the rich floral and faunal species that span the length of Rosario’s rocky intertidal area. The crew worked under light rain most of the morning but as they finished up the last couple of quadrats the sky brightened and the rain ceased. Thankfully no one took a tumble on the slippery-when-wet bedrock.

Because this beach has been heavily trampled in recent years, the park implemented a restoration project last summer with trails installed for visitors. Park Interpretive Specialist Adam Lorio joined the monitoring teams hoping to learn how species density may be changing in response to the restoration project. The Beach Watcher naturalists who have helped out on this beach for several years believe the rockweed (Fucus sp.) appears to be more plentiful this year as compared to last year. The monitoring teams tallied hundreds of periwinkles (Littorina sp.), Lisa Harkins found tiny striped Haliplanella anemones tucked in a crevice, and Melody Kuschnereit made the observation that the green rockweed isopods (Idotea wosnesenskii) resembled dill pickles!

Cama Beach State Park - May 26, 2009

Monitoring preparations

We gathered at Cama Beach State Park for the South monitoring line area; it lies directly at the bottom of the road down to the resort cabins. This was a better day than last year when we were wet and frozen, but still very windy and we came prepared on this day at 10:30 AM, without any sunshine to cheer us. The low tide of -3.6 was expected to be at 12:48 PM and since this was our first beach of the year we knew we had to work diligently to get our work done in time. Duane H. and John C. established our start point from the data of last year and the line was stretched out toward the water edge. Because there were not as many of us as hoped for we had to make the decision to omit the North Line at the other end of the resort.

Lined chiton

Moon snail detail

Moon snail casing

Nudibranchs & eggs

Nudibranchs & eggs #2

Our findings were lucrative: many thick mussel areas as we progressed down, colorful welks near the lower sections, and at the very end of our line a huge moon snail, Euspira lewisii, for which this beach is so well known. The moon snail had its foot area extended and was sitting by an almost complete casing (rarely seen in one piece). For many of us this was an incredible first look at such a large, live one. Nudibranchs, Onchidoris, were in abundance and the area at the low intertidal was extensively covered with their egg masses. We also found a lined chiton, Tonicella lineata, which was very large, decorated with its signature lined pattern on its back; there were many of them in the area as well as mossy chitons, Mopalia.

Bald eagle watching BW

BW investigating

And while we examined our quadrats and worked the line, we had an observer watching us from about 100 ft away: a very healthy bald eagle, which watched us for awhile, took off, and then came back and landed again to ponder what we were all about. We thought he might be hoping we would provide him with supper. Thanks to the first crew for 2009 for all their help and to John and Duane for getting our first monitoring of the season off to a good start. Several folks staying at Cama came by to see what we were doing and learned a little about Beach Watchers and intertidal monitoring. Written by Judi McD. Pictures taken by J. Custer and J. McDougall.

Finished and tired