English Boom - June 8, 2009

Haliplanella Haliplanella

Lugworm 4 in long Lugworm 4 in long

Lugworm - another view Lugworm - another view

This beach on the south shore of Skagit Bay used to be characterized by boot-removing mud and a rapidly spreading Spartina meadow. Over the last few years the Spartina has largely disappeared (due to aggressive treatment by the State). The remaining Spartina hummocks have been colonized by beach arrowgrass and Fucus sp. The mud however remains. This beach is also home to a colony of purple martins, the largest swallow in North America, who use nest boxes attached to the old logging pilings.
Survey results were similar to last year in terms of species present along the profile and in the quadrats. This is not a beach where we find a lot of different species within the boundaries of the profile. This year 21 different plants and animals were identified which is up a few from last year. Although never abundant, there were no limpets found this year. We did find many small lined anemones, Haliplanella lineata.
The big discovery of the day was a lugworm, a polychaete, which Mary Jo has been trying for years to get a good picture of. (The English Boom lugworm will probably be appearing soon among the EZ ID photos on the Beach Watchers website for Island Co.)
One final note: No intertidal Spartina was seen this year in the area near the profile, but behind the storm berm there is a small lagoon in which a 2-3 year old clone of Spartina was discovered. It was removed.

BW Monitoring Group BW Monitoring Group

New species found New species found

And last but not least, John was happy to report that no BWs were lost to the killer mud this year and they didn't even break out the Muck-O-Lids. Thanks to John C. for this report and his excellent pictures. And Mary Jo Adams sent over a great one of the mentioned lugworm, as seen above. Note also that there was a new strange species found on this beach -- by the name of Bridger - also seen above!

English Boom, Camano Is. - June 17, 2008

Photographing a specimen

Monitoring team group

Recording data - Handhelds

English Boom mud flats

English Boom, a county park at the northern end of Camano Is, was monitored on a rainy, chilly and grey June 17 morning starting about 8:45 am. Twelve Beach Watchers braved this muddy shoreline, known for "clutching" the feet of many. The profile line was set out to 90 feet at the -1.5 foot tide. Quadrats were not set based on the tide levels, but instead centered along the profile line. The first quadrat (Q1) was 30 feet from the start point, with the subsequent quadrats (Q2-Q7) set at 10 foot increments up to the final set at 90 feet. Two Beach Watchers ventured the technology path, supplementing hard copy data recording with recording monitoring data using two handhelds. Seaweed density was the greatest at the 30' Quadrat (Q1) with 75% green seaweed, Ulva. Invertebrates density and diversity were the greatest from the 30 to 50 foot Quadrats (Q1-Q3) where the acorn barnacle,

Balanus glandula

Balanus glandula, the Blue mussels, Mytilus trossulus and the green shore crab, Hemigrapsus oregonensis were found in most abundance The lined anemone,

Haliplanella2

Haliplanella lineata, found in 2005 and 2006,was again found this this year. The shore crab, Hemigrapsus nudus, and hermit crab, Pagurus, previously identified at English Boom were not found, but the shore crab, Hemigrapsus oregonensis, was present.

Hemigrapsus oregonensis

Hemigrapsus oregonensis, the green shore crab has no spots on its claws and has tiny bristly hairs on its walking legs.

For the first year, it was not pouring during the surveying period. Mary Jo Adams came over from Whidbey to join us on this beach; Mary Jo provides the Camano teams with refresher training each year and is very appreciated. Cindy C. and Joyce L. provided great food afterwards for all. Thanks to Cathy M. for this data collection summary and Judi McD for gathering in the photos and details.