theoutershores

Surfperch and nature on the sandy beaches

Skip to content
Menu
  • About theoutershores
  • Surfperches
  • A Variety of Life
    • Marine Algae
      • Green Algae, Chlorophyta
      • Brown Algae, Ochrophyta
      • Red Algae, Rhodophyta
    • Sponges
    • Cnidarians and Ctenophores
      • Sea Anemones
      • Jellyfishes
      • Ctenophores
    • Mollusca
      • Chitons
      • Bivalves
    • Flowering Plants
    • Vertebrates
      • Fishes Other Than Surfperches
      • Birds
  • Wrack Line
    • Wrack Line 2019
    • Wrack Line 2018
    • Wrack Line 2017
    • Wrack Line 2016
    • Wrack Line 2015
    • Wrack line 2014
    • Wrack Line 2013
    • Wrack Line 2012
Home
Search
  • Year End Recap

A View From the 2018 Wrack Line Through My Eyes

  • by minustide
  • Posted on January 1, 2019January 1, 2019
  • Year End Recap

Beachcombing theoutershores: a 2018 Retrospective

  • by minustide
  • Posted on December 31, 2018December 31, 2018
  • Photo Challenge

Along the Winter Drift Line

  • by minustide
  • Posted on December 22, 2018December 31, 2018
  • Crustaceans

Pollicipes, Magical in the Morning

  • by minustide
  • Posted on November 11, 2018November 11, 2018
  • Bivalves

Standing Out in Mytilus trossulus

  • by minustide
  • Posted on November 5, 2018
  • Crustaceans

Giant Barnacles, Balanus nubilus, Generous Intertidal Hosts

  • by minustide
  • Posted on October 21, 2018
  • Photo Challenge

The Changeable Rocky Intertidal: 2013 v. 2018

  • by minustide
  • Posted on October 18, 2018October 18, 2018

Posts navigation

Previous Page Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 … Page 31 Next Page

Beach Combing

theoutershores

My thoughts and experiences on the exposed outer coast. Lots of photos and a few words about intertidal nature. I’m always thinking about sandy beach connections to its sister ecosystems, the rocky intertidal, estuaries, and coastal forests. You can see photos of things I’ve found washed ashore on my Wrack Line pages. If you are looking for new takes on common intertidal algae, plants, and animals, I’m always updating my Variety of Life pages. I love the full-page layout on all theoutershores’ pages.

Great Nature Writing, Natural History, and Photography Blogs

  • Ekostories
  • Lightscapes Nature Photography Blog
  • Notes from a California naturalist
  • The Natural History of Bodega Head

Marine Science Blogs Worth Watching

  • Deep Sea News
  • Floating Forests
  • JellyBiologist – Science, art, and jellyfish
  • NOAA Ocean Explorer
  • Scientists@Sea

Recent Discoveries

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 858 other followers

Like theoutershores on Facebook

Like theoutershores on Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Follow Me on Instagram

With spring comes the promise of delicious identification mysteries. Would any of us want it another way? This red, perched cheerfully on top of a rounded sand-washed upper intertidal rock, is tempting but impenetrable. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? ‘Course if someone wants to break the spell and let me know what it is, I’m good with that too. Either way, the erect, fleshy, round-tipped blades are a feast for the senses. #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #seaweed #algae #tbt
Since we’re getting to know gapers, here’s part of the shell’s bleached exterior. On the beach, remains like this might look and feel chalky. The gape in gaper comes from the area where the two shells (valves) don’t fit together. On this fragment the gape is at the lower right. In a live gaper, it’s where you’d see a protruding fleshy neck. The neck houses paired siphons that take in and expel water. #intertidal #pnw #OregonCoast #OregonShores #bivalves #GaperClams #beachcombing #wrackline #tideline #fbf
The cup-shaped projection at the bottom of this bleached fragment is a gaper giveaway. In this case, fat gaper, Tresus capax. If you find one on a surf-swept beach, you can be sure it’s a drifted shell from a sister ecosystem. #intertidal #pnw #OregonCoast #OregonShores #bivalves #GaperClams #beachcombing #wrackline #tideline #tbt
Flashing back to a low tide scene from an earlier April. In the distance, the loving touch of fog on a maritime forest. #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #fbf
Descriptions of bangia-like reds are apt to include references to the filaments which resemble, in shape and habit, human hairs on a balding head. The imagery is all the stronger because bangia favors rounded rocks, which take on a curiously head-like appearance when topped with a mop of limp purplish-brown filaments. Last week I stood mesmerized in a shallow high intertidal swash watching filaments wave in the ebb and flow. This clip captures the essence of the bangia-human hair resemblance, at least the wet version. Bald sea hair is a reasonable common name, if you are so inclined. The resemblance is equally strong with dry filaments exposed at low tide. When the filaments get really dry they turn black, or nearly so, accounting for another of bangia’s common names, black sea hair. #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #seaweed #tbt
Shell polished by surf and sand, a shy grazer; patient. So hard to imagine an earlier life, adrift; bobbing plankter. #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #limpet
March is a good month to take a leap of faith, so I’m going to tentatively say this patch of brown is Phaeostrophion irregulare, sand-scoured false kelp. What do you think? #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #seaweed #tbt
Lottia digitalis on the rocks #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #limpet
Looking for an example of camouflage? What do you think about these Lottia digitalis? They blend right in with the barnacles. I see four. I’ve got my eye on some living on a rock substrate, stay tuned. #intertidal #pnw #oregoncoast #OregonShores #limpet
Boundless float diversity on Pacific shores #intertidal #OregonCoast #OregonShores #beachcombing #wrackline #tideline #fbf

TOS Tag Cloud

Amphistichus rhodoterus anal fin barnacle barnacles beaches beach hopper bull kelp Chondracanthus exasperatus driftline drift line Embiotocidae Emerita analoga Floats high tide Hyperprosopon argenteum Hyperprosopon ellipticum intertidal intertidal zone keystone species king tide Lens-Artists Leptocottus armatus Lissocrangon stylirostris low tide Megalorchestia californiana ocean orange Pacific mole crab Pisaster ochraceus Psettichthys melanostictus redtail surfperch sand sole seascapes sea star sea star wasting syndrome shiner surfperch silver surfperch smooth bay shrimp Staghorn Sculpin starfish surfperch surf zone tide pools tidepools tides turkish towel walleye surfperch wrack line year in review zonation

TOS Logo

me & theoutershores

  • About theoutershores
  • Surfperches
  • A Variety of Life
  • Wrack Line
Blog at WordPress.com.
Press Enter To Begin Your Search
×
Sgeoil

Dancing Echoes

Beats Stumbling Around in Silence

a rambling collective

Tales of connections, food and a sense of belonging.

P.A. Moed

Creative Exploration in Words and Pictures

Capt Jills Journeys

She sails the seven seas in search of FREEDOM

Just Another Nature Enthusiast

JANE’s Images and Thoughts

Reflections

Man is only a pilgrim on Earth

Leya

To See a World in a Grain of Sand...

theoutershores
Blog at WordPress.com.
Cancel