Pounding surf, rowdy competition for space, and violent predator-prey drama make the outer shore a boisterous place. If there is a time of quiet, it comes at low tide. Serene
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Pounding surf, rowdy competition for space, and violent predator-prey drama make the outer shore a boisterous place. If there is a time of quiet, it comes at low tide. Serene
Read MoreIn an intimate scene of layering, two crustose reds overtop one another. This is their way. Pink over purple, purple over pink. They in turn, are overtopped by hardened upright corallines, bladed reds, and chitons that blend in. In the upper left, a lined chiton, Tonicella lineata, occupies a layer between red crust and red…
Read MoreIt takes an uncommon combination of low tide and cloudless skies for these two to meet. Here, morning sunlight illuminates and shines right though the blades of an exposed red alga. Morning
Read MoreExposed at low tide, the weight of the blade puts a smooth bend in the thallus of split kelp, Laminaria setchellii. Curves
Read MoreOlivella biplicata, the purple olive, ploughs a crazy quilt of trails on intertidal sands. A good low tide will reveal Olivella’s handiwork on most any exposed Pacific beach between southern Alaska and Baja California. What motivates the shape of the trails? Have a look at the purple olive, a little intertidal snail, only an inch long. Last…
Read MoreLast week, thanks to a good low tide, I got to explore a stand of Ahnfeltiopsis. The surf was bigger than I wished, but the grove was upon me, and my attention was on the sand-loving red algae people call forked seaweed. While I was solving seaweeds, the swash left a 75 mm prize flopping…
Read MoreSwatches of marine algae on a rocky bed look like abstract art. The featured image for this post is unique because the algal patches that give it the abstract quality live on a roadbed carved into a rocky headland. The bed is exposed only at low tide. Being smooth, flat, and nearly level, it’s a…
Read MoreApril ushers in the first (daylight) minus tides of the year. The best April tides are still a week away and I’m not alone feeling restless. While we wait, here’s the view on May 16, 2014 when low water permitted an intimate encounter with rarely exposed corallines and surfgrass, Phyllospadix. Submarine Rock, centered in the middle…
Read MoreThe most recent bout of sea star wasting syndrome has been with us on the west coast for a couple of years. It’s worth asking if we see any changes in rocky intertidal communities. Below, I show three pairs of photos from a single site in northern Oregon. The first photo in each pair is…
Read MoreYesterday, Pugettia gracilis was the subject of the first Cryptic Crab Challenge on theoutershores’ facebook page. Elaine Blok submitted a correct identification 38 minutes after I posted the challenge, and got all the glory. In the Challenge, I showed two photos, the one at the top of this post, and this one. Had I shown…
Read MoreEnjoying Life in the Ozarks
Writing & Photography Services
ich zeige euch meine stadt wie ich sie sehe
my photography and other observations
Exploring my local ecosystems, learning about the creatures I find, and sharing the beauty of nature!
Write what you feel, coz it doesn't make you fear