Wrack Line 2021

September 25, 2021

Sunrise and the beach is already crowded
Maybe something in that Hymenena–Cryptopleura crowd?
California mussels and thatched barnacles
Because there’s no such thing as too much Postelsia and sea cave
Knocked off it’s perch | Postelsia
The red blades might be something in the Hymenia–Cryptopleura crowd
Chrysaora
Worse for wear | mermaid’s purse
***

September 24, 2021

Moon jelly
Eelgrass
Razor clam show
Feather boa
***

September 23, 2021

Phyllospadix, surfgrass
Postelsia (with gull tracks to the left)
Postelsia, freshly arrived
***

September 22, 2021

Beach hoppers make short work of drift Postelsia
Semibalanus cariosus
Cassin’s auklet
Smithora naiadum (red) on Zostera
Wild Postelsia
Laminaria setchellii, layed out
Dungeness carapace
Penitella penita
Feather boa, green tubes, and my reflection in the receding swash

September 21, 2021

Drifted green tubes
Alaria marginata
Postelsia minus its holdfast
Smithora naiadum (purple) on Zostera
Aurelia, moon jelly
Chrysaora, sea nettle
Tracks of Emerita analoga
Traces
Siliqua patula
***

September 20, 2021

Sanderling traces
Not sure about this one
Aequorea, crystal jelly
Smithora naiadum on Zostera
Green tubes
***

July 23, 2021

View out across the beach to the surf zone and beyond. Cloudless morning before sunrise, with a little color on the horizon
Will the wrack line hold treasures?
Carapace and body still attached. You can easily imagine a fresh soft crab stepping out of the old, slightly too small, shell
A flawless molt | Dungeness crab
Polyorchis floating in a finger bowl
Probably Polyorchis penicillatus, red-eye medusa
Drift mass of Macrocystis with some surfgrass in the mix
Mostly Macrocystis
White tag says FITS 13.3" LAPTOP in blue letters; near drift surfgrass on dry sand
Plastic debris is a constant
Washed up in the cobbles
Drift Plocamium
Black-tipped pinching claw on sand
Pinching claw | probably rock crab, Romaleon antennarium
A wee tag of Polyneura resting on a bed of surfgrass on sand; cobbles to the right, a crab carcass to the left
A bit of Polyneura
A tangles mass on wet sand, illuminated by morning sunlight
A tangle of Lessoniopsis littoralis
***

July 22, 2021

A pink pre-sunrise out over the ocean. At trail's end.
Ready to comb the wrack line?
Freshly arrived on moist beach sand
Chrysaora, sea nettle
One-inch sand sole in a clear glass finger bowl over sand. Good camouflage.
Baby sand sole stranded above the swash | Photographed in a finger bowl
A crumple of dark, reddish-brown Pyropia on wet beach sand
A Pyropia blade, freshly arrived
A strand of invasive freshwater plant on wet beach sand.
Myriophyllum, a washout from another ecosystem
Right side up on moist beach sand
Molted Dungeness crab exoskeleton | all that’s missing is the carapace
Upside down bleached sand dollar shell; complete shell on moist beach sand
The bottom or underside shows the mouth opening | Dendraster
a lone drifted crystal jelly reflecting morning sun. Sun is also reflected in a sheen of water on beach sand
Aequorea, crystal jelly
***

June 25, 2021

A ten-stipe clump of drifted sea palm on clean beach sand. No beach hopper workings, yet.
Recently landed | Postelsia
A molted carapace, viewed from above. A few spruce needles on the sand
Carapace | Dungeness crab
Poor Pisaster, upside down, has dropped or been pulled off its rock. Bird tracks on the surrounding sand.
Sometimes seen | Pisaster ochraceus
Makes the beach hoppers happy
A drifted nine-stipe clump | Postelsia
***

June 24, 2021

A single kind of dried and very dark reddish cluster of sea sacs on beach sand
Halosaccion, sea sacs
A small drift mass freshly arrived on beach sand
Egregia menziesii, feather boa
A drift Postelsia, laying on it's side revealing the underside of the holdfast.
Always check out the underside of the holdfast | Postelsia
Close up on a fresh drifted Postelsia holdfast; on beach sand
Fresh drifted holdfast | Postelsia
A drift mass with some short sections of bull kelp stipe; on wet sand
Phyllospadix, surfgrass
A whole drifted Postelsia clump partially buried by beach hopper workings
Signs of a beach hopper party
Little roundish clump on beach sand
Hydroid on a kelp stipe fragment | Looks like Aglaophenia, ostrich plume
A Postelsia clump with very little beach hopper workings, on clean beach sand
Freshly arrived | Postelsia
***

May 28, 2021

A fresh drifted mass on moist sand
Drift Fucus
Drift Macrocystis with a bit of eelgrass and surfgrass
Mostly Macrocystis
small fragment boasting lots of hydroids on wet sand
Hydroids on a kelp stipe fragment
Two little drifted clumps of surfgrass on clean beach sand
Drift Phyllospadix
A drifted blade or two of one of the broad-bladed dark pyropias
Pyropia
***

May 27, 2021

Fresh drift Fucus on clean beach sand
Fucus, like a lot of browns, can be lovely in the drift
Drifted beach towel up on the rocks just above the beach
Lost beach towel doesn’t ruin the view
Yellow nylon line on beach sand; a few Fucus bits also present
Lost line
A florist's peony among drifted Fucus, Ulva, and a feather up in the cobbles
Peony among the sea wrack
A single stipe and float decaying on clean beach sand; A few rocks jutting out of the sand and the surf zone in the background
Something so intimate about drifted and decaying bull kelp
***

May 26, 2021

A bleached sand dollar on sand with signs of swash left in the sand around it.
Dendraster
A single blade curving around like a musical note on sand
Phyllospadix
A small branched fragment on sand
Macrocystis
***

May 25, 2021

Peering out to sea from the bluff overlooking the beach
Nice morning to walk the wrack line
A more or less round sac, with brain-like convolutions
Drift Leathesia
wracline collection including Sea cauliflower, hydroids, barnacle molts, mole crab molts, market squid egg capsules, and inscrutable red blades
Pot luck
A few branches of a drifted specimen, on beach sand
Drift coarse sea-fir hydroid, probably Abietinaria
A small royal indigo-colored penguin-like plastic toy
First I’ve seen on this shore
Sea belly, Neogastroclonium subarticulatum is uncommon sea wrack on exposed shores
Neogastroclonium subarticulatum, Leathesia, and a kelp blade too
Pretty arrangement of surfgrass and an articulated coralline
Featuring surfgrass, Bossiella(?), and other delights
On clean moist beach sand; an articulated coralline may be attached, but I'm not sure.
Sea wrack treat (Neoptilota/Ptilota)
Tons of stuff in the drift line (Dungeness crab and mole crab molts, feathers, Nucella eggs, Leathesia, market squid egg capsules, Nucella eggs, sea sacs, and fucus)
Pop quiz
Fairly fresh holdfast and all on wet beach sand
Lessoniopsis littoralis, northern tree kelp
Fairly fresh holdfast and all the works (several stipes and blades)
Laminaria sinclairii, dense-clumped kelp
A drift clump of yellowish-brown hollow tubes with constrictions and a little twisting
Scytosiphon? Other ideas welcome
Lot of sacs of various sizes on clean, moist beach sand
Halosaccion, sea sacs
A drifted shell suffering some cracks, on beach sand
Diodora aspera, rough keyhole limpet
***

April 28, 2021

Beachcombing just ahead
Traces of two mole crabs, Emerita analoga
Drifted thatched barnacles, Semibalanus cariosus
Just a little bit of drift Fucus
Who built these drifted casings?

April 27, 2021

Several small bones, cleaned of flesh; gull tracks in the sand
Whose bones are these?
A drifted mass of feather boa on sand
Drift feather boa
Drift Fucus on beach sand
Fucus
A drifted baby bull kelp on beach sand
Baby bull kelp
Seaweed diversity on display in a small drifted mass
You never know what you’ll find in the sea wrack
Small piece of drifted bark, with small pelagic goose barnacles
Conifer bark with hitchhikers
Drift feather boa on beach sand
Feather boa
Drift bull kelp way up on the beach; creek in the background
Drift bull kelp
Beach hopper workings in the sand
Giant kelp; a beach hopper feast
***

April 26, 2021

Cluster of drifted eggs, very fresh looking (a creamy yellow color), lodged between barnacle covered rocks and the sand
Drifted Nucella eggs
A dried clump on beach sand; so dry it's all dark brown
Drift Fucus (dry)
Fresh drift Fucus
Drift Fucus
Empty plastic bottle in the tide line
Too much of this
Green seaweed, tubeworm casings, terrestrial vegetation, and nurdles and plastic bits
A mix of terrestrial, marine, and human-made material
A drifted clump on beach sand; lots of tiny floats
Drift Sargassum
Carapace, right side up, on wet beach sand; a few small crustacean tracks in the sand
Dungeness crab carapace
***


March 26, 2021 (finds by friends)

Dead albatross on undisturbed sand; intimate view of the head.
Folks that know say short-tailed albatross
***

March 4, 2021

View of The Lion, and iconic outcrop, from high above the beach
The Lion knows
Bunch of drifted blue and white plastic fragments left on the sand
Sign of the times
Intimate view of a hairy-looking coat of hydroids on a drifted log; a lone mussel too.
Hydroids on driftwood
A drifted Rhododendron; view out to the surf line
Rhododendron on the move
Deep blue shotgun shell wad next to a bull kelp stipe on sand
The wad and the stipe
Dead Larus gull with the breast meat eaten; large avian scavenger tracks in the sand
Traces of a scavenger
Drifted and decaying bull kelp
Never-ending cycle (bull kelp)
Wood block and heavy blue nylon strap
Lost block
Large drifted styrofoam float up on the cobbles; view out to the surf line and the sea beyond
Styrofoam still
***

January 16, 2021 (finds by friends)

Folks who know say this is a probable Murphy’s petrel, an uncommon find on the northern Oregon shore
***