11 Apr 2024
Today, our luck finally ran out- at some point this afternoon, the rain will return.
But until it does, I’m going keep exploring! Matt opted to sit out the tide pools again today, which was probably a good choice- I forgot to look at the temperature, but it felt much colder than yesterday (I could see my breath!) and it was cloudy so the sun couldn’t warm things up.
The sands seem to have shifted around a bit- I’ve been hanging out around that tall(-ish) rock on the left, but the path over there has moved…
Oh well, time to find some new hunting grounds!
Starting with the usual suspects, here are some Thick-horned / Hermissenda crassicornis nudis:
I often found these guys crawling around on the sand so while sand is usually a “safe” place to step (as opposed to the rocks, which are covered in algae and sponges and other critters), the sand isn’t always safe either.
I do appreciate when they stick to rocks though- so much easier to photograph!
Danger sand!
A thick-horned (top) with a trilineata (bottom)! You can compare their sizes a bit better here:
I purposely sought out more of these guys (and other less-common ones), instead of the easy-to-find (but still pretty) thick-horned nudis.
The Opalescent / Hermissenda opalescens, however, is still fairly elusive:
I did better at finding the Candy corn nudi / Antiopella fusca though:
I love how long and wild their mane of cerata is!
I even managed to get a decent shot of one swimming around upside-down:
These little Chocolate nudis / Cuthonella cocoachroma are a bit tough to spot at times, but they are also fairly common:
Today’s findings were mostly milk chocolate 🙂
I found quite a few Dotos / Doto amyra too, but only this not-so-orange guy was in a good position to be photographed:
And finally, today’s new-to-me nudibranch #1- the Rostanga / Rostanga pulchra:
This is the little guy the volunteers had been looking for all week!
Once I knew what to look for, they started popping up everywhere!
Most times, you just see them on a rock, like this:
(he’s that little orange speck on the lower right of the rock)
but I found so many in the water and on the move!
They look like little orange TicTacs crawling around:
I think they’re adorable!
(and yes, the sand seems to stick to their backs)
I also spotted a 2nd new-to-me sea slug:
I think he’s an Elysia hedgpethi? He was quite active, moving around on that plant, and very shallow, so it was hard to get a decent angle on him. Fully stretched out, he was about 1″ long. I sent this picture (along with one of each of the other species I found on this trip) to one of the Haystack Rock volunteers- they’ll help ID the ones I’m not 100% certain on and maybe include some of my pictures in their newsletter!
While I was hunting nudis, I heard over the radio that one of the other volunteers had found an octopus! I quickly texted Matt to come out, and went over to see it:
I wish I had taken a better picture, but this poor octopus was stranded in a little puddle. One of the volunteers commandeered a bucket from a little kid and tried to fill the pool up, but even after building sand dams to hold the water in, it kept draining down, so they eventually coaxed the octopus into the bucket and moved him to deeper water.
Matt arrived too late to see him 🙁
Other non-nudi tide pool finds include this crab:
who I think is alive? and this chiton:
which I hadn’t seen before.
But the tide started coming back in and I was getting hungry, so farewell for now, tide pools!
I had every intention of trying out fun new cafes each day, but once we find a pancake place we like, we tend to just keep going back, so here we are at the Pig’n Pancake again:
(though for the record, I got waffles this time)
The skies started clouding up so we just wandered around downtown for a while, then headed back to our room.
…except that the rain still hadn’t started, so I walked back to Haystack rock to try to find some puffins.
I had seen a few earlier in the day while I was out tide pooling, but as I approached the rock, it was strangely empty:
Usually it’s covered in seagulls, but zooming in, I saw the reason why:
A pair of eagles have been terrorizing the rock my whole trip- as soon as they swoop in, the seagulls squawk and take off. Unfortunately, it means the puffins won’t land on the rock either, so here’s a consolation land seagull:
The eagle did eventually fly off, but by this time, it was starting to sprinkle and I was cold, so my new plan is to wake up early tomorrow and head back to the rock, and hopefully see some puffins before we have to hit the road.
(making a nest, maybe?)
The rain finally started in earnest, so we stayed in the rest of the night, eating leftovers and enjoying the room beers we were given at check in:
Matt’s Oswald IPA was very hoppy, but my Raspberry Tart Ale was not beery at all! I may have found a beer I like?
Honestly, the weather cooperated much better than I thought it would for this trip, and while I’m not very good at not doing things, staying in with the fireplace cranked and getting some work done on trip pictures was a good way to wrap up the trip.