5 Nov 2025
Today also started bright and early- I was up before the sun, but I’ve started to settle into a nice routine: drink some coffee and work on pictures until the sun wakes up and the cafes open, then go in search of breakfast.
I spotted 2 hummingbirds on my walk this morning:
Today’s breakfast (scones and OJ) came from this cute little shop, the Brick & Bell:
Found a colorful mural across the street:
Tiniest orange tree, with an orange! on my walk back:
Usually, I’d do a bit of exploring after breakfast, but today I’m waiting for a package- turns out, when you’re in a big city, you can get Amazon delivered next day (or same day, but I did my shopping a bit late last night). I found a diopter that’ll work with my camera- it’s stronger than one I’ve got currently, and I’ve always wanted to try something with a bit more magnifying power, so I found a delivery site nearby, placed my order and incessantly refreshed my emails, hoping I’d get the delivery notification before the next low tide.
Fortunately, around 1130, I got the notification and walked over to collect it (and pick up some scones for lunch):
Another mural:
I thought about just taking the bus directly to my next tidepool, but opted to stop at home first and test the new lens out first and I’m glad I did- saved a lot of guesswork later when I tried to use it on tiny critters.
Today, I’m heading south a bit, to Bird Rock, to try out some new tidepools. It’s like a 2 mile walk from where I’m staying and while I had every intention of just hiking it, I’m sore from all the crouching around tidepools yesterday, so I opted to just take the bus.
This excursion did not start well. You have to climb over a bunch of boulders to get down to the pools and at some point I dropped my camera cover. I set my camera down, intending to scramble back up the rocks to find it and promptly slipped on some algae. Rocks are hard, I lack padding… my tailbone is not ok.
But the camera’s fine and I did find the cover a few boulders over. But this place is very underwhelming- not much in the way of life. Even when I wasn’t finding nudibranchs at the other tidepool, there were at least little fish and crabs to look at; here, there’s really nothing.
So decided to cut my losses and catch a bus back north and go back to my original tidepool, where I know I’ll be able to find some critters.
First thing I saw was this giant salp (about the length of my hand) just laying on the beach:
Today, there were snorkelers!
One found some lobsters tucked up under a ledge.
I found a few stationary scuplins:
One that even posed a bit!
I think this is some sort of prosobranchia? He was nice and stationary, and made for a good test-subject for my new close-up lens:
Wee Rostanga pulchra!
He was not stationary (he was actually floating at the surface; I may have encouraged him to land on something so I could take his pictures…)
Another new-to-me nudi- Austraeolis stearnsi!
I think this guy is an Orienthella trilineata / Three-lined aeolid nudi:
I saw a clump of people surrounding a pool and asked what they found- TONS of nudibranchs! Like, half a dozen different ones! They were kind enough to share and let me try to get some pictures:
This slug, a California aglaja / Navanax inermis, was on the move! He did not want to stay still for a picture, so I’m content with this shot:
He even came close enough to the surface that I snagged a pciture with my phone, just in case the dozen or so pictures I took with the underwater camera didn’t turn out:
He’s carnivorous and eats other nudis, so I hope the other guys in this pool stay safe until the tide returns!
A San Diego dorid!
When I first spotted him, he was floating on the surface and looked a bit like bird poop, but his shape was just too regular, so I took a closer look, then encouraged him to land for some better pictures:
I showed him to some other tidepoolers and one mentioned seeing a “big yellow something” in another pool, so I went to the pool she mentioned and found this sidegill slug!
another critter I’ve heard about, but hadn’t seen before!
So glad I decided to come back here!
And, since the tides are getting later and later, I was able to catch a sunset:
Goodnight, La Jolla tidepools!