2015 was my third full year sharing thoughts and photos on theoutershores. I wrote 33 posts and uploaded 600 images which appear in the new posts and the pages found on the theoutershores’ menu. Last year I enjoyed looking back on the most popular posts from 2014 and sharing a few of my favorite photographs so I’m going to close out 2015 with another recap. Among theoutershores’ readers, the most popular 2015 posts and pages were:
1. Wrack Line. – Far and away the most viewed TOS page, I describe with words and photos what the wrack line is and how I use the similar term, drift line. You’ll also find links to yearly photo galleries of interesting things I’ve found washed up on northern Oregon beaches
2015 saw lots of interesting stuff wash up on the beach and you can see what I saw at Wrack Line 2015.
2. It’s a Salp. – Just a couple photos of the salp, Thetys vagina, that sometimes washes up in large beach cast events on Oregon beaches. An oldie, I wrote this in February 2013, but it was the most viewed TOS post this year, by a large margin.
3. About theoutershores. – There are more people pictures on this page than anywhere else on theoutershores. You’ll learn about me and what theoutershores is all about, and see some photos of me and other contributors to the theoutershores, and meet some of the surfperch researchers too, like Gary Longo in the photo below.
One of Gary’s recent papers was featured earlier this year here. About a year ago, he contributed a guest post about his research program. Gary’s videos of free-living walleye surfperch in the kelp beds near UC Santa Cruz are fantastic. I’m grateful to Gary for his contributions to theoutershores.
4. California Beach Hopper, Megalorchestia californiana. – A natural history account from October, 2013. Photos of hoppers and their habitat, this was a top post last year too, proving that everybody loves beach hoppers.
5. Rockweed, Fucus gardneri. – From October 2013, this account contains photos of rockweed at it’s prime. It was a 2014 favorite as well.
6. A Surfperch Sexfecta Journal. – A guest post by Michael Westphal, this is an account of his field trip, executed on the central California coast with the sole objective of collecting six closely related sand-dwelling surfperches, in a single day. This journal account accompanies Life History of the Livebearing Calico Surfperch, Amphistichus koelzi (Teleostei: Embiotocidae), which Mike presented July 17, 2015, at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Reno NV, USA. Mike was introduced previously on theoutershores in Surfperch Summit.
My favorite photos featured for the first time in 2015 are:
From Spongy Cushion, Codium setchellii
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From Quick, What’s This Worm?
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From I’m Going to Eat You! Said the Seastar to the Barnacle
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From Today Was a Good Day In the Surf Zone
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From Angles On a Landmark in the Sand
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From Solving the Connection Conundrum in the Rocky Intertidal
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From Sand Cycles
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From In the Rocky Intertidal Change and Stability Look Like This
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From The Pale Beach Hopper, Megalorchestia columbiana
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From An Ordinary Beach Cast Kelp
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This photo appears in my brown algae page, Brown Algae, Ochrophyta
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This photo appears in A Redtail Surfperch Photo Shoot, and it’s the featured image on my surfperches page, Surfperches.
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From Intertidal Gathering
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All of the comments I received contributed to a much improved theoutershores. I also appreciate the help you provided on identifications and fixing my miss-identifications. I thank you for dropping by theoutershores in 2015. Here’s to a great 2016 for you and yours.
