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An Ordinary Beach Cast Kelp
A wave-tossed frond of feather boa kelp, Egregia menziesii, washed ashore by the first big fall surf. Fall and winter storms are sure to send pulses of drifting kelp onto exposed beaches. It’s an...
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Alloniscus of the Backshore
You can count on the backshore to get short changed by us intertidal types. Perched just above the reach of tide, it’s a little bench of sand between beach and foredune. Physical forces at play on the...
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A Trio of Intertidal Trios
Western gull trio Purple olive, Olivella biplicata, trio Mussel, limpet, barnacle trio At the very top of this post, in the featured image, is a trio of Heermann’s gulls. Trio
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A Redtail Surfperch Photo Shoot
Back in mid October I spent part of a day trying to get some new shots of one of my favorite surf zone fishes, the redtail surfperch, Amphistichus rhodoterus. I didn’t get a lot of redtail...
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Intertidal Gathering
With favorable space at a premium, and intense competition and predation, gathering is a way of life in the intertidal. Acorn barnacles (foreground) and Pelvetiopsis dominate this high intertidal scene...
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Recapping TOS 2015: Popular Posts & Pages, and My Favorite Photos
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...
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A View From the Wrack Line (2015)
Walking the beach, down in the swash or up in the wrack line, I’m wondering what the rivers, currents, winds, and surf will bring to my home beaches. This year the drift was full of treasures. Some had...
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Brandt’s Cormorant Doesn’t Survive Attempt to Swallow Barred Surfperch
Have you ever taken too big a bite? Presumably, this Brandt’s cormorant did and paid the ultimate price. Unfortunate Brandt’s cormorant with a half-swallowed barred surfperch | Photo courtesy Robert...
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Waiting Out High Tide With an Olympic Gull
Waiting for the tide to turn takes patience. My companion on the wait for a high tide last November was this large gull. I thought my patient partner was a herring gull, but I took a closer look and...
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The Dynamic Wrack Line
Every winter high surf and rivers swelled by drenching storms combine with high tides to replenish the wrack line. It’s an annual cycle of renewal, muted only when winter storms are mild. Recent...
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Life Imitates Art in the Intertidal
Imagine, me an intertidal art critic. I’ve posted three intimate intertidal images that may imitate art. Since my earliest visits to the the tide pools I have imagined that intertidal forms and...
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Sign of the Season
It’s been a winter of big swells and crashing surf. The forecast says that’s not going to change any time soon. Still, from my perch in the cobbles, just above the swash, I see a sign of the season....
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Harmony in Nucella
Nucella feeds in harmony on their rocky mid and high intertidal grounds. You hardly ever find a loner. Harmony in Nucella, however, means a sight of wreckage for acorn barnacles, Balanus glandula....
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Surfbirds Live Up to Their Name on the Winter Range
Ah, those little surfbirds, how they they love a low tide. Low water exposes their winter feeding grounds. Too busy to notice me This flock seemed oblivious to anything but feeding. The rocks had a...
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In That World
I took this on February 27, 2016 and made it the background on my Facebook profile a few days ago. It’s the northern Oregon coast, USA. The view is to the south, toward Arch Cape and then Cape Falcon...
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Dosima fascicularis, A Pelagic Barnacle, Builds its Own Float
My first in-person encounter with buoy barnacles, Dosima fascicularis, came just a few days ago on March 26, 2016. People call them buoy barnacles or own-float goose barnacles. The names make sense...
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Starfish to Sitka Spruce
April 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...
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Recruitment in Barnacles Looks Like This
Last fall this vertical rock wall lay buried under a smothering layer of sand. The resident barnacles, Balanus glandula, couldn’t tolerate it. Winter surf removed the sand revealing empty B. glandula...
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The Abstract Intertidal
Swatches 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...
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Stranded Greenling Raises Eternal Question: To Assist or Not Assist?
Last 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...
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