Bodega Head: Part 2 (Down Low)

Since Cay hasn't been tide pooling since 2007,  getting to the tide pools was of primary importance to us.  There were three locations I had in mind, although I didn't know much about the area and the only photos I had seen were at high tide, which showed mostly the lovely secluded little beaches.   The three choices I had narrowed down were Bodega Head Beach, Campbell Cove, and Salmon Creek.  

First up: Bodega Head Beach:

This looked the most promising to me starting out.  There was an access trail off the side of the parking lot.  The access trail broke off in two directions, an unofficial trail that wound down the side of the cove, and a set of stairs, which ended a bit too abruptly with one or two steps missing at the bottom, which was still only halfway down the trail.  We took the trail without the stairs, and Cay played around trying to get UP the stairs from the trail, which she did, but not without some discomfort.

Now at this point, it's important to realize that both Cay and I have spine degeneration and bursitis in our left hips, and I have meniscus tears in both knees in addition.  Plus I'm going on 63, so scrambling over rocky surfaces is difficult enough, without those rocky surfaces to be along sheer drops.

So we get down more than halfway, and there's another set of stairs that leads down to what probably was at one point a stone staircase of sorts, but the rocks had all shifted and been upended over time, so that there was no flat horizontal surface to put your foot down on, and Cay and I just looked at each other, considered trying to go down the wet grassy almost trail that was extremely steep off to the side, and decided to try a different location.

Second up:  Campbell Cove

Campbell Cove, looking across the bay

When I saw Campbell Cove, I honestly first thought I was going to cry.  I knew this was one of the locations I could be a tide pool docent, but the flat, featureless beach seemed void of any interest.  There was still some water in pools on the sand, so I decided to go see if there were anything interesting in the sandy, shallow pools, but didn't hold out much hope.   There was a jetty that would be behind us in this photo, and a rocky shore beyond that, but climbing the jetty was not our first thought.

So out onto the sand.

There were plenty of people out collecting clams, even though this photo doesn't show that... most of them were off to the right and behind me, where the water had just receded. That corresponded to deeper water, which, I suppose, corresponded to places people don't get to often and where the larger, older clams might be.

There wasn't a whole lot else we noticed living at that point, the numerous seabirds having already feasted.

the remains of some bird's lunch

if you look closely, you can see this gull's beak has been hooked, and fishing wire dangles from it.

tracks and syphon holes

While we were walking the beach, I noticed the clams squirting, and Cailin decided to stop and film one.

She now has a five minute video of a hole in the sand...doing nothing.  Although we could see the squirts all around us, neither of us got a photo or video.

It was pretty much at that point we decided to try to climb the jetty.

On the way to the jetty, we walked along the edge of the water, and noticed a few things:

While I was photographing these, Cay noticed a California Sea Lion in the bay, which at first I doubted, but sure enough, there he was.  The photo I got was so blurry, it isn't worth posting, but clear enough to identify it as a male.

Once we got to the jetty, we looked for the best way to cross.  Closest to the cliff, the rocks were larger and more jagged; further away they were covered with barnacles and anemone.

We were pretty determined, so we scrambled over the large, jagged rocks.

And had a pretty immediate payoff.

The rocky tide pools beyond the jetty were lovely.  There were loads of sea stars of various types, a few different anemone species, barnacles, mussels, chiton, but what we didn't get to see were any crabs.  Of course, it is crab season, and we didn't expect to see any big ones, and I suppose most of the smaller ones had been feasts for the birds.

some of the green anemone were REALLY big!

a little red anemone I struggled to photograph

chiton

when I took this picture, I thought I was taking a photo of anemone and a single sea star. I've since realized there are at least 5 sea stars in this photo!

Rockweed (fucus gardneri)

\It started getting a little chilly, and late, so Cay and I decided to head home, and scrambled back over the jetty.  I decided to walk along the cliff instead of straight across the sand, because I'd noticed some things I hadn't noticed going in, namely some isolated pools on some flat rocks a little above the sand.

finally got a good photo of the little red anemone!

As we walked along the cliff, there was plenty more we had missed on the way in, having walked across the sand:

I think the one thing I found that was the most impressive for me was this bolder completely covered with anemone:

I imagine this would be beautiful with all the anemone open under water!

Cailin also spotted this, which became a mini-adventure in itself.

It was a pretty good size, and appeared to be totally intact. Was it too large for the birds to eat and too small for people?  If we flipped it over would we find his underparts had been eaten? Or was it just possible this crab was still alive? 

Turns out he was still alive! (great find, Cay!) 

As we left the beach, we found something that definitely was NOT still alive;

From a distance, I thought gull, but a closer look at the skull shows it's a duck or goose of some kind.  I'm not a bird person, but it was bigger than the ducks I've seen, and the neck itself is pretty long. I'd first thought that someone had disturbed the remains, but looking where the wing bones meet with the spinal column

 I'm inclined to go with goose.

The coloration and time of year leads me to think it might be a Brant.

If you're a birder, and read this, please ID if you can!