Up and Down the Coast

 I wanted to get out to Miwok Beach, where we do some of our tidepool programs, before an actual program, do get the lay of the land. I decided to take my friend Jamila with me, and go up and around Bodega Head as well.

First I drove to the access for Miwok Beach, even though I was told it wasn't the best way to go down to the beach.  When I saw how steep the stairs were, I headed back to North Salmon Beach, which had easier access. 

The view of the Salmon Creek Estuary from the parking lot.  The sign explains this is the nesting place of snowy plover, and lists the restrictions to allow the birds to nest.

As you can see from the photos, the marine layer was really thick, and the visibility wasn't that great.  I hoped the fog would burn off before we went up to Bodega Head to whale watch (spoiler alert: it didn't) 

As we passed the access to Miwok Beach after walking north (we could see the bridge above us on the bluff) there were some large rocks sticking out of the sand, which had a few different barnacles, some mussels, and a few limpets.  

There were also a smattering of sea stars, and a single black oyster catcher singing on a rock.

Going past these rocks, we came upon a very rocky tidepool area, which was pretty broken up with smallish boulders and more "seaweeds" of various sorts.  Looking back to the access point from the highway, we could see the stairs coming down toward the beach past the little wooden bridge, which ended in a chaotic pile of roundish rocks... which looked pretty impassable. 

I was encouraged to be in a more rocky area where I could find more biodiversity, however, I actually saw a lot less than I saw on the beach side of the jetty at Campbell Cove.  So I ventured out further onto the rocks...

and took the very first tumble I've ever taken in a tide pool. 

At first I thought I'd hit my head, the pain in the back of my head was so bad, but a quick assessment of my condition revealed no head injury, and no bleeding, so I was more annoyed than anything else.  It took a big getting up because I'd fallen half in the water between two rocks, and it took some maneuvering to get my feet under me.  By then I as cold and in pain and embarrassed and just wanted to go home, so when I got back to the sand I asked my friend if she didn't mind if we just cut the trip short, and we headed back to North Salmon Creek along the beach.

We didn't get too far when we came to the rocks I'd mentioned earlier and a couple bored looking couples walking around them.  Yeah, even on my days off, I couldn't let that stand, and I spent the next several minutes showing them the location of several sea stars, and also the difference between the species of barnacles as well as showing them the limpets and talking about how they were different from barnacles.  We also ended up discussing other things to do and see in the area, and they even asked about places to eat, so I told them about a few places, and, being from out of state, they were pretty excited about Tides and the connection to The Birds.

So by the time I actually got back to the car, even though I was still in pain, I was only damp, and suggested we go up and, since it looked like the fog was starting to burn off, see if we could see some whales.

As we drove toward the trailhead, I noticed the tide was still out enough in Campbell Cove to reach the jetty, so we made a stop there.  I got to show her a few things we didn't see at Miwok, like different species of anemone, including the little red ones I've previously posted about, and a slightly larger one that was a different color, which I haven't identified yet.

my hand on the sand alongside the anemone for scale

On the way back from the jetty, a woman approached me with her children, saying that she'd heard me telling my friend about the animals, and asking if I could identify something for her.  I told her I'd give it a try, and she went over to one of the holes she'd dug (she'd been showing her children different clams and talking about their siphons) and gently pushed the wet sand away and pulled out a Giant Innkeeper Worm.  So I got to talk about Innkeeper worms for a while with the woman and the kids, and they thought it was pretty cool.

Then we headed up to Bodega Head, where we do the whale watching, but the marine layer was so thick we couldn't even see the buoy which was at about the distance where the current is where the Gray Whales come in. So my friend and I didn't stay long, We took in the view and the salt air, and I told her about the hawks and ravens, and about the other animals in the area.  I was pretty dismayed to see that there were only a small smattering of  a half dozen gulls on the rocks below us (usually there's at least some cormorants), so we headed over to the east side of Bodega Head to look at Bodega Rock.

This was something that was rather important for me to do, because I wanted to get a feel of how things would be when I started seabird monitoring on Monday.  I had my camera with the 60x optical zoom with me, but there was so much fog I despaired of getting a decent photo.  I could just about identify some of the birds and pinnipeds, although I would be hard pressed to count them from some of the views I had.

photo with boosted contrast

unretouched photo

I think it was fairly easy to tell the common murre from the cormorants in the pictures, but sometimes the seals and the rocks were a bit difficult to separate. One thing I did differently today is that I first photographed across the rock, then took video.

When I do this for the program on Monday, I'll be using a tripod and their camera, which will likely give me better photos, and hopefully there will be a lot less fog.

My video also came out pretty shaky.

After that, it was getting late, and the fog was starting to roll in even more, so it was time to head home.

Tomorrow is Whale Watch.  Monday is seabird monitoring on Bodega Rock.  I'll have more photos (and likely more stories) to tell.