Warm again with Whimbrels

With the weather back in the 80s we headed to the beach to look at the kelp again this week. There was a noticeable layer of brown smog along the horizon. What causes it? Obviously pollution. But I thought perhaps with the warm weather it was the Santa Ana winds blowing the air off shore to the sea. A friend said it was common this time of year that the cooler night air coming off the desert traps the air. Do you know?

 

We have seen one whimbrel here and there for a few months now at the beach and tidepools, but today there were several together. They are easy to identify with their long downward curved beak and the stripe on their head.

 

All About Birds claims some migrating whimbrels fly 2,500 miles nonstop from southern Canada or New England to South America! The ones we saw resting here must be the lazy ones ;-) Their primary food is crab, which, there are sandcrabs galore at Strands. You can hear their call in this video.

Bryozoa on Kelp

2013 - Walking along the coast all year round you can find kelp blades encrusted with Bryozoan colonies. Bryozoa colonies consist of individual filter feeding animals housed in separate container-like zooecia. 

Tubed Bryozoan (Tubulipora Pacifica)

A microscopic view of a small partial colony

Microscopic view of tubes

Here is a video of another microscopic creature we often see on the kelp

The sandcastle worm lives in a tube made of sand, here is a picture of it fully exposed. Scientists study the adhesive these worms use to make their sand tube dwellings that are unaffected by water.

Here is a video of some of its parts under a microscope.

Marine Invertebrates in Kelp Holdfasts

Holdfast of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera)

Growth pattern of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera)

Brooding Sea Anemone (Epiactis Prolifera) it's spitting something out

Unidentified Crab Megalops Larvae

California Sea Hare (Aplysia Californica)

Striped Sea Hare (Navanax inermis)

Sandcastle Worm? (phragmatopoma californica)

Unidentified - egg sac?

Peanut Worm? (Sipuncula)

Eighteen Scaled Worm? (Halosydna brevisetosa) you can also see the 'foot' of the mussel sticking out

Purple Star (Pisaster Ochraceus)

Ghost Shrimp?

Larval Octopus (look close you can see it's suckers)

Purple Sea Star and Unidentified Brittle Star

western spiny brittle star (ophiothrix spiculata) - September 5, 2013
"ophio" meaning snake or serpent, "thrix" meaning hair, and "spicula" meaning needle. These stars can be found entangled in the washed up holdfasts of the majestic Giant Kelp (macrocystis pyrifera). We have observed it "milk" a whitish substance once and this time one of the stars released an orange colored cloudy substance; eggs?

Here are its spines under the microscope... amazing.