Haystack Rock Awareness Program Nature Blog

Daily Low Tides Monday, August 11th Low tide: -1.4' @ 7:44 AM Low tide: 0.7' @ 7:56 PM Tuesday, August 12th Low tide: -1.2' @ 8:27 AM Wednesday, August 13th Low tide: -0.8' @ 9:09 AM Thursday, August 14th Low tide: -0.2' @ 9:52 AM Friday, August 15th Low tide: 0.5' @ 10:35 AM Saturday, August 16th Low tide: 1.2' @ 11:22 AM Sunday, August 17th Low tide: 1.9' @ 12:16 PM Notes from the week The HRAP team spotted lots of nudibranchs, or sea slugs, this week, including the leopard, shaggy mouse, red (or Rostanga ) and opalescent. These animals are molluscs-- as are snails, chitons, limpets, clams, squid, and octopus! Most molluscs have at least a bit of shell-- one notable exception being the octopus-- and even most sea slugs have a shell in their larval stage. Sea slugs often specialize on a cnidarian (animals with stinging cells, like jellyfish and anemones). Not only are they undeterred by these animals' stinging cells (or cni...

Daily Low Tides Monday, August 4th Low tide: 2.3' @ 12:34 PM Tuesday, August 5th Low tide: 2.7' @ 1:43 PM Wednesday, August 6th Low tide: 2.8' @ 2:58 PM Thursday, August 7th Low tide: 2.6' @ 4:08 PM Friday, August 8th Low tide: -0.8' @ 5:22 AM Low tide: 2.2' @ 5:10 PM Saturday, August 9th Low tide: -1.2' @ 6:13 AM Low tide: 1.7' @ 6:08 PM Sunday, August 10th Low tide: -1.4' @ 6:59 AM Low tide: 1.2' @ 7:03 PM Notes from the week Another busy week here at Haystack Rock, both for the humans and for the birds! Tufted puffins can still be seen guarding their burrows, and the black oystercatcher pair continues incubating their precious eggs, which should be hatching any day now. Oystercatcher hatchlings are precocious and able to leave the nest as soon as their downy feathers dry-- usually within about 24 hours of hatching; tufted puffin hatchlings aren't quite as mobile and must stay in the nest longer. Both species sti...

Daily Low Tides Monday, July 28th Low tide: 2.0' @ 8:28 PM Tuesday, July 29th Low tide: -0.1' @ 8:52 AM Wednesday, July 30th Low tide: 0.2' @ 9:20 AM Thursday, July 31st Low tide: 0.5 @ 9:48 AM Friday, August 1st Low tide: 0.9' @ 10:18 AM Saturday, August 2nd Low tide: 1.3' @ 10:54 AM Sunday, August 3rd Low tide: 1.9' @ 11:38 AM Notes from the week The unusually large beaching event of purple hydroid "jellyfish" known as Velella velella continued this week. A couple of other maritime creatures visited the shore as well, including a lion's mane jellyfish on Wednesday and a juvenile harbor seal on Thursday.  Lion's mane jellyfish washed up on the sand. In addition to these animals, the waves brought us some beautiful sand patterns. Sort of an "art deco" sand pattern. Sand patterns can be like a Rorschach inkblot test. One volunteer saw a scallop shell here. What do you see?   On Friday, we...

Daily Low Tides Monday, July 21st Low tide: 2.4' @ 2:41 PM Tuesday, July 22nd Low tide: 2.6' @ 3:52 PM Wednesday, July 23rd Low tide: -0.3' at 5:12 AM Low tide: 2.6' @ 4:49 PM Thursday, July 24th Low tide: -0.5' @ 5:59AM Low tide: 2.5 @ 5:40 PM Friday, July 25th Low tide: -0.6@ 6:40 AM Low tide: 2.4' @ 6:26 PM Saturday Low tide: -0.6@ 7:17 AM Low tide: 2.3' @ 7:10 PM Sunday Low tide: -0.5@ 7:52 AM Low tide: 2.2'@ 7:50 PM Notes from the Week HRAP staff and volunteers worked extra hard this week covering double daily low tides. For tide pool enthusiasts like us, one of the joys of summer is good low tides and long daylight hours to take advantage of them. Another joy of summer is beautiful weather, which we've had in spades lately-- except for Wednesday, when multiple squalls, complete with bursts of torrential rain, interrupted one of our beach shifts. Kudos to our visitors for braving the bouts of bad weather with good h...

Daily Low Tides Monday, July 7th Low Tide: 2.6' @ 2:21 PM Tuesday, July 8th Low Tide: 2.7' @ 3:25 PM Wednesday, July 9th Low Tide: 2.7' @ 4:26 PM Thursday, July 10th Low Tide: -0.7' @ 5:45 AM Low Tide: 2.6' @ 5:25 PM Friday, July 11th Low Tide: -1.2 @ 6:34 AM Low Tide: 2.4 @ 6:21 PM Saturday, July 12th Low Tide: -1.5 @ 7:21 AM Low Tide: 2.1 @ 7:15 PM Sunday, July 13th Low Tide: -1.6 @ 8:07 AM - Lowest tide of the year! Low Tide:1.8 @ 8:09 PM Notes from the week Great weather and our lowest tides of the year combined to make this an excellent time to explore the tidepools at Haystack Rock. This post is going to mostly be a list and photos of some of the amazing creatures we saw! Creature Highlights Birds Black Oystercatchers ( Haematopus bachmani )- observed in the saddle area potentially looking to nest again? Bald Eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalis) Great Blue Herron ( Ardea herodias ) - flew over and disturbed nesting birds Pi...