Haystack Rock Awareness Program Nature Blog

Haystack Rock is a great destination for field trips. The Haystack Rock Awareness Program provides educational field trip programs that integrate observation, investigation, and exploration. In 2016, HRAP hosted fifty-two educational programs on the beach for students of all ages, reaching over 2100 students. On June 10th, 2016, HRAP hosted a group of grade-school students. That day was rainy, windy, sunny - everything the Rock can be - but most importantly - educational! The students had a great time exploring the tidepools and learning about its inhabitants guided by HRAP interpreters. If you are interested in scheduling an educational group visit to Haystack Rock, visit http://www.ci.cannon-beach.or.us/hrap/page/teachers-planning-field-trip for details on scheduling a visit. The beach season will begin on February 13th and planning is already underway. We hope to see your group on the beach this season!

August 8th was a cloudy day with a few sprinkles in the morning at Haystack Rock. Katie Corliss, lead interpreter, along with three additional interpreters were on the beach for the 1.5 ft low tide at 11:13 am. Over five hundred visitors experienced the Marine Garden during the five hours the interpreters were on the beach. Katie captured a great video of mole crab activity in the sand. In the genus Emerita  they are crustaceans commonly known as mole crabs, sand crabs or sand fleas. Related to hermit crabs and stone crabs, the mole crab spends much of its time buried in the sand. It is well camouflaged by its gray shell, burrowing quickly and frequently into the sand. The crab lives in the area of breaking waves, moving up and down the beach with the tides. It feeds by filtering tiny plankton from receding waves using a sweeping motion of an antenna. Check out the video of the crabs scurrying in the sand and burrowing in. Mole crabs are less that 2 inches in length an...

Today we look back to August 3rd on the beach. Gina Palmer was the lead interpreter on the beach for the 1.4 ft low tide at 7:46pm. It was a sunny afternoon with a NNW winds between 15 and 25 knots. The opalescent nudibranches, typically found under the boulders in the central pools of Haystack Rock, were today out in the sand. Opalescent Nudibranch  The opalescent nudibranch ( Hermissenda crassicornis ) is an invertebrate that resides in the intertidal rocky shores from Baja California to Alaska. They grow to about 3 inches, subsisting on a diet mainly of hydroids, but will also eat small sea anemones and bryozoans.  A nudibranch lives for a maximum of one year and is hermaphroditic. It's eggs are laid in narrow, coiled strings attached to eelgrass or algae.  The opalescents are a colorful species of nudibranch, having bright orange areas on their back with a blue line on each side. Next time you're in the intertidal zone at low tide - anywhere on t...

On October 27th we officially wrapped up our 2016 season on the beach. We're still working on our final counts, but as of September 30th, we've interacted with 98,500 people this season both on and off the beach and hosted 52 educational programs on the beach. Now that's an epic season! HRAP Staff and Volunteers finished the season with an 'End of Season Cleaning and Storage Party' on the 28th. The HRAP trailer was emptied and the equipment cleaned and stowed for the winter. Planning for the 2017 Beach Season is already underway and we'll be back on the beach in February. We'll be revisiting the 2016 season on the blog this winter. Check back in with us to learn about the season from the perspective of the HRAP Interpreters.

Red Ascidians are tunicates, a marine invertebrate with a hard exterior layer, or tunic, where it get's it's name. The first known species of tunicate dates back to 485.4 millions years ago to the early Cambrian period, when most modern phyla first appeared.   The red ascidians have two siphons which move water in and out of it's body, much like a heart. They grow in colonies up to 20 centimeters long and can be a favorite food of the opalescent nudibranch. Have you seen a red ascidian at Haystack Rock? Let us know! Happy Tide-pooling!

Tidepools on the north side of Haystack boasted a startling abundance of nudibranchs in the genus  Dendronotus . "Dendrites" is Greek for "treelike." Upon close examination, these creatures with branching bodies did appear treelike. Individual dendrontid against a background bryozoan. From a distance, however, the dendrontids looked like a dense growth of algae carpeting the floor of the pool.  The "blob" in the left-hand corner is a nudibranch "walking" upside down by moving its foot across the surface tension of the water. The mossy growths covering the sand are clusters of dendrontids in uncountable hundreds. Courtesy of Stephen Grace  

This summer, a U.S.F.W.S. volunteer closely monitored the iconic tufted puffins who call Haystack Rock their breeding ground home. The puffins use this space as their breeding ground, because they prefer to stay close to the ocean shore. Their survival is dependent upon the sea, where they catch the food that they eat and feed their young.    Puffins eat small fish and squid. They can hold several fish at a time in their large bill, which allows them to transport the fish back to their burrow to feed their chick. Recent studies on Atlantic puffins attribute the successful fledgling, and long term survival of chicks to an adequate food source. When fish populations decline, so do the puffin populations.   These puffins lay their egg 2-6 feet deep in a burrow. Near the top of Haystack Rock, on the grassy slope. The north side is shielded from the strong south winds. They dig out the soil with their large, shovel like bill, and lay one single ...