Haystack Rock Awareness Program Nature Blog

-- 2020 Season Start, Returning Staff, New Hires, Volunteers, New Director, COVID-19, Truck, Beach Shifts Canceled...There is so much going on lately, so we wanted to blog about it! -- 

Sands built up significantly in Haystack Rock's tidepools during the spring, and now it's easier than ever to walk on sand while exploring, thereby avoiding stepping on tidepool animals that cover the rocks, such as barnacles and anemones. The seabirds are in the height of nesting season, so we are continuing to rope off nesting areas to prevent disturbance. Please help us help these birds by staying out of roped off areas. Lastly, the black oystercatchers are trying again: After losing their first nest, they are nesting again and we wish them success!  Substantial sand buildup allows easy exploration of the tidepools while avoiding stepping on rocks. Photo by Margaret Minnick Substantial sand buildup allows easy exploration of the tidepools while avoiding stepping on rocks. Photo by Margaret Minnick

If you’ve been following HRAP on Facebook and Instagram, you know that we first sighted puffins at Haystack Rock on April 3! Since then, the weather has often been challenging for puffin-spotting (and everything else!) with wind, rain, high surf, and surging waves. Nonetheless, we’ve seen 10-16 puffins on many days, and more on a few calmer days. Calm mornings at low tide are the best times to come down to try to spot them.   Other than puffins, our usual cast of bird characters – including murres, guillemots, cormorants, black oystercatchers, harlequin ducks, Canada geese, and bald eagles – has been a reliable presence. In the tidepools we’ve seen many opalescent nudibranchs, aggregating and moon glow anemones, a few ochre sea stars, and a leather sea star too. As the weather improves, there will be more opportunities to see the amazing wildlife that lives, feeds, nests, and hunts at Haystack Rock. We are looking forward to it and hope you'll come to visit! ...

On March 1, HRAP Naturalists Ellison and Andrea were surprised to find an unusual-looking sea star in the Marine Garden tide pools, and showed it to me (Margaret). I wasn’t quite sure what species it was, so I took a picture and uploaded it to the mobile app iNaturalist , hoping that the other users of the app would help me identify the star.  Within a day, the users on iNaturalist had identified it as a Mottled Star ( Evasterias troschelii ). Mottled Stars are more commonly found in Puget Sound, but are sometimes seen on the coasts of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, and northern California. My observation was also added to the iNaturalist project, Tracking Starfish Wasting and Recovery , which is helping to monitor recovery of sea star populations from Sea Star Wasting Disease. If you see any sea stars while tidepooling, you can snap a photo (safely and without disturbing the star, of course!) and upload it to iNaturalist to help with this project, too! ...