Overcast with light snow starting this evening.
I made a relatively brief trip out this afternoon.
On a stop at the kelp patch pullout, I was happy to see the junco with white eyebrows (which I think I’ll call DJ White-brows). Reviewing my pictures from last November it looks like the white has expanded a bit. There’s an outside possibly they are different birds, but it seems unlikely to me that two bird would have such similar patterns of leucism.
The tide was coming up, but still far enough out for some sand to be showing at Sandy Beach.
I poked around and made some observations of intertidal organisms. I was a little surprised I saw as many different creatures as I did.
I've never seen uncrowded Thatched Barnacles much more than an inch in height, whereas these are nearly 4 inches tall.
I’ve previously noticed the overgrown thatched barnacles. They grow tightly together, and very tall. Today I measured some at nearly 4 inches tall. I’ve never seen them anywhere near so tall in circumstances where they are not growing so tightly together. Clearly they would have too much drag to stay anchored if a lone one had the form they do when growing in a crowd. Perhaps there’s a limit to how broad of a base they can grow, but less limit on the height. Since the shell is housing the animal, I’m curious how the volume/mass of the barnacles compares between these tall crowded ones, and large individuals grown without any crowding.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
