A Beach Adventure

There are lots of different kinds of beaches in Puget Sound: sand, pebble, stone, sandstone, rocky, muddy. Some seem quite barren. But our beach teems with life from the cliff spash zone where you can see different kinds of algae and lichen to the upper tide pools where we’ve spotted the various seaweeds, worms, jellyfish, chitons, hermit crabs, small green anemones, sculpins, periwinkles, barnacles, shrimp, muscles and limpets. Below the lower tide line or under rocks are red crabs, eel like gunnels, tube worms, star fish, cling fish, sea anemone, red sea cucumber, decorator crab, thatched barnacles and brittle stars. One can even find an occasional octopus. The beach is patrolled by eagles and kingfishers, seagulls and blue herons. This month features exceptionally low tides at midday which offers wonderful opportunities for exploration and photography. My favorite is the limpet because they make such a great metaphor