The Lowest Tide in Ten Years

Thursday, June 5th was the lowest ocean tide in ten years. Technically we went to the ocean on Friday the 6th, but the tide was almost as low. With such a low tide places that have rarely been above water were and creatures who had never seen direct sunlight were visable to the naked eye. We tide pooled at Neptune State Park.
After we went to the beach we visited Sea Lion Caves (a tourist attraction). It is the largest natural sea cave in the world. Stellar Sea lions rest in it.

Purple shore crab.

Hermit crab

This cave was on the beach and is not sea lion cave, but it is a few miles away.

Ochre Sea Star

tide pool fish

mussels & barnackles

Cool Critters

Juvinile opossum

An opossum
some think it's disgusting
I think it's adorable

Western forest scorpion

Garter Snake

Western fence lizard

This is an adult male western fence lizard. He was very tame and much bigger than the last one we saw. He was missing an eye.

These guys are also known as blue-bellies. Can you guess why?

Flora and Fauna

The following entry is the culmination of two camping trips to MAGGIE. The photos following are from adventures had during said trips.

Western fence lizard

Western Forest Scorpion

Yes this is real scorpion and yes these pictures were taken on the ranch. And no this is not a six inch killer. It was only about an inch and a half long. The sting is less powerful than a bee sting.

Frisbee and Grandma's dog Adhara

Oregon Alligator Lizard

This guy was probably older and was at least twice as big as the alligator lizard we found before.










The tail of a skink. Intentionally detaching its tail is a common skink defense technique. it destracts the predator. The tail was thrashing around in dad's hand.