Volunteer naturalist Julie B. Walters spent part of her weekend helping our new class of volunteers learn about the inhabitants of the floating docks in Pillar Point Harbor, and was rewarded with an encounter with TWO of these beautiful nudibranchs.
Pillar Point Hermissenda nudibranch photo by Julie B. Walters
Mary DeLong's photo of a Hopkins rose taken at FFMR.
FFMR volunteer naturalist Mary DeLong reports:
On December 2 I led a walk with fellow volunteer naturalist Bill Gomez. We were with Nan Ho and her her students of La Positas Community College. It being a minus tide there was a fabulous variety of creatures to see.
Some highlights were a Sunflower star in the big surge channel by Cypress Point; it was missing some of it’s rays but still manuevered about the pool easily. We saw two small octopuses, and the first one did a good show of color and texture changes as well as shooting ink at us! (more…)
Sea Lemon Nudibranch
Hundreds of visitors braved the chilly and rainy weather this past weekend (December 4th and 5th, 2010) and were rewarded with many beautiful sights, including this sea lemon nudibranch, Anisodoris nobilis. Some nudibranchs are hard to find, but this one was out in the open, relying on its bright coloring to tell predators not to try a bite of its very acidic-tasting flesh. It was probably searching for food. Sea lemons apparently prefer sponges, and consume them by rasping them with their file-like radulas, tooth-studded tongue-like structures found in many mollusks. (more…)