Land of the Moon Snails

On Sunday Tina and I ventured over to Carkeek Park for low-tide fun.

Last month we explored low tide at Richmond Beach, where we saw mostly anemones, crabs, sea cucumbers, and clams.

The Carkeek Park beach had something different.  When I spotted this from a distance, it looked like broken pottery:

But then I saw dozens and dozens of them littering the beach, and they were thin and flexible:

I asked one of the naturalists who educate folks there during low tides, and learned they were egg cases of a creature called a Moon Snail.

The naturalist found an actual, living Moon Snail!

A handy child provided a sense of scale:

That was by far the coolest thing we saw there.

We saw very few anemones -- this was the best one we found:

Meanwhile, the birds were busy plucking up fish:

This gull attracted the unwanted attention of its neighbors:

It tried to fly away with its catch:

After a couple of hours of beachcombing, I took a lunch break on a piece of driftwood which had this lovely view:

Naturally, I had my sketchbook along.

It was a lovely morning for exploring.  For the next low tide we hope to get to Golden Gardens beach to see what might be different there.