I thought these were Gray Jays, but that was pretty clearly wrong. Saw these a couple times, almost always in small, noisy flocks.
There were a bunch of these around the shore of Scout Carson Lake, in may different color forms. At night, they crept up on the rock by our campsite, chilling out in the crevices.
I didn't actually see the spider, but the clearness of the turret leads me to believe it was in use.
The current name for this is Corambe steinbergae, but it looks like our name providers don't know that yet. This was a really cool find for me. This is one of two very cryptic nudibranch that mimic the appearance of their food, the bryozoan Membranipora, which grows on kelp. This little guy was 8 mm tops, so I could hardly even tell it was a slug until I looked at the picture.
Wow, there are a lot of things named "thornback." This one was a kind of guitarfish, which is a kind of bottom-dwelling shark relative. Nate found this on our first dive. About 1 m long.
Yay, another umbrella crab. Such kooky little animals.
Not sure if this was a sheep crab or a moss crab, but they're both in the same genus. There were a couple of these out among the tube anemones.
Been a while since I've seen this little slug. Always a pleasure.
Currently Peltodoris nobilis. Ah well. There were many out to day, big, fat, gigantic ones. This one was probably 10 cm or more.
Was super psyched to find this crab, which was new for me, but not super psyched to discover it's genus is Mimulus, causing iNat to think it's a plant. This will take a little refactoring...
There were lots of these out along the Breakwater and at Otter Cove. Beautiful little fish.
Was VERY excited to find these. They were all over the kelp at the surface, and I believe Zach found these two under water. First time seeing this amazing slug.
Brenna found one piece of kelp at the surface that was just COVERED with these, but unfortunately it's very hard taking pictures on the surface. Moving kelp, moving water, and shaky hands don't make for great pics.
Beautiful, beautiful worms. Need to look them up. Fairly sure I've seen (and possible photographed) these before. Time to learn them...
Update: after consulting Light's, Kozloff, BPT, and this dead ringer of a photo at CalPhotos I think this is probably Phragmatopoma californica, the common sandcastle worm. Can anyone confirm? Each tube was no more than 1-3 cm long. Observed in a kelp holdfast at ~30 ft depth, off Pacific Grove, CA.
Also of note: an NYTimes article on researchers studying this worms sand adhesive for biomedical applications (or perhaps "biomedical inspiration" would be more accurate). Via oceanwire.
Our seas here in California are replete with color.
