ADVENTURES AT LOW TIDE...

Well, it might be low-key, but it's an adventure for me...

Actually, today began with fog, clouds and an occasional sprinkle, so naturally, I thot I'd just stay home all day; it was Sunday, after all. In the middle of the Seahawks' football game, I looked out the window, and it turned out a sky of blue had replaced all the ugly gray clouds. Par for the course on the coast, where weather changes every 30 seconds. Figuring the 'Hawks would lose anyway (which they did), I made sure the parrot had enough food, and off to the beach I went. And this time I remembered the camera!

When I got to the beach, it was Low Tide. Very, very low. It seems like every Sunday I've been out here, these guys can be seen with their steeds; notice the lead rider's got a young cowpoke-to-be on the saddle with him...(Me, I kinda shy from animals who are bigger than me...)

The last time I'd been up to the Jetty and looked among the rocks, I'd noticed a whole bunch of little bits of sea life that you don't see when the tide is high. Only, I didn't have the camera with me. Hopefully that won't happen again....and today, sure enough, there were signs of life just waiting for my camera lens...

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Starfish! A bunch of Starfish! At first glance, all you see are the orange ones, but if you look really hard in the shadows, you can see a couple more (click the photo, it blows way, waaay up). They're just hangin' out, waiting for the tide to rise once again and engulf them. They then resume filtering food from the ocean water, as only starfish can do. They certainly can't do much of anything at low tide, but just hang around, which they're doing a pretty good job of here.

I tried to get really, really close to get a good photo, but the jagged rocks, combined with my own sense of imbalance, coupled with the fact the tide was coming back IN, made it a hassle to get too close. So I stood upon a rock, and used the zoom lens to capture this picture of a starfish in detail...

Now, I'm no Wildlife Expert, although I know a Starfish when I spot one. After taking the above photo, I walked up the jetty, toward (somewhat) higher ground, but since the tide was way, waaaay out, quite a lot of the jetty rocks that are normally underwater weren't. Another Starfish presented itself, along with some of his little Ocean-buddies (those greenish-ring-things--anemonies, maybe?), and it looks like this starfish is an especially pudgy little guy...

...further up the jetty, the Star-fishes became fewer and fewer, but that didn't mean they weren't there; it just meant that I had to look a little harder for 'em. So I slowed down a little bit, took more time to look between the various rocks, and lo and behold, found this little guy, who was hangin' on as best as he could until the tide rose once again...

...but of course, Starfish ain't the only creatures one can find among the rocks during low-tide; oftentimes, you can find other little water-bound creatures who've become marooned from the rest of the ocean, because the tide has receded so much, leaving little tide pools, here and there. And that's where little Mr. Crab was lurking, hoping no one would find him...

This little fella was hiding in a pool of water, between the rocks, desperately trying not to become Dinner for some Seagull which might be flying by. Finding Mr. Crab was a total surprise for me...I nudged him with my walking stick; first he moved towards it, in some sort of crab-attack mode, then he slinked away, further under the rocks, but that's okay...he was captured with my camera...

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By this time, it was beginning to get kinda late...and kinda chilly. The days are getting short...in July, the Sun was setting even with the Jetty Rocks below, at the right edge of the picture; it now sets further south, beyond the left side of this photo. And in-between the two sides of the picture, a commercial fishing boat can be seen coming in after being tossed around by the waves all day (I get green in the gills just thinking about that...ulp...).

Maybe I'm a tenderfoot lightweight (or a heavy-footed tenderweight), but the chill in the air as sunset neared supplied me with all the motive needed to begin heading back down the beach to the car (a half-mile walk), and since this cool panoramic view was ahead of me, I thot, well, why not try to immortalize it, so here 'tis...the Cape Arago lighthouse, sitting high atop Chief Rock. The lighthouse is no longer in operation, but it'll probably sit there forever; it's solid concrete, and has stood on that rock since 1930...if the harsh coastal winter weather hasn't ripped it apart by now, it probably never will...

I still haven't yet been able to see the Moon directly over the ocean; I can imagine when the Moon is setting over the ocean, that's a tremendous view, as the curvature of the Earth's atmosphere magnifies the Moon's size. So I pointed the camera the other way, and captured the Moon at the same time a gull flew into view. Pure luck on my part; sometimes, photos have a way of constructing themselves...

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...and so as night fell once again with a resounding thud, I took one last photo (below), and then did an about-face, heading down to the beach, where my chariot awaited to whisk me home. Here's the Moon over the local Coast Guard station, located on top of what is called "Chicken Point" (I have no idea where THAT name came from)...
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I've put a lot more new photos into my Oregon Photos album, which you can access by clicking the appropriate Missing Link located in the Left Margin...you'll probably have to scroll down to find it, but it's there...truly an internet showcase...