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NEWS FOR BAINBRIDGE
BEACH EXPLORERS
August, 2011 | |
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Welcome to the enews from Bainbridge Beach Naturalists. You are receiving this email because you indicated an interest in learning of opportunities to explore Bainbridge Island beaches with our naturalists. Some of you have already met us on the beach, and others have heard or read about our activities and requested this email.
The Bainbridge Beach Naturalists are volunteers who have received training in marine biology and shoreline ecology from the Kitsap County WSU Extension - Beach Watchers program, or the Seattle Aquarium beach naturalist program. We love being out on our wonderful beaches, especially at low tide events, and even more, we are pleased to share our knowledge with others who are interested.
This newsletter includes information about coming events and opportunities to explore with the Bainbridge Beach Naturalists, right here on the island. While most of the best low tides have already occurred this summer, there's still time for one more exploration, so come join us.
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SUMMER BEACH EXPLORATIONS
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Our explorations this summer have turned up an amazing array of sea life on a wide variety of beaches here on Bainbridge Island. Each beach is different from the others in such things as substrate, currents, and what we can find on the beach. Fort Ward has an amazing hard clay substrate, which is loaded with piddock clams, many of them totally hidden by rocks which sheltered them as tiny clams coming to shore to settle, and they are now forever captive in their holes under the rocks. It was at Fort Ward beach that we also found the plain-fin midshipmen nurturing their eggs. In this species, the male creates a nest under a rock, woos the female with a humming sound, and after the eggs are laid and fertilized, the female returns to the deep water, leaving the male to tend to the nest until the babies are hatched.
The beautiful sea slugs, called nudibranchs, have been a hit with the beach explorers and naturalists. We've identified sea lemons, barnacle-eating dorids, leopard dorids, opalescent nudibranchs, and both a golden and a white-lined dirona.
 We have found an array of sea stars on our beaches, including mottled stars, ochre stars, giant pink stars, leather stars, brittle stars, six-rayed stars, blood stars and sunflower stars. Not all are found on a single beach, but Pt. White Pier beach has a great variety.
Eagle Harbor Books is carrying several useful references if you are interested in checking out some of the species that are found on our beaches.
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LAST EXPLORATION OF THE SUMMER
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Saturday, August 27, 9 am - 11 am at Rockaway Beach Park. 
This beach access is a bit challenging, requiring some scrambling over rocks to access the beach. A hiking stick is recommended to provide stability on the slippery rocks. Parking is quite limited at the park, so please angle park to accommodate as many cars as possible. Alternatively, park at Blakely Harbor Park, and walk to the Rockaway Beach site.
This exploration is on a rocky outcropping, so sturdy footwear is important. Your shoes will likely get wet, so boots are the best option, as they keep your feet dry while you splash through the tidelands. No sign-up is necessary to attend a beach exploration with us -- just show up at the site and look for beach naturalists on the beach. We wear bright orange vests, so we are quite visible. You'll next hear from us with the schedule for our night low-tide walks in November and December. It's a whole new experience to explore the tidelands at night, with the aid of a headlamp or flashlight. The time is shorter, as it gets cold out there in the late fall and winter nights.
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Contact us with any questions at 206-842-5133 (Maradel) or 206-780-0982 (Gerlind) or send us an email.
Join us for the last exploration of the summer!
Sincerely,
Bainbridge Beach Naturalists
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BainbridgeBeach@gmail.com
  
Thanks to Sustainable Bainbridge for use of this email distribution program
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