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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 winter nights might seem an unlikely time to explore the shallow waters of our shoreline, what we find there is amazing in terms of variety and quantities of things that we typically don't see during our summer day trips. Come and see for yourself!
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NOVEMBER 25 NIGHT EXPLORATION
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Friday, November 25, 9 pm - 10:30 pm at Point White Pier Beach. 
This beach harbors a great array of larger sea critters that are visible only during low tides. The combination of the pilings and a sand bar exposed at low tide provides some great territory to explore. And this will be a super -3.6 tide.
Point White Pier is located off of Crystal Springs Drive, on the southwest side of the island. Parking for the beach is across the street from the pier. Bring a good flashlight or headlamp and wear footwear that allows you to wade in the shallow water. Warm clothes are particularly important if you are to enjoy this night walk. If you feel unsteady walking down a rocky beach in the dark, a hiking stick can give you added stability. No sign-up is necessary to attend a beach exploration with us -- just show up at the site and look for beach naturalists in their neon-orange vests on the beach. You will recognize us by the bobbing lights. You'll next hear from us in December with the schedule for our next night low-tide walk.
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RECENT BEACH EXPLORATIONS
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Intrepid beach naturalists have been out in the dark recently, checking out what is happening in our nearshore area. In late October, at a -3 tide at nearly midnight, we found three nudibranchs that we hadn't seen on our beaches before: the golden dirona (pictured at left), Nanaimo dorid and yellow-margin dorid. These are among the most beautiful of the small creatures that inhabit our waters, and they are easy to overlook given their small size. It may also have helped that the night exploration requires looking more carefully where the flashlight is pointing; and there's also the reality that many of the creatures are nocturnal, and thus more likely to be seen under these conditions. You may wonder why we are out on the beach in the middle of the night instead of during the day -- during the summer months, extreme low tides occur during the day, but shift to night time during the fall and winter.
On a beach monitoring experience this past summer near Arr ow Point, we found a pair of tiny barnacle-eating dorids, and were very excited to see them. They are often most noticeable due to their egg masses. To our surprise, we found hundreds of the brown barnacle-eating dorids on the concrete pilings under the BI ferry dock, along with their white, custard-like egg masses.
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. The store now has the laminated "intertidal invertebrates' and "intertidal seaweeds" ID cards that we find very useful.
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