Buzz's Marine Life of Puget Sound

Monday, December 24, 2012

Escape from Puget Sound

We have escaped from Puget Sound winter rain and cold.....now headquartered in Kona Hawaii till mid January.... Tidepooling, snorkeling, boogie boarding, hiking and volcano watching...as the images attest:

Yellow Coronetfish

Top Snail

Corrugated Liomera

Money Cowry

Sheriff Badge Star

Shore Crab

Umbrella Sea Slug first confirmed sighting on Big Island Hawaii by Gretchen Frankenstein 12/12

Sponge

Blue Suberites Sponge

Tide Pool

Green Sea Turtle

Rock Boring Urchin

Warty Sea Cucumber

Oblong Urchin

White Speckled Sea Hare

Tide Pools Kona

Helmet Urchin

Liomera Crab

Kona Tidepools and Gretchen

Kilauea Volcano

Kilauea Iki Crater

Sea Cucumber Cuvarian tubes

Black Brittle Star

Crab unk sp.

Eggs unk sp.

Sea Slug (1st confirmed sighting on Big Island)

Sheriff Badge Sea Star

Spinner Dolphins

Gretchen

Kilauea Volcano

Spotted Boxfish

Juv. Rockmover Wrasse

Wrasses

Trigger fish and Parrot fish

Parrot Fish

Yellow Coronet Fish

Spotted Boxfish

Yellow tail Coris and Butterfly fish

Needle fish

Spotted Boxfish

Yellow Coronet Fish

Delta Trike

Our Condo and Magic Sands Beach Kona from Trike

Trike off 2 Step Beach

Kona Tide Pools

Raccoon Butterfly Fish

Kona Surf

Kona Coral Reef

Gretchen

Buzz

Gretchen

Kira - daughter

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

North Cascades

Today's post is off the marine life topic......but adding it because it's been a great hiking past few days in the North Cascades and so I'm having to rave about it somewhere.....

Currently Washington State is dry....very dry since July 22nd. But there have been some lightning storms on the east side of the Cascades so over 200 fires are currently burning east of the Cascades.
Smoke is heavy over the mountains and Mt. Rainier is not visible from Seattle, nor are any of the other Cascade mountains. Warm dry weather is forecast for the next 10 days.......at least.
So what's so great about hiking in the smoke with no visibility???? Good question. Our hikes were to the north of where most of the smoke was so we had mostly clear skies....as well as excellent hiking temperatures.
Two hikes are covered here...both begin at Rainy Pass on the North Cascade highway about 175 driving miles from Seattle. The first images are from Maple Pass, a 7 miles RT hike to the south of Rainy Pass and the second is Cutthroat Pass a 10 mile RT hike to the north of Rainy Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail. Maple Pass about 2 hours up from trail-head, 1500 ft. elevation gain. Cutthroat Pass about 2.5 hours up from trail-head with 2000 ft. elevation gain (very gradual elevation gain).

Note: The California Sea Lions are back in Puget Sound for the Fall-Winter season....

MAPLE PASS

Lake Ann

Author

Gretchen

Gretchen (Seaweed Queen)

CUTTHROAT PASS

Gretchen

Larch starting to turn color

Ah...where better to be?

Cutthroat Pass PCT

Gretchen's mid hike pedicure

Friday, August 10, 2012

Last Good Low Tides of Summer

The beginning of August saw the last good low tides of the summer of 2012 in Seattle. Next good low tides will have to wait until November...and they will come at night...with the new moon, so it will be quite dark....and likely wet.
The last good tide series did turn up some interesting critters....Giant Pacific Octopus, a solitary translucent tunicate (sea squirt) and a rather unusual color Black-clawed Crab that forgot to live up to its name, a number of Spinyhead Sculpin males guarding eggs, a juvenile C-O Sole (really a flounder), Bryozoan colony and a strange cluster of Butter Clams lying on the surface.
Finally a very laid back Bald Eagle and some summer scenery from Alki Beach. Hope you are all enjoying summer as much as we are..... or winter for you down south of the equator.