habitat ~ 07/17/13 ~ Morro Strand State Beach

Morro Strand State Beach

July  17, 2013

Per our usual of not making reservations, we were out of luck securing a camping spot at the main Morro Bay State Park.  So we settled for the parking lot at Morro Strand State Beach.  Truth be told I wouldn't exactly recommend either campground at $35/night, but the locations work well for what we like to do down there.  Perhaps it's mostly nostalgia for why I keep going back.  I was a little surprised to find out Morro Strand SB is still open for business considering it has been on the chopping block twice since 2009.  How did this get resolved?  Did Save Our State Parks actually save it?  Does anyone know how this played out?  Darn news these days rarely offer follow-up reports.

The nicest thing about staying at the strand is, well, the beach... even though it can get extremely windy in the afternoons.  I know, I know, I live along Monterey Bay with plenty of perfectly fine beaches here in town, but there's something about this beach adjacent to Morro Bay that hits home for me.  It's my favorite central CA coast beach for beachcombing.  It's long and flat and rarely stinky. There are always plenty of birds, like the Heermann's gulls, western gulls, and marbled godwit shown here.  There are also many more sand dollars, crabs, and clams than I can find at home.  It's a lovely spot to watch the sun set.

tarantula hawk ~ 07/16/13 ~ Cayucos

tarantula hawk

Pepsis pallidolimbata

posted 07/24/13 - This sucker was HUGE!  Capturing a real sense of size seems so tricky in photography.  Using my finger as a makeshift measuring guide, I estimate this tarantula hawk at 30mm from head to abdomen tip.  Interestingly, according to Powell and Hogue, this is not the largest spider wasp found in CA;  that title goes to the closely related Pepsis thisbe coming in at a whopping 32-44mm.  Secondary to its size, I noticed it was rotating around in a clockwise fashion and continued even after I poked it a couple times.  Very odd behavior.  It's beautiful and magnificent in a bold way.

Later I found out that a dear friend unexpectedly died this day.  I'm dedicating this blog post to Steve Gally.  He was truly one-of-a-kind with a booming voice, a heart of gold, and endless stories.  A mason by craft, and an artist by heart.  He loved insects and would have found this tarantula hawk absolutely amazing.  He helped shaped my life today in ways few people ever do.  I am incredibly thankful and honored to have been included in his fold of many friends.  To quote Bob Dylan, "But to live outside the law, you must be honest."  Goodnight, sweet man.

ps 08/17/13 - Additional links for Steve:  Legacy.com, BigSurKate, Bread on the Water, SeaRock.

grunion greeting, 2013 #4

cusk-eel, grunion, and other fish

grunion

Leuresthes tenuis
more information

grunion greeting

new moon cycle, 11:05-12:39, cloudy skies

This was a pleasant night and a nice way to finish off my birthday activities. When we arrived at the beach, 13 people were already there with buckets containing grunion, cusk-eels, and other fish. The local fisherman in the bunch said they arrived at 10pm and saw about 20 grunion thus far. This was their first time out since learning about grunion from the CA Fish and Wildlife schedule.  The other groups were a young family and a couple individuals.  Somewhat unusual compared to past grunion nights, everyone seemed incredibly respectful of the grunion (e.g., waiting until the female was done laying eggs before collecting her) and curious about what else was on the beach (e.g., Charlie and 3 of his night heron friends, a medium-sized sea turtle making its way parallel to shore, bioluminescence they had witnessed 3 nights before while sardine fishing).

I asked to take a quick picture of one of the small cusk-eels they had in their bucket before they let it go. It's too bad it's such a crappy photo. In any case, I discovered it's very difficult to find online information about the different kinds of eel-like animals. Fishbase.org has a searchable db, but like BugGuide in its early days, it needs more content to truly become a user-friendly site. Can anyone recommend an eel ID site?

At 12:07, we were all starting to pack up when another decent run of 60-80 grunion came up with a big wave. We stayed for the next half hour with another 2 runs at 12:20 and 12:37. I've reported this night as a W-1.  It certainly wasn't as exciting as May 26 (W-4), May 25 (W-3), or June 8 (W-2), 2013, but way better than no grunion (W-0) as has happened too many times in past years.

ps 05/18/14 - Thanks to a grunion greeting e-mail exchange with Dr. Guacamole and Dr. Martin and quotes from Bob Lea, the unidentified eel above has been identified as not a true eel, but a cusk-eel.  As to species, I can't say for sure.  Although, spotted cusk-eel (Chilara taylori) is mentioned quite a bit online for this area.  Paperbone (Lamprogrammus niger) and giant (Spectrunculus grandis) are reported for Monterey Bay as well.

ca-or-wa 2013 habitats