Tag Archives: Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

Tool User

Posted on by

A western gull holds a mussel in its beak on an agate beach at Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast

Birds have evolved different strategies to solve the same problem. Oystercatchers have a long thin bill dedicated to cracking open shellfish and extracting the flesh inside. Gulls have a varied diet (to put it mildly) and so have more general purpose bills. That didn’t deter this gull, however, from trying for a mussel meal. It would hold the shell in its mouth, fly up high, then drop the mussel onto the agate beach to get the shell to crack open. Mussels must have a pretty tough shell as the gull never managed to crack it despite several attempts.

Legs Crossed, Holding Tightly

Posted on by

Ochre sea star on a rock at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area in Newport, Oregon

Pity the starfish that does not take advantage of the cover of high tide to relieve itself. This poor fellow clinging to a large boulder was left high-and-dry by the receding tide and could do naught but cross its legs and hold it in. Waiting for the inevitable return of the sea but tortured always by the sound of splashing water …

First Timer

Posted on by

A juvenile brown pelican flies above the Pacific Ocean at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

This young pelican is probably laying over at Yaquina Head for the first time but by now, like the many other juveniles in the flock, it was soaring with the best of them, its youth betrayed only by its coloration.

Taken in the middle of October 2005 while a large flock of pelicans had stopped in at the Head for a few weeks, zooming about the large sea stacks and the lighthouse.

Urchincy

Posted on by

Sea urchins in a tide pool at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area

A bunch of purple sea urchins have carved out holes for themselves in the floor of a tide pool at Yaquina Head. I’m fascinated how a seemingly immobile creature that looks like a prickly cat toy could do such a thing, something I could never do, and yet they can’t remove the driftwood that the tide drops over them.

Give urchins opposable thumbs and they’d probably conquer the world.