At first we thought it was a dead tarantula, high and dry on a rock. The others hiked on ahead while I stopped to examine it more closely. All the parts were hollow and feather light, in fact they started blowing away in the slight breeze once I poked at them. Pretty sure I was looking at a recent molt. The pedipalps are especially cool. I brought them home with me 😁
Large concrete cylinders of varying heights, with slanted roofs, assymetrically arranged. Area lighting on high poles set at random angles. The restrooms at San Buenaventura State Beach look architect- or artist-designed, but I haven’t been able to find the creator.
I wondered if it was Dennis Oppenheim, who has a famously off-kilter piece in Ventura, but his body of work is more ‘out there’ than this installation. And anyway, I don’t think California State Parks could have afforded his services. Still, it’s nice to see a public restroom a bit more visually interesting than a cinder block box.
Red Cross doesn’t have a building in Ventura, so they set up their blood drives in random temporary locations. Today’s was at San Buenaventura State Beach, and I had just a few minutes to record the view before being called in to donate.
I went to Ormond Beach in Oxnard with the Channel Islands Nature Journalers. It’s an interesting place, a little hard to get to, bounded by a port, a Naval Air Station, a power plant, and a superfund* site—a former metal smelter—that is high in aluminum, magnesium, and other metals. Some of the waste contains radioactive thorium and radium.
Sounds yucky, but because of its lack of appeal to the beach-going public, it’s a great birding site! There’s a protected lagoon and wetlands, and more shorebird species are known to use Ormond Beach than any other site in Ventura County. Two endangered species, the Western Snowy Plover and the California Least Tern, nest there. We went with a guide from Audubon, so it was primarily a bird-watching event, but as usual, the plants called my name.
*I learned why highly polluted locations are called superfund sites. It’s because that’s the amount of money that is needed to clean them up. Check here to see if you have one near you (US only).
There were lots of hermit crabs scooting around in the tide pools. A pair of them got into a bit of a scrimmage; actually, one attacked the other, who fought back for a bit then scuttled away, with the larger one in pursuit. They were in shells of the same species, and the crabs too seemed to be of the same species—their “feet” were light-coloured. I wonder what the fight was about. Maybe they were just feeling crabby.
The largest shell I find on our local beaches is the wavy turban snail. I was alarmed to learn that this gastropod is being harvested for food in growing numbers, with no oversight and no research. Sounds like another extinction waiting to happen. And before that, a radical decrease in the size of the turbans, as they pick off the largest ones.
Took a little walk along the beach while waiting for my lunch date at Cholada. This pink and orange seaweed caught my eye.
I ventured back to the beach today, expecting a huge amount of storm-delivered trash, but the sand was actually pretty clean.
Sitting in the shade of the huge old sycamore tree at Adamson House, looking towards the beach.
hashiworks 