The tide was low near noon again, and the sun was scorching. I joined the streams of people heading out to the border marker in the middle of Boundary Bay. I didn't quite make it; the water was still a bit out of my depth, carrying a dry-land camera. But I plowed through eelgrass beds, thigh-deep, until the tide was at its lowest, then returned to the marker.
Where I met Tim, who blogs at Think Big - No, Even Bigger. He had come out to see how the starfish are doing, and incidentally, to see if I was there. Once he'd made it to the marker and taken a few photos with his underwater camera (see his post on TBNEB, with video), he walked back with me to the shore a kilometre away.
He has sharp eyes; he saw a big anemone in the shadow of the eelgrasses, where all I could see was a dark splotch. It was anchored on an empty clamshell, so I brought it home and settled it in the tank. It seems happy enough.
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| Plumose anemone, Metridium senile |
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| Standing tall, about three inches. Fully grown, it can reach well over twice that. |
These anemones come in a variety of colours, from white to yellow to orange or brown. Wikipedia adds pink, grey and olive green, which I don't remember ever seeing. Tim has photos from the border marker, underwater; the ones there are pure white, pale beige, green, or a deep, reddish brown. (Go look.)
As usual, there were hitchhikers. I'll tell you about these later on. After I've finished with the photos of the drenched ten-lined June beetle.
And thanks, Tim!
Thanks Susannah, I had a great day as well! Looking forward to seeing the "hitchhikers", as there was at least one that eluded your identification. The anemone looks beautiful...but sounds like it could become a monster at full size. Time for a bigger tank? :)
ReplyDeleteTime for a bigger tank? That was the first thing I thought this morning when I saw it. Of course, right now it's full of fuzzy eelgrass, so it does look a bit crowded. The hermits think it's just fine that way.
ReplyDeleteThe "spider" turned out to be a very small, dark crab, very leggy, and too small to identify as to species without hurting it. So now it's in the tank, growing, I hope.
But there were other hitchhikers, as well.