The beach sometimes looks bare. A sprinkle of sand on sandstone, a few scattered rocks, a smear of sea lettuce, leftover tidewater; not much else.
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| Willow Point beach, looking towards Quadra Island and, in the distance, the mainland. |
But slow down, crouch, look underneath rock overhangs, behind the stones ... the barren beach is full of life and colour.
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| Purple starfish, clinging to the bottom of a rock. With pink-tipped green anemones for company. And limpets and barnacles, of course. |
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| An assortment of seaweeds. Green sea lettuce, yellowish rockweed, one (or two?) of the many stringy, bushy brown algae. a blob of sea cauliflower, and tasty-looking succulent seaweed, Sarcodiotheca gaudichaudii. (I love that name!) |
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| Sea cauliflower with a garnish of sea lettuce, accompanied by rockweed leaves and brown alga shreds. |
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| Rocks and mounds of brown algae, crawling with hermits and crabs, isopods and snails. Good feeding grounds for a pair of mallards, now leaving their unfinished dinner in haste because of that pesky photographer. (They came back as soon as I walked away.) |
Very Michelin-rated!
ReplyDeleteBeaches are never bare, are they?