Tag Archives: Bob Van Syoc

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Jackie Sones spotted this sand dollar washed up on the beach, with unusual Barnacles on it.

sand-dollar-with-rare-barnacles-paraconcavus-pacificus-by-jackie-sonesJackie has been finding a few sand dollars on beaches in Bodega Bay with red and white barnacles on them. With the help of barnacle experts Bill Newman and Bob Van Syoc, the barnacles were identified as Paraconcavus pacificus, a rare sighting of barnacles usually seen south of Monterey. Jackie thinks Manchester Beach has potential as a possible place to see them.

Jackie has a wonderful blog post showing how these barnacles were identified and you can read it at this link: http://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2016/09/unexpected-plate-appearance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNaturalHistoryOfBodegaHead+%28The+Natural+History+of+Bodega+Head%29

Thanks to Jackie for allowing me to share her photo with you here. Doug Forsell found a sand dollar with barnacles this past week at Manchester Beach and we are waiting for Bob Van Syoc to take a look at it. I will report back!

Absolutely stunning day here on the Mendonoma coast. It feels like a gift.

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I'll let Craig Tooley tell the story:

Craig wrote, “I was out peeking into our local tide pools and thought you might enjoy some of my sightings. The Red Sea urchin is much less common in our area, and I felt honored to have found one.”

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Bob Van Syoc took a look at Craig’s photo and wrote, “The things that look like tentacles are tube feet. Urchins use them to move around and also to grab drift kelp to eat. They work like tiny hydraulic suction cups!”

Craig also found an Ochre Sea Star, a beautiful sight to behold!

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is his website: www.ruffimage.com