a little more 2024

Posted on December 31, 2024 by marybethrew

Taking a photographic walk down memory lane for the year and there are three of you who might want to join me.

Quinn turned 17!

I hatched some eggs!

I went to Galveston, saw dolphins, drove boats.

Jazz band went to state!

Rich and I went to New York! There were fireflies.

A family portrait was taken at Oregon Country Fair by a kind stranger.

I went tidepooling! (I plan to do much more of that in 2025.)

I went to Kodiak twice… love it there. Fin whales were my favorite wildlife sighting, but there were many contenders for that role. Practiced my new boat skills. Backed the boat trailer down Anton Larsen Bay ramp successfully!

I did not take gratitude for a grade. But I am grateful for this year!

~tidepool immersion~ within and just outside

Posted on March 10, 2024 by marybethrew

This is a bird. I found three options on a blog of what it might be. To my eye, it looks most like the surfbird, but based on the description of rock sandpipers being solitary and quiet, that seems like a likely choice. It also resembles (to a person who looks at fish all day) the black turnstone, so I am not ruling that out as an id, either.

There was quite a breeze, and I loved the way the outer tidepools divided between the textures of the water within and just outside.

The find of the day was a dead octopus! I have never seed a live octopus in a tidepool, and while that would have been cooler, this was pretty remarkable to see. I stared at the scene for quite a while as quite a few hermit crabs crawled around the suckers. The large red sea urchin appeared to be quite interested in octopus meat as well.

I think the anemone pictured above is a painted anemone (Urticina grebelnyi). Below is our very common giant green anemone.

kodiak august edition

Posted on August 30, 2023 by marybethrew

Back from Kodiak.

Otters!

Salmon!

And bears! Oh my!

I found another career idea for Dad: boat launch backer-upper. When you want to launch your boat but you need a big tractor to do it…

This octopus is named Gilbert.

These jellyfish are unnamed.

Until next year, Kodiak.

kodiak kaleidoscope

Posted on August 1, 2023 by marybethrew

Kodiak July 2023. I got to see humpback whales right away, day one on the water. And also days two, four, six, and seven. Whale wealth!

Kodiak day two on the water brought even more whale wealth than day one. Humpbacks and killer whales. It was gratifying to hear “we’ve only ever seen them one other time in eighteen years of this survey.” I can’t take much credit but I did put in a special request.

Kodiak kaleidoscope:

Giant Pacific octopus

Rock greenling

Opalescent nudibranch

Sunflower sea star

Sea otter

Bald eagle

Tufted puffin

Not pictured but still helping fill my Kodiak wildlife bingo card: Dall’s porpoise, sea lion, harbor seal, and river otter, golden eagle. Not to mention all the rest of the fish, but we won’t say much about the fish, for they are data.

Did you know that one of the collective nouns for puffins is “an improbability of puffins?” I was delighted with not just pairs, but whole rafts, improbabilities, of puffins.

I’ll be back in August to what is quickly becoming another favorite place of mine on Earth.

banner day

Posted on September 7, 2022 by marybethrew

This kind human is a sophomore. He spent our labor day hike dispersing dandelion seeds because, “every living thing deserves a chance to grow.” I made a wish on each seed, in similar words, but my wishes were all about him.

Also, today we sign closing papers to buy the dragon house. A long-held dream comes true.

Honorable mentions:

I am halfway through semester three of my program, and still loving every 4am writing session. On a sunny day back in January, I typed one of my essays on Great Grandma Rew’s typewriter and submitted it to a zine called Selkie, and I recently received word that they’ve published it! I will share how to get copies when they become available. My first published essay, hurray! In a zine named for mythical females who zip in and out of sea-suits to live in both realms, on the theme of “disobedience.” Sounds about right!

I started my permanent job in July. I’ve filled out what could be the last round of new hire paperwork, for the last set of changing benefits, and the waves of relief are still washing over me, and I expect that will keep going for some time. Three pay periods in, I went to Kodiak, Alaska, for field work. A new place to fall in love with. (They have otters there!!!)

rock greenling

penpoint gunnel

giant Pacific octopus

humpback!

uh-oh

Salmon for breakfast, and second breakfast.

Sending love to all the mama bears out there with cubs snuggled close and the otter mamas with their pups swimming off and away.

~rainbow mondays~ it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

Posted on November 23, 2015 by marybethrew

welcome to another oregon coast tidepool edition of rainbow mondays…

i’ve got a purple finale planned, so i am going to stick the grays, black and whites, and blinding white light shots up front.

gray, black, and blinding white light.

black and white: yin and yang again

grays: plane, kelp and horse, all from our saturday walk

gray: sunday’s gray contingent. seal shenanigans – i like the one airing its hind flippers, and the two fwapping each other in the face with their front flippers.

and of course i like that baby in the foreground, clearly in prime position to do what mammal babies do best.

it’s also fun when a heron flies through the picture you’re taking of the seals. have i mentioned i love it here?

ok, time for some color…

pink: hermit crab on calcified red algae

pink: sunrise over confused rhododendron, in full bloom in november.

red: arguably not my finest photo, but when quinn heard i still needed red for my rainbow, he quickly pointed out that the bucket of sludge i was carrying off the beach was red. solved. (i am not entirely sure of the contents- might have been new oil, might have been used oil, but it was oil, about 3 gallons of it that needed to be far away from my beach, my seabirds, my seals, and my tidepools.)

orange: it’s ruby’s thanksgiving vacation at the vacation house! we love our puppy.

orange: puzzling over this shrub, found in the dunes, showing off in fall colors. are these rose hips? i didn’t stop long enough to check for thorns, but i want to say that a rose is a better guess than a poison oak/goji berry hybrid cross.

orange: nudibranch. this is after i accidentally fed him to the sea urchin, trying to nudge him into a better photo position, and then rescued him from said urchin. sorry urchin, you’re on your own.