Hiding in the Boulders

Walking on the beach today has been really wonderful. It was everything I needed and more. I have been so depressed lately over personal issues and only being in the sun, smelling the fresh salt air, and observing wildlife could help to lift my spirits. Today’s mission was to observe the tide pools around the rocky upper portion of the beach. By rocks, I really mean boulders, as they are massive geological specimens that line the upper position of the beach. They seem to be a barrier line from the world humans walk in and the world that marine animals walk in.

I started off my search by casually walking alone the boulders just noting what is clearly visible and how many possible tide pools I could see. On the first pass I really didn’t see much, however on my second pass when I climbed the boulders and began to stick my head up the spacing in-between them I was surprised by how many were hiding little tiny many worlds of life. Those plan looking grey-black irregular shaped boulders seemed to be protecting the tide pools from the sun, the birds, and even humans. Although as a human it was nearly impossible for boulder to truly keep me away from the pools, really they just made me move my body into weird position to see the wildlife.

Kneeling down on one boulder and arching my back, I could look in-between two semi-large boulders. I found a medium sized tide pool that was teaming with life. In the water were five pink-tipped Sea Anemones. The ones that were the completely submerged in the water had all the tentacles out for display. However, the ones that were semi-submerged had all their tentacles curled up close to their body, in order to prevent themselves from drying out.