Today’s spring weather on the Central Oregon Coast brought hail! It turned the beach white and as it grew in size it drove the resident Harbor Seals into the water. The dark spots you see in my admittedly poor-quality video are their heads diving under to avoid the sting of the hard ice balls.

During a recent beach walk a friend explained to another what made the holes in the rocks, “Boring Clams, literally.” I just couldn’t help myself, “Well, figuratively, too. If you invite them to your party, they won’t dance, they’ll just sit there. They really are boring clams!” Ba-dum-tshh!

All kidding aside, it is the Piddock or Boring Clam (Penitella penita) that uses the rough ridges on its shell to slowly grind a hole into rock where it will stay for the rest of its life. Lucky for them, most of the rock up here is a fairly malleable mudstone.

Meet the Pacific Sand Crab (Emerita analoga), a small crustacean that lives in the swash zone (you know, the section of sand in between the backbeach and the surf zone). Not an easy environment to survive in as the sand is constantly being tossed by the whims of the sea. Added to their challenge is the threat of predation from a number of shore birds, as well as Sea Otters and Barred Surfperch. Apparently, they’re delicious, with a shrimp-y or crab-like flavor.

I found it interesting that emerita means deserted (from the Latin eremus, from the Greek eremos). In Spanish the word evolved to mean hermit (one living in a deserted place). Did the sand crab earn this name because the swash zone is relatively uninhabited?

I discovered this little girl (the males are much smaller) during low tide. After her photo op I gently replaced her in the sand where she swiftly disappeared (backend first).

Sights during this morning’s low tide:

A Black Turnstone poking around in the rockweed with a small group of Surf Birds.

Cool limpet (Lottia fenestrata).

Seaweed.

Lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) eggs.