Coastal Wildlife Safari

Part of the attraction of the Oregon Coast is the rocky shoreline and the tide pools it enables. Look in the right area, like the protected tide pools of Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, and you'll find everything from tide pool regulars like limpets and sculpin (tiny tidepool fish) to colorful nudibranchs, sea stars, and (if you're lucky) maybe a young octopus! I didn't get to see some of those less common tide pool dwellers, but I've seen my fair share those dauntless critters and their shallow homes.

Other invertebrates, such as razor clams, are common on the beach, and must also deal with the retreating tides that expose them to hungry predators. Consider the Pacific Mole Crab, Emerita analoga. It's rather defenseless when the tide rolls out, so it needs to be able to quickly bury itself in the sand before it's spotted by an enterprising gull (I had a video of this behavior, but I've lost it).

Invertebrates are also well-represented away from the coast's beaches. Given the moderate climate, arthropods (insects, arachnids, etc) and mollusks such as the banana slug below alike thrive and prosper year-round. Their presence enables the presence of animals that have to migrate south further inland.

The coast is home to various species of reptiles and amphibians, none of whom I managed to photograph. There are 7 species of salamander, 5 species of frog, the elusive Rough-Skinned Newt, and 2 species of squamate, the Northern Alligator Lizard and the Common Garter Snake. Of these, I only saw the Rough-Skinned Newt and the Bullfrog, which has more to do with the time of year than it does with their relative abundances.

Now, this shouldn't come as a shock to you, but the Oregon coast is a great place for fish. Rockfish of just about every shape and size inhabit the waters of the coast of, in addition to wolf eels, lingcod, kelp greenling, cod, mackeral, herring, sharks, and skates, in addition to prized game fish like salmon and the mighty Pacific Halibut. A wide variety of crab can be found, including the common (and tasty) Dungeness Crab.

 

Note: All pictures taken at Oregon Coast Aquarium (because duh).

Some of the coasts' most popular and easy-to-see residents are mammals. No, not people, you dolts, but rodents. Rats are quite common, perhaps not surprisingly, given the easy access to fish scraps and trash. Rabbits and beavers can be found further inland, and let's not forget that most ubiquitous-seeming of mammals, the squirrel. It's mainly Western Gray and Douglas' squirrels found on the coast, but the state of Oregon is home to no less than 20 species of squirrel, including the Northern Flying Squirrel.

The second most common mammals to be seen on the coast that don't wear fisherman's boots are marine mammals. Gray whales, humpback whales, and harbor porpoises are common out at sea, but the marine mammals most often seen on the coast are pinnipeds, most commonly the chubby Harbor Seal and the boisterous California Sea Lion, though it's not impossible to find the larger Steller's Sea Lion. Under strict protection, these marine mammals don't seem too shy of humans, occasionally poking their heads up from beneath the water to check out fishermen on the public fishing pier, or hauling out and dozing within a dozen yards of human admirers at Yaquina Head, or even directly below observers in the Bayfront district of Newport.

So yeah, that's about it for animal life on the coast. Nothing else, clearly. Is there? Could I be forgetting something?

Find out next time.