I had it in my calendar weeks ago: low-tide coinciding with sunrise on Tuesday, May 21. I picked a location and arrived to Shaw’s Cove just before 5:30am. I felt very lucky, because there were a few clouds in the sky, and the barely waning Moon was also setting. (I had chosen this location because of the Moon; I used an app called TPE that helped me pinpoint a good spot.)

My goal was to take landscape pictures as well as hopefully find some neat low-tide animals. Here are some of the earlier landscapes:

When looking into the tide pools I was pleasantly surprised: I spotted a Sea Star! I used to see dozens of them, but in 2013 they were hit by a disease (see blog post about it), and most of them disappeared from the west coast. For me this was the first time that I saw a small sized one. It made me super happy!

There were lots of other sea creatures on the beach that I admired:

And of course the birds were there to have a nice breakfast as well (Black Oystercatcher, Seagull, and Long-billed Curlew):

Watching the birds feeding on the oysters and other creatures is super fun. Sometimes they are surprised by a huge wave that they have to escape from. They are cautious, but if I don’t move much, they continue on with their activities.

This was a great trip to the ocean, especially because I spotted the Sea Star. I hope I’ll be able to see more and more.