Cascade Head

On Friday, April 3, 2015, the students of Bi450 braved the rain for a wet but beautiful hike up to Cascade Head. North of Lincoln City, Cascade Head Preserve is home to a diversity of flora and fauna including the rare Oregon Silverspot butterfly and its host flower, the early blue violet.

While the majority of our hike was through wooded forest, the trails peak opened up to exposed panoramic meadows and views of the Salmon River estuary, the Oregon coast, and vast expanses of deep blue ocean.

Here is a photo of this year’s class at the top!

Spring 2015 - First Week at Hatfield

Week 1: Welcome and Marine Invertebrates 

Saturday April 4, 2015

By Kaitlin Lebon and Issie Corvi 

Last weekend, after much anticipation, the new set of BI 450 students settled into their new homes.  Our first day consisted of a Hatfield crash course, including tours, orientations, and our first official lecture.  With the basics under our belts, we waited eagerly for our field and lab work to begin. 

Boiler Bay

Vanessa, Ari, and David identifying invertebrates at Boiler Bay

                  Despite the tides not being completely in our favor, we were able to venture out into the intertidal zones of Boiler Bay to explore its populations of invertebrates.  The class eagerly delved into the task of collecting specimens to bring back to our lab for further investigation and identification.  A class favorite was a large red chiton, Cryptochiton stelleri, fondly known as the wandering meatloaf because of its size and mottled color. Other species that were found included the purple sea urchin (Stronglyocentrotus purpuratus), the aggregating anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima), and the kelp crab (Pugettia producta). 

Kat looking for Sipunculids in the roots of seagrass at Boiler Bay  

Kaitlin recording her findings at Boiler Bay

Later that evening we gathered in the dining hall to discuss Oregon geology and to become more acquainted with one another.  We also we treated to pie courtesy of our instructor, Sally Hacker. 

Tokatee Klootchman

A purple Pisaster ochraceus at Tokatee Klootchman 

                  Our second field excursion took us out to Tokatee Klootchman, a site just south of Cape Perpetua.  We continued our task of collecting various intertidal invertebrates.  This site was a favorite for many in the class.  As with past BI 450 classes, we quickly discovered and fell in love with the various species of colorful nudibranchs.  We were also pleased to find that there was a significant population of healthy looking sea stars—encouraging news in wake of the sea star wasting sickness that has been prevalent along the Oregon Coast.

In lecture we learned about sponges, anemones, corals, and jellies. 

The population density at Tokatee Klootchman was incredible - countless Mytilus californianus (mussles), Balanus glandula (acorn barnacle), and Pollicipes polymerus (gooseneck barnacle) (among others) occupied the intertidal. 

Mud Flats of Yaquina Bay

                  Thursday morning we ventured our early in the morning to the local mudflats.  With some last minute words of advice from our instructor Sally Hacker, we were knee deep in mud before we knew it.  Some of us were able to navigate the sticky depths of mud better than others, but in the end we were all able to discover various shrimps and worms to bring back with us. 

Later in lecture we were told about the various types of worms, many of which we had collected that day.

The class after collecting on the Yaquina Bay mud flats. 

Cascade Head

                  By Friday, our good fortune with the weather had ran out.  Our hike up to Cascade Head to view coastal headlands and estuaries was a wet one.  The trail on the way up was very slick and muddy.  Upon arriving at the top of the trail, we quickly took a group photo, and clambered back down to the vans to escape the adverse weather.  Although it would have been better to have had more favorable weather, it was still an enjoyable hike.

Hello Hatfield!

Welcome to Hatfield spring 2014! 22 of us have now found a new home here. We are all very enthusiastic about the journey to come; lectures, lab and field work included. This first week included beautiful weather and fantastic conditions for playing, I mean working outside. In lecture this week we learned all about sponges, cnidarians, ctenophores and about the super cool worms! We are all adjusting to this new and fast-paced work load.

Our new home/lab

Cascade Head  

On Tuesday our class had the opportunity of hiking Cascade Head and looking out across the ocean and shoreline. We were fortunate in that we could see for miles and miles as the weather was awesome! We learned earlier in the day that the Oregon Silver Spot Butterfly is endangered and can only survive as larvae on purple violets. These flowers are being out competed by prairie grasses and are very low in abundance. The adult butterflies don’t feed on these violets, however, the caterpillar of this species does.  We spent much time looking for these tiny, and I mean tiny, flowers and butterflies. Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the insects but we did spot some violets!

The beginning of the hike was treacherous; nah just kidding. Everyone should hike up there for the beautiful view

Boiler Bay

Our next adventure took place at Boiler bay which is just North of Depot Bay.  The class had a fun time climbing and searching for different invertebrates throughout the tide pools and rocks.  Some of the species we found include:

Top picture: Clown Nudibranch (Triopha catalinae). Bottom left: Purple Sea Urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus). Bottom right: Giant Green Anemone (Anthopleura xanthogrammica) All these lucky individuals had the privilege of coming back with us to be put in our laboratory tanks. (Don’t worry we are taking good care of our marine friends! They are so photogenic for the pictures we have to draw for our lab notebooks).  

Boiler Bay is as named because of a 

shipwreck in the early 1900's. Here is  

a picture of the boiler that still sits 

among the rocks. If you are able to 

visit during really low tides, you may 

even be able to catch a glimpse of the 

anchor.

Strawberry Hill

Thursday consisted of a trip to Strawberry Hill, nope no strawberries to be found, to collect more invertebrates. This site also had a few different species of Nudibranchs which we immediately fell in love with.

Ready for our “mud shots”!

Our last field trip of this first week took us on a special trip that not all were especially prepared for.  We went to Yaquina Bay to get “down n' dirty” in the mud flats to collect shrimp and worms.  What we thought would be a very cheap mud bath turned into a very interesting trek into the deep mud, let’s just say that sticks were VERY helpful.

By Ashtyn Isaak and Kristi Knoll

One Week Down!

What a beautiful day!

This morning we hiked up Cascade Head. The muddy trail led us past numerous waterfalls as we climbed above the Salmon River Estuary. Nothing prepared us for the view from the top with the ocean stretching out from beach to horizon and as far north and south as the eye could see. All the fishing boats seemed as if they were specks from our height. Our position also allowed us to see how grass only dominated the southern slope. The winter winds from the south in winter and the summer sun inhibit the growth of trees that can be found on the northern slope. 

While eating lunch with the sunlight streaming down upon us, we enjoyed the scenery that our classroom had to offer. Some individuals continued to hike up the headland to the peak while others made their way to the point. We congregated together for a class picture and enjoyed the sunshine and the view for a little bit longer before making our way back down to our waiting vans. 

The rest of our afternoon was spent preparing notebooks for an initial evaluation as we finished up our first week at Hatfield. 

We've had such a great time this week with all our gloriously sunny and bright field trips. We're looking forward to an awesome week 2 of invertebrates!