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Sand Dollar Beach and Mill Creek Beach, southern Big Sur coastline, Monterey Co., CA, April 4, 2026

Return to Prof. Ee trips or jump to Part 1 (Big Creak coast) - Part 2 (Sand Dollar Beach) - Part 3 (Plants of Big Creek canyon)

Headed south from Big Creek near dawn. The peak of the low tide was already past.	-	-
-	Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister) - perhaps a discarded molt	-
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-	-	Tegula funebralis (black teguline snail)
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A hermit crab was in a Calliostoma ligatum shell.	-	Mopalia muscosa (mossy chiton)
-	A Hermissenda opalescens (southern opalescent nudibranch) feeding in a field of hydroids.	-
-	Anthopleura xanthogrammica (giant green anemone)	Nucella ostrina (northern dog whelk)
A barnacle morph of a finger limpet, either Lottia austrodigitalis (southern finger limpet) or L. digitalis (northern finger limpet). They overlap in central California and are difficult to tell apart.	Two fairly large intertidal barnacles that overlap on the Central Coast of California: the northern Semibalanus cariosus (thatched barnacle) and the generally more southern Tetraclita rubescens (red volcano barnacle).	Mytilus californianus (California mussel)
-	Pisaster ochraceus (ochre seastar)	Pisaster ochraceus (ochre seastar)
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Nuttallina californica (northern spiny chiton)	Littorina keenae (eroded periwinkle)	Hermissenda opalescens (southern opalescent nudibranch)
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-	I stopped at Mill Creek further north, by then well after low tide.	Finger limpet rock ecomorphs - these are probably Lottia austrodigitalis (southern finger limpet).
-	-	I noticed is that Nucella ostrina seemed to be waiting for a higher tide to feed on finger limpets. I saw several like this and I could not see any other likely prey in the vicinity.
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-	Lottia scabra (rough limpet)	-
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-	-	If you might wonder about the slide that closed the PCH for through traffic for about three years, it is visible here in the distance, just south of the Big Creek Bridge. It was the first time I had visited in about four years, and I loved returning.
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The further of two cabins is Whale Point cabin in the UC Big Creek Reserve, where we stayed. Nice!	-	-

Return to Prof. Ee trips or jump to Part 1 (Big Creek coast) - Part 2 (Sand Dollar Beach, return to top) - Part 3 (Plants of Big Creek canyon)

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