MBFE - Day 3 - Fun in the mud

The tides continue to come early in the morning, and this morning, right after breakfast the crew pulled on those rubber boots and after a change of plans, headed off to our friendly neighborhood mudflat.  It's fantastic to be someplace where we can go on a 5-minute walk and be in an amazing marine habitat - today, MUD!

Did you ever get in trouble as a kid for playing in the mud and getting filthy?  Today that class was assigned to dig in the mud, muck around and see what they could find.  They were genuinely surprised to find as much as they did living in the mud - clams and worms and ghost shrimp, Oh My!

Here is the group divided into three teams surveying the diversity of life living in the mudflat from the low tide line up to the top of the mud, a distance of over 150 meters.

Here are (L-R) Emily, Bri, Ashley, Janae and Wyatt getting ready to survey their second site.

This group made up of (L-R) Caitlin, Harrison, Darby, Jay and Stephen take an elevation change reading between two sites.

Once the elevation difference was noted it was time to dig and see what comes up.

In this team (L-R) Emily, Wyatt, Bri, Ashley and Janae, some team members couldn't wait to get in there and get their hands dirty.  

Here is another team (L-R) Courtney, Rob, Katie and Darren digging into another sample site.

Everyone was grateful for a non-rainy morning.  The wind was brisk and the sky was cloudy but it wasn't drippy.  

It was fun to watch the groups as they moved toward the uppermost sample sites in the mudflat...I knew what they were likely to find, and they did...GHOST SHRIMP.  These are burrowing shrimp that can be up to about 5-6 cm long, a surprising find since all the teams had seen so far were mainly clams and worms.  

We had a largely enjoyable and fun 3 hours of digging in the mud!

The rest of the day was devoted to a class meeting, recording field data and identifying species found during the outing.  Mission accomplished!

The sky actually cleared this afternoon and we saw the big round yellow thing in the sky - it's been a stranger since we arrived.  The skies stayed clear enough long enough to give us a fantastic Oregon Coast sunset.  This shot was taken at Sunset Bay.  Here's to many more clear days and beautiful sunsets to come.

Tomorrow's plan is to hit the road early and spend the morning at the rocky intertidal zone at Cape Arago State Park.  We can't wait!

Stay tuned!