The false pacific jingle shell, or rock oyster, often comes ashore on Taylor Beach attached to the holdfasts of kelp.
Various species of kelp have attached their holdfasts to this rock oyster shell, leading to it being detached and carried ashore on Taylor Beach.
One of the valves of Pododesmus sp.
Reference: Peter’s seashells
When she was an ecoguardian at Race Rocks in 2010, Raisa Mirza took this excellent photo of a river otter, just out of the water, eating a female kelp greenling .
River otters are fairly common along our shores. Thus an entry for our species posts. In four stretches of shoreline in particular, we can expect to find them, where they have dens and produce offspring yearly.
1. At Race Rocks
2. In Pedder Bay
3 At the entrance to Gooch Creek
4. Along the Taylor Beach blufffs.
The Pearson College Marine Science reference has several references and images available on river otters. 
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Mustelidae
Subfamily: Lutrinae
Genus: Lontra
Species: canadensis pacifica (Schreber, 1977)
Common Name: River Otter
One should be cautioned when walking dogs on Taylor Beach to restrain them if otters are in the area. Otters have been known to attack even large dogs that have pursued them into the ocean.
Red-breasted merganser female (Mergus serrator)
Female red-breasted merganser popping up to the surface after a dive . G. Fletcher photos
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Anseriformes
Family: Anatidae
Subfamily: Merginae
Genus: Mergus
Species: M. serrator
Common name : Red-breasted Merganser
Mergansers nest in the fresh-water lakes of the north and then migrate to the Pacific Coastal waters where they feed on small forage fish in the winter. In the past few weeks a large flock of female red-breasted and possibly mixed common mergansers has been working the waters off Taylor Beach.
The remains of an Octopus on Taylor Beach
Not a great picture but the remains of evidence that offshore of Taylor Beach, the giant pacific octopus goes through its life cycle, which is very short.. just a few years.
See the entry on the Race Rocks website for the octopus
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Octopoda
Suborder: Incirrata
Family: Octopodidae
Genus: Enteroctopus
Species: dofleini (Hochberg, 1998)
Common Name Giant Pacific Octopus
My dog led me to this very unusual fish washed up on the shore today, Nov. 12 -2014. There was a brisk cold wind blowing from the North east, with a two-foot chop.
I am posting it here to try to get it identified.
Possibilities here on Fishbase
Note sucker on ventral side
very small eyes indicating it may be an abyssal species.
lateral view of unidentified fish species G. Fletcher photos
Length 24 cm.
Family Liparidae
Liparidae ventral view
A good suggestion has been made by Rick Harbo that it is a snail fish (Liparidae)
From Fishbase:
Deep fin Classification :Osteichthyes | Actinopterygii | Actinopteri | Neopterygii | Teleostei | Osteoglossocephalai | Clupeocephala | Euteleosteomorpha | Neoteleostei | Eurypterygia | Ctenosquamata | Acanthomorphata | Euacanthomorphacea | Percomorphaceae | Percomorpharia | Perciformes | Cottoidei | Liparidae
Also From Fishbase:
“Liparidae – (Snailfishes) Distribution: Arctic to Antarctic, Atlantic, and Pacific. Body elongate, scaleless (small prickles in some) and skin jellylike; dorsal fin (28-82 soft rays) and anal fin (24-76 soft rays) long, confluent, or nearly so with caudal fin; pelvic fin (disc) absent in species of Paraliparis and in the monotypic Nectoliparis; nostrils single or paired (usually in Liparis); vertebrae 38-86. Maximum length about 50 cm. Occur from tidepools to depths of over 7,000 m.”
Below: I took this image in late November of a red-breasted merganser female eating what may be one of these fish. I am not sure if she actually got it down whole!
Laura Verhegge has posted this note about Melibe leonina, seen today in Pedder Bay on the Pearson College Marine Science website
Melibe the hooded nudibranch photo by Laura Verhegge
Melibe leonina photos on Race Rocks Taxonomy by Ryan Murphy
(see other images and a video of the movement on her website)
Ryan Murphy got these images for the Race Rocks Taxonomy.
Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Opisthobranchia
Order: Nudibranchia
Superfamily: Tritoniodea
Family: Tethydidae
Genus: Melibe
Species: leonina Gould, 1852
Common Name: Hooded Nudibranch
I had thought that the Mergansers which started showing up on Taylor Beach this past week were Common Merganser females. Now I am not so sure, as most of them lok more like Red-breasted merganser females . Click for enlargement.
Group of female Mergansers off the north end of Taylor Beach
Zoomed in view of mergansers- possibly a mix of mainly red-breasted merganser females and common merganser females..
Flying merganser females
Flying merganser females closer–
Buffleheads in large flocks of up to 100 individuals
Flying Buffleheads go past Double -crested Cormorants
Double-crested Cormorants with an ocean-going vessel in the background. If all projects for the Pacific North-west go ahead as planned, over 1000 more ships of this size above the high number already using this waterway, will be transiting these waters each year, all carrying bunker and diesel fuel and if Kinder Morgan has its way 350 a year carrying highly toxic dilbit. Click on the oil-spill risk category link below.
See the Census Page on the seabirds showing up in the last few weeks.
Nov 5: Yesterday there were several loons offshore from Taylor Beach. They normally stay over 100 m off shore, so photography without a telephoto is challenging. I think the following images are of two Common Loons (Gavia immer) in various stages of maturity.
Common Loon off the bluff at the North end of taylor Beach
Nov 8 : Definitely Common Loons–a pair of them are feeding every day off Taylor beach (north end) this week.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: Aequornithes
Order: Gaviiformes
Family: Gaviidae Coues, 1903
Genus: Gavia Forster, 1788
Species: G. immer
Gavia immer Morten Thrane Brunnich, 1764)
In April, 2014 I attended the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in Seattle. One of the presentations which surprized me showed the risk to the Southern resident Killer Whale populations from Noise Imapcts in the Salish Sra under Commercial shipping growth Scenarios. Following is a reference to Beam Reach which carries a summary presentation of this. — Scott Veirs, Beam Reach Marine Science & Sustainability; Val Veirs, Colorado College; Jason Wood, Sea Mammal Research Unit
Emazing talk on fossil fuel ship noise & killer whalesThis afternoon I’m giving a talk at the 2014 Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference in which I present our estimates of sound pressure levels from commercial ships in Haro Strait, the core of the summertime critical habitat for the Southern Resident killer whales. I also take a first look at noise impacts of the current tanker and bulk carrier fleets and ask how those impacts may change if a suite of proposed fossil fuel export facilities are added to the Salish Sea.
– See more at: http://www.beamreach.org/2014/04/30/emaze-talk-fossil-fuel-ship-noise-killer-whales
Surf Scoter off Taylor Beach: photo by Garry Fletcher
From September on through winter we see flocks of Surf Scoters feeding offshore on Taylor Beach . Today they were 100 metres offshore. They usually do not approach the shore as closely as the grebes and loons.
“The British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Land and Parks (BC Conservation Data Centre 2000) has designated them as a “Blue Listed” species. Blue List taxa are of special concern because of characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to disturbance from human activities or natural events. Blue-listed taxa are at risk, but are not extirpated, endangered or threatened (Master 1991). “(SFU biology)
A western grebe hangs out with a flock of Surf scoters
Surf Scoters on Taylor beach Oct 28, 2014
| Scientific classification | |
|---|---|
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Anseriformes |
| Family: | Anatidae |
| Subfamily: | Merginae |
| Genus: | Melanitta |
| Species: | M. perspicillata |