Moonlight Meander and Starlight Stroll

New Moon and Full Moon are the times to experience the unique exposure to the intrigue of Life in the Intertidal Zone. The Low Spring Tide exposes areas usually hidden from sight ...and JUDY reveals the mysteries of the amazing creatures living there. The Sandy Shore suddenly becomes alive as the sand erupts with emerging plough snails, pill bugs, ghost crabs.....creatures one normally walks over without being aware of their existence below the surface. The tide leaves traces of various animals......the magnificent egg case of the paper nautilus, the fascinating egg collar of the moon snail, "mermaid's purses", and a range of shells which may provide a new home for a hermit snail as it grows up. Once one reaches the Rocky Shore, the mystery deepens. A rock previously ignored suddenly becomes the bustling environment of creatures adapted to the gruelling elements of exposure. The pools are a kaleidoscope of colour: vivid red anemones, purple urchins, orange nudibranch and a Persian carpet of cushion stars. Lurking in crevices are the entertaining octopuses: they jet through the water after hapless crabs, or pirouette like ballerinas as they spread their mantle over a captured feast. Everything is enhanced by the ambiance: romantic moonlight spreading a silver path across the ocean surface, or a myriad of star with the milky way streaming across the sky.