Rocks at Bastion Point (pt 2)

We went to Tip Beach so that we could get to the rocks on the western side of Bastion Point.  The tide was forecast to be very low again, albeit an hour later than 2 September.  The pictured geology is usually underwater.

Waves are usually close to the base of these high rocks

The area turned out to be the best reef exploring we have done.  The only contender was Bongoyo Island, near Dar es Salaam but we didn't really know what we were looking at there.  On to the wildlife: I shall attempt to attach names to the specimen later!.

The commonest Sea Anemones Actinia tenebrosa (Waratah Anemone) are usually seen as blobs of purple jelly.  Thus it was excellent to see these three with tentacles waving.

A green Anemone (possibly Aulactinia veratra) in a sandy patch,

From previously identifying these I named them as Sabella sp - a polychaete worm.  That has been upgraded by iNaturalist.org to Sabellastarte australiensis.

Starfish were evident in huge numbers in all types of habitat,

While most were the geometric type there were a few long-armed ones around.  I think this has 11 arms which makes it Coscinasterias muricata.

There were a lot of Tritons on the rocks and on the sand and many shield shells (Scutus antipodes see below - the black object with a small shell in the middle).

This brilliant red shell is a similar overall shape to a triton but lacks the ridges

An Abalone (Haliotis rubra) shell was in the middle of a sandy patch and seemed to be in good order.

On picking it up, it was a rather heavier than usual.  It was still alive!  A few photos were taken as it was carried down to the waters edge.

A second abalone was carrying a lot of passengers.

A fairly typical image of a Shield Shell,  They are also known as Duck-billed Limpet or - according to iNaturalist.org "Elephant Snail"!

When we first saw this we thought it was a Sea Hare (Aplysia sp,).  Later it turned over and revealed itself as another Shield Shell!

There were a lot of fish around in the pools.  Some were pretty small (1 - 2 cm) ..

.. while others were somewhat larger (~15 cm),

Crabs were hiding under rocks

There are various parts of three of the purple jobs in this image.

The sea was moderately flat but the occasional wave broke attractively over the rocks.

I was astonished to find this carved into the rocks several metres from the sand.  I have posted it to the Community Facebook page to try to find some background!

While looking at the seascape photos I noticed these birds flying past - perhaps the Serendipitous Tern is a new species?

As we walked back to the car the setting sun gave a nice effect withe the spray further down the beach.

Getting to car park we were amused by the warning sign.

Obviously "temporarily" means something different to the Shire than to everyone else.  Not only have they not bothered to update it for several days but looking closely at the finishing date (circled) they don't know what year it is!