Where has the sand on Quarry Beach gone?

Following a report  and video of a whale Broaching off Davis Beach yesterday we decided to take a look at Quarry Beach today.  The first sight we had was that the beach was a lot wider than usual!

As a result of the low water levels there was a lot of exposed rock.  There would have been more exposed rock if so much of it was not covered with mussels!

Where there was no mussels there was seaweed.  Sometimes green ..

.. sometimes brown ...

... and sometimes a strange white gelatinous form!

As well as mussels there were limpets and ...

... particularly at the Western end of the beach, chitons.

I have concluded that there was at least 1 vertical metre (and possibly 1.5 m) of rock exposed that is normally underwater.  This meant that some life that normally spends its time underwater would have been exposed, if not hiding in crevices.  Here is a crab!

These annotations may make it easier to spot: the crevice was about 10cm deep so difficult to get the camera in, and the lens blocked my vision!

A sea-anemone was easier to pick out.

As we walked down the beach we kept a sharp eye out for cetaceans but no luck.  That did lead to me seeing a Sea-Eagle well out to sea.  Then noticed a second perched in a dead tree!

It's always a good day when one sees these birds!

The large rocks at the end of the beach were endowed with Great Cormorants.

Kelp was evident in this area.

Due to the low water level it was possible to walk round the end between two outcrops.  This passage is normally at least 1 m (plus wave height) deep, and I would expect quite a strong current.

The action of the waves has sculpted out an attractive groove in the rocks.

As the tide seem to be coming in, and we didn't want to scramble over the rocks or up the cliff, we retreated quite soon.  As we walked back we noticed a couple who had gone round the sea-end of some other rocks getting quite damp as they waded to the beach.