A big milestone today—I just successfully led my first Bowdoin Outing Club trip!!! And what better trip to lead than a Bowdoin-Naturalists-affiliated TIDEPOOLING excursion with my best friend and marine queen Katie Galletta??
So, bright and early on this Saturday morning, we headed out to Potts Point in Harpswell at low tide, hoping to find some exciting intertidal zone inhabitants. At first glance, all we could see were hundreds of shells—mussel, oyster, various snails—and piles and piles of rockweed, a type of seaweed. 
According to Katie, though, lots of creatures can be found hiding beneath the rockweed! To prove her point, she pointed out a tunicate, a type of marine invertebrate, clinging to a rock beneath a nice blanket of rockweed. Minutes later, we even found two small fish flopping under some rockweed (not even in a pool, just on the beach) and picked them up! Crazy!
More exploration of bigger pools yielded a variety of snails, small invertebrates, and two weird noodly, hairy creatures belonging to a class called polychaete worms. And, of course, plenty of fun! It was such a beautiful day, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the way the tide pools reflected the sky.
We easily spent two hours out there, stopping for a snack break and just poking around in and out of the water. 
So much fun! And we learned tons from Katie especially, who brought along two field guides along with her love for all things marine science!! (When friends have tons of cool knowledge to share with you—ahh! So exciting!!)
As always, grateful for so many things—the ocean, my newfound curiosity today, and my nature pals! Absolutely can’t wait for fall, when I’ll be spending an entire semester learning about the ins and outs of marine science. But for now, this was a great way to get a taste of what’s to come!
wings & things 
LOVE this and you!!!
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