The other day I was speaking with someone that had seen my Hawktopus post (the Red-tailed Hawk that I was able to photograph as it flew with an octopus) and while they were very enthusiastic about it, they chided me once they learned that I had more pictures of octopi (sans redtail) taken on Tomales Bay several days prior that I had not yet shared with the world outside of facebook. So here are some of those pictures, and the story behind them-

One of the weakened octopus that I found on the shores of the bay

Several days before I saw the Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) carrying a Common Coastal Red Octopus (Octopus rubescens), I came across the first octopus that I had ever seen in the wilds of our coastal waterways, the wildest part about it however was that it was being eaten by a gull.

Gull with the prized tidbit of an octopus. Can we say sashimi?

Of course I took pictures of something I hadn’t expected to see, never having seen evidence of octopus in my local bay. Shortly after I came across several other octopus that were washed up on the shore and that weren’t yet dinner. They were out of the water, which I suspected to be a bad sign for them. Upon investigating I found they were still alive, but barely so. One I placed into the water, and while it livened up a little, it didn’t seem the active vivacious creature I suspect it once was. Since it seemed there was noting I could do to help them, I took photographs, documenting the event.

Whenever I come across something I haven’t seen before, I try to record it, not just for my own edification, but also because if I haven’t seen it before, perhaps others haven’t as well.

I used a digital SLR and a compact digital camera for the images. I was switching between the two- a 300mm lens on one, and the built in 7.4-44.4mm  Try to see if you can tell which is which from the depth of field.

-Galen