Alison Young
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alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Alison Young
@alisonkestrel.bsky.social
1.3K followers 230 following 130 posts
Community science | Biodiversity | Intertidal ecology | Pottery | Nudibranchs!

Director of Outreach Programs at iNaturalist

I spend lots of time in the tidepools, love marine inverts and wildflowers, and probably have clay on me somewhere.

she/her
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alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Some recent(ish) #pottery outta the kiln! 1: birdbath, 2: drippy cake stand, 3: vase crackled with sodium silicate, 4: oil bottles.
Ceramic bird bath, mostly blue with some tan and white mottling from another glaze. Ceramic cake stand with vertical grooves carved into the plate edge and the pedestal. Green glaze applied at the top of the grooves with a cream glaze over the whole cake stand, the green glaze has flowed into the groves and left some glaze drips on the edge of the plate. A vase with a noticeable cracking texture through the middle of it. Blue glaze applied to the whole thing and then wiped away where the cracks are, so there is blue at the top and the bottom of the vase and then blue inside the cracks themselves. Four ceramic oil bottles with metal pourers at the tip. The bottle on the left has vertical grooves carved into it and a green glaze flowing down into the grooves with a cream glaze applied over it; the next bottle has vertical grooves carved into it with a purple glaze flowing down into a greenish-blue glaze; the third bottle has a blue glaze at the top and a cream glaze at the bottom; the final bottle has blue glaze at the top and a green-ish blue glaze at the bottom. All four bottles have indents in body of the bottle to make it easier to pick up and hold the bottles.
July 27, 2025 at 8:41 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Baby sunflower star, Pycnopodia helianthoides. My first time seeing live ones in the wild since 2013! 🤩😍
July 11, 2025 at 6:06 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Spent some time in Bermuda last week with my face in the water. It was pretty lovely, lots of #corals and #seahares and #fishes and even a #nudibranch.
A variety of corals, mostly purple, gray, and light brown, with Atlantic Sergeant Major fish swimming around. The water is aqua blue. A Spotted Seahare in between two Purple Sea Fans. A Zebra Dorid on a sandy sea bottom. A mostly yellow Rainbow Parrotfish behind a coral.
June 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Strrrrrrrrretch! #anemone
May 2, 2025 at 2:03 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
More #nudibranchs from Monday's #tidepool trip. 🤩
May 1, 2025 at 1:38 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Great low tides this week — get out to the #tidepools if you can! Got up early yesterday to find these #nudibranch gems.
April 30, 2025 at 3:12 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Spent a couple morning low tides this week in the #tidepools near Morro Bay. Saw some fun stuff, like #nudibranchs, including the tiniest Hopkins' Rose I've ever seen!
A very tiny Hopkins' Rose nudibranch, all pink with pink cerata. Festive Tritonid nudibranch, whitish-yellow with diamond & circle patterns on its back in white. Opalescent nudibranch, electric blue with orange cerata, on red algae. A tiny Red Dorid nudibranch, dark orange, with sand on its back.
April 4, 2025 at 3:12 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Lots of sparkly Branched Dendronotid #nudibranchs (Dendronotus venustus) hanging out on the docks in Morro Bay today.
March 31, 2025 at 4:53 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Just tryna live my best #lowtidelife, getting out to the #tidepools when I can! Yesterday was big surf & a mediocre low tide, but still managed to find a good group of #nudibranchs & thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Hopkins' Rose nudibranch with lots of pink cerata & dark pink rhinophores. Opalecent nudibranch, with electric blue margins & lines on its body and orange cerata with white tips. Sea Lemon aka Noble Dorid, yellow with dark spots on its back between the papillae. Black & White Dorid, with lots of white cerata tipped with black, and light red gills & rhinophores.
March 11, 2025 at 4:30 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Infinity worm. ♾️🪱
#tidepools #polychaete #polychaeteworm
March 7, 2025 at 11:44 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Just an #octopus doing octopus things in the #tidepools.
March 2, 2025 at 12:15 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Literally the best selfie I have ever taken. No notes.
#nudibranch #tidepools
Photo taken under the water in a tidepool, facing up towards the sky. On the surface of the water is a pink Hopkins' Rose nudibranch, floating upside down, perfectly covering the photographer's face.
February 22, 2025 at 1:59 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Okay but hear me out: intertidal snails have the cutest faces. #tidepools #snails
Painted Wentletrap snail (Epitonium tinctum) with a highly scalloped, long white shell, and a cute little face. Threaded Bittium (Neostylidium eschrichtii) snail with a yellowish shell and a cute mostly long white face with darker stripes. A Velutinid snail (Family Velutinidae) with its mottled white mantle covering its thin inner shell, and a cute face mostly translucent face with yellow spots on it. A tiny Pear Marginella (Granulina margaritula) snail, with its colorful black and orange and blue and yellow mantle partway up its yellowish-pink shell, a long translucent foot with a yellow stripe sticking out the back, and a cute little translucent-ish white-ish face with some yellow.
February 19, 2025 at 11:03 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
One of my fun finds from the weekend in the #tidepools was this baby Giant California Sea Cucumber! I've only ever found them farther north and have only ever seen them full-grown, so it was an unexpected sighting.
A small sea cucumber on a blade of red algae. The cucumber is mottled pink and white on its back, with pointed, bulbous projections. Its underside and tube feet are white. Close up of the organism in the previous picture, focused on its head. You can see the frilly ends of its oral tentacles sticking out from underneath it.
February 12, 2025 at 6:58 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Spent both days this weekend in the #tidepools at a couple of my favorite sites. Things felt a bit churned up from the recent storms, but still spotted many cool creatures, including many #nudibranchs. Here are a few of them.
A Hopkins' Rose nudibranch, bright pink with pink cerata, pink rhinophores, and pink gills. A Black-tipped Spiny Dorid, a white nudibranch with many short white cerata tipped with black, looking like a cute little fluffy sea bunny with long white rhinophores tipped with red and black and a tuft of red gills. A Warty Shag Rug Nudibranch. It's mostly pinkish-peach in color, with peachy cerata with brown splotches on them. Its rhinophores are grayish in color with little "warts" on them. It has a white band going across its head and onto its oral tentacles. A Modest Cadlina Dorid nudibranch, pale yellow in color with tiny, bright yellow dots along its edges.
February 11, 2025 at 6:33 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Today was #FatInnkeeperWorm day! Searching the mud flats of Bodega Bay for these worms and other interesting bay creatures.
February 8, 2025 at 1:46 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
My favorite souvenir from #COP16 in Cali, Colombia. Now more pertinent than ever. Print from La Linterna: lalinternacali.com
A framed print of three Orcas in the waves, done in a pop-art style with bright colors and patterns. The poster reads "Migration is natural | La Migración es Natural | No Borders"
February 6, 2025 at 10:38 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
'Tis the season for California Fetid Adderstongue flowers! Took a little iNaturalist staff field trip to say hi to these stinky yet beautiful blooms. #fetidadderstongue #inaturalist
A closeup of a Fetid Adderstongue flower. There are three larger petals that are pointed oval in shape, white with purple stripes, and in between them, three narrow, linear petals, white and purple. A Fetid Adderstongue plant with two flowers, coming up from two leaves. The leaves are large and bright green with darker, brown spots that look like bruises. A Fetid Adderstongue plant with three flowers.
February 3, 2025 at 12:45 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Happy Lunar New Year! For the Year of the Snake, here's one of my favorite #snake friends, the Sharp-tailed Snake. They eat slugs so they like hanging out in my backyard & garden. #lunarnewyear #yearofthesnake
A sharp-tailed snake in a person's hand. The snake has a predominantly brown back, but with 2 pinkish stripes running down the sides. The snake has twisted itself into an infinty-symbol shape in the middle.
January 29, 2025 at 10:02 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Not us waiting patiently for a Virginia Rail to emerge from the reeds while we were watching Sandhill Cranes... only to have our only glimpse be in the grasp of this Barn Owl. 😂
A Barn Owl in flight, with a Virginia Rail held in its mouth. The owl is holding the neck of the rail and the rail's wings and legs are outstretched.
January 26, 2025 at 11:24 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
The cacophony of a thousand Sandhill Cranes flying in at sunset.
January 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Eight years ago today...
January 21, 2025 at 8:11 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Six-armed #seastars (Leptasterias spp.) can be pretty amusing when they're regrowing arms. Good for a chuckle in the #tidepools.
📸 1 & 2: shooting stars
📸 3: big-little-big-little-big-litte
📸 4: when every day is leg day 😂
January 20, 2025 at 1:14 AM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Tiny #seastars = big joy. ⭐
1: Six-armed star (Leptasterias sp.)
2: Mottled Henricia (Henricia pumila)
3: Purple Sun Star (Solaster endeca)
4: Bat star (Patiria miniata)
#tidepools #tidepooling #starfish
A very tiny yellow six-armed star on a person's fingertip. The star is probably only a couple millimeters across. A tiny yellowish-orange Mottled Henricia sea star on a peron's finger tip. The star has 5 arms and looks to be about half a centimeter across. A small Purple Sun Star on a person's fingertip. The star has 8 arms, the center of its body is purple and it fades to an orange out on its arms. From arm tip to arm tip, the star looks to be about 2 centimeters across. A small orange Bat Star on someone's finger tip. The star has 5 arms, 4 that look normal and 1 that looks like it might be damaged. The star looks to be about 2.5 centimeters across.
January 17, 2025 at 7:19 PM
alisonkestrel.bsky.social
Work in progress: birdbath. #pottery #ceramics
A birdbath made out of a light-colored clay. The clay has not been fired or glazed yet. The birdbath is sitting on top of a pottery wheel, in the background are pottery tools, a bucket, and ribbons of trimmed-off clay.
January 14, 2025 at 5:35 AM