Point Holmes is well worth checking out at low tide

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

     We like to head down to the Point Holmes shoreline of Comox when there is a very  low tide since it is one of the few places we know of locally that has small tide pools and exposed bedrock which can hide sea stars and other organisms. It is also easy to access from the parking area at Point Holmes which is on Lazo Road on the Comox Peninsula. On Sunday , June 7 low tide was just 0.3 meters  at 1:40 pm so it was ideally timed. We like to get down to this area about 30 minutes before the low tide so that we can do some exploring knowing that the tide won’t start rising for awhile.

                                                 Video of our visit to the tide pools

   On our most recent visit we didn’t see any birds eating midshipman fish like we did the month before but we were rewarded with sitings of various sea stars including the purple sea star which can be easily found in this area clinging to clefts in the rock and in the tide pools. We also saw a sea cucumber which was very interesting as it slowly made its way across a tide pool. We don’t usually see these creatures so this was a bonus. We also saw a leather sea star which is another species we don’t many of in this area. If you sit and watch the goings on in a tide pool you can often see hermit crabs that use discarded shells as hiding places.  You know that the shell is being occupied by a hermit crab since all of a sudden the shell starts to move (see end of video above).

  

A sea cucumber (with many spines) making its way across a shallow tide pool

We also saw a gull trying to eat some sort of small fish and it didn’t quite know what to do with it since it kept putting it down and picking it. Another gull came along and so the gull picked the fish up and flew down the beach. The next very low tides will be July 5, 2020 so make a note of it. We will see you there.

A gull deciding what to do with a fish that it caught.