Seeing Stars
Little Brown Bat Star.
Tansy thinks Sea Stars are SO interesting. She found out a lot by studying the “Field Guide to Sea Stars of the Pacific Northwest” by Neil McDaniel. This is an excellent little pamphlet packed with information about Sea Stars, their biology, ecology, habits and habitats.
Sunflower Star.
This is the largest kind of sea star on the west coast of BC, up to a meter across. This one has 16 arms and is purple, but it can it can have up to 20 arms, and be coloured reddish orange, yellow, or violet brown!
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Purple Sunflower Star.
A Sunflower Star is a sprinter in the world of sea stars, and can move 2.1 m/minute, and will eat anything in it’s path…Sea Stars can extrude their stomach outside their body, envelop their prey and digest their food externally. Tansy is very glad that Sunflower Stars don’t move as quickly when not submerged. She has no interest in finding out if Sunflower Stars eat small wooden dolls.
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Tansy has the feeling she is being watched.
Sea Stars don’t have eyes, but they do have “eye spots”, each with a simple lens at the tip of each arm.
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A constellation.
The variation in Bat Star colours is wondrous!
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You can learn more about Tansy’s trip through this link which has posts by her human friend Ehpem who kindly took her along in his camera bag and pockets.
Quimper Hittys 
Very Interesting. Thank you Tansy for giving us a lesson in Sea Stars.
Tansy thinks it is a pretty amazing animal with it’s five arms, five eyes and she forgot to mention the thousands of tube feet!
Lovely. The Constellation photograph is wonderful.
It is my favourite too, and not posed either! Tansy found those bat stars all lined up just like that!
She does seem to find wonderful new friends on her adventures.
What a wonderful post. These creatures are incredible, both in the interest they inherently hold, but also in their size and shape!
Tansy wants to see a Cookie Star, but would have to learn to scuba dive, as they are found between 10 and 550 m below sea level..
Thanks for giving out ehpem’s blog address. I should have been an archaeologist, but reading his his blog is lot easier and dryer!
I am glad you looked at ehpem’s blog – it is full of interesting pictures, though without Tansy. One of my Hitty friends is working in Jordan at the moment, where the archaeology is certainly dryer, but not easier!
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These animals are incredible. The shapes and colors are wondrous. Thank you for referring me to this story.
You are welcome! We learned so much about Sea Stars – aren’t the Bat stars amazing?!