At the beach during low tide this winter, we have been fortunate to encounter a handful of visitors and residents at the shellfish garden. One night we saw a medium sized pink star Pisaster brevispinis, two medium plumose sea anemones Metridium senile, and an unidentified goby that snuck into one of the oyster bags but couldn’t get out. (We had to free the goby so that it would not perish trapped in the bag, but it also was mildly traumatized by the extraction and handling.) The most recent night we found a generously sized horse (fat gaper) clam Tresus capax that had emerged from the sand. I must admit I probably did not rebury it sufficiently deeply when I reburied it; like geoducks, these clams are unable to rebury themselves as adults. Evergreen students frequently mistake them for our school mascot when they encounter them at the beach, as these clams also have a large siphon that protrudes from the shell through a wide gap. When we get a chance to sample under the clam netting later in the year, we’ll undoubtedly find some more.