A Naturalist's Day at the Tidepools

I'm taking a drawing class called Keeping a Nature Sketchbook, which emphasizes keen observation and attention to detail. Today we had a field trip to Natural Bridges State Park to sketch the tidepools.  It was suggested that we do a series of small thumbnails along one side of the page, reserving the majority of the page for a detailed drawing, which would be illuminated with text: observations, measurements, behavior notes. I never got that far, relying instead on photos, which I've collaged here to simulate the assignment. What I discovered is that while I enjoy the heck out of sitting by a tidepool and examining all the life it holds, I wasn't particularly compelled to make a detailed drawing of what I saw. I did do some sketches of the crabs after I solved a couple of issues with simply being comfortable sitting/crouching on the rocks. I also discovered that the subject was at a mid-point between my bifocals and the distance part of my glasses, in other words it would have been good to have my computer glasses with me. Who expected so many physical problems?

1. A beautiful day at the beach. Low tide allows us to walk around the point for a rare view of the remaining Natural Bridge. There were three bridges not that long ago.
2. We take the (very) long walk to the tide pools below the adjacent mobile home park, as it's no longer allowed to walk on the rocks that are in the State Park. This split looks like a fault line running along the coast.
3.You can see forever. The fog is still hovering. I'm trying to show the scale here, from the Lined Shore Crab in the foreground to China on the horizon. Maybe it is Alaska, or Russia.
4. This crab was intent on straddling the crevice, sometimes losing his balance, but always regaining a good pose, which he held for a remarkable amount of time.
5. Note the turquoise spots between the claw and body of the crab in the bottom image.  I've found photos of crabs with bright blue joints, like colorful hinges, but I can't find out the why. The spots were a great surprise, like the bright blue throats of mating cormorants.