Whipping up some lunch: You might see phalaropes spinning around in circles, creating whirlpools in the water. These whirlpools carry tiny animals to the surface where the birds can feed on them.

High-salt diet: Most plants don't like salt. But pickleweed takes in salt from wetland water and stores it. Later, some stems drop off, ridding the plant of excess salt.

Can't find the flounder? Look for eyes peeking up from the sand. Like many flatfishes, a starry flounder buries itself in the sand and, hidden from predators, waits to ambush prey.

"Lupus" means "wolf" in Latin: These native dune marine plants were named after wolves because people thought they stole nutrients from the soil. In fact, bacteria in their roots add nitrogen back into the ground.

Ever had buckwheat pancakes? They're made from the seeds of a cultivated version of coast buckwheat. In the wild, this plant's nectar feeds bees, other insects and an endangered butterfly called Smith's blue butterfly.

That stuff washed up on the sand is called beach wrack. When you explore beach wrack, you might find anything from seaweed to seashells to jellies—or sadly, other people's junk from oceans away.

This bird deserves an Oscar: If a predator looms too near a killdeer's nest, the bird launches into its "broken wing" charade: dragging itself off, one wing twisted as if broken, it lures the predator away from its young.

No sting in that tail: Many people look for a bat ray's stinging spine at the tip of the tail—but it's at the base, near the ray's body. We've clipped the spines off these rays, and they're used to people, so it's safe for you to touch them.

Long-distance travelers: Like most of the wild shorebirds in Monterey Bay, marbled godwits live here only part-time. In winter you see them feeding on our beaches, but summer finds them 1,000 miles away, nesting on prairies in the northern U.S. and Canada.