(CNN) A horde of large, fat worms descended upon a central California beach, spooked out of their burrows by a bomb cyclone.

File photo of penis fish found on a beach in Bodega Bay, California

Wildlife enthusiast David Ford captured the foreboding scene, which looks as though a plane full of frankfurters flung open the hatch and let the dogs rain down upon the unassuming shore.

What were these alien creatures, and why'd they end up on shore?

Ford sent his quandary and the surreal images of the Drakes Beach shore to Bay Nature magazine , a local science publication.

They are not franks but fat innkeeper worms, almost as old as the wet sand in which they burrow. And their appearance was rare: The stranding Ford stumbled into might've been one of the few times they'd ever left the ground in their adult lives, biologist Ivan Parr told CNN.