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CoastWatch Mile 157 County Douglas Description Oregon Dunes NRA, west of Perkins Lake Boundaries N 43° 49.91', W 124° 9.807' to N 43° 49.059', W 124° 10.009' Google Maps Nearby Roads, Directions to/from, Google photos, Satellite image, Terrain overlay OPRD Map Siuslaw R to Siltcoos R (3), to Tahkenitch Cr (1) Vehicles • Motor vehicle travel is prohibited from the Lane County-Douglas County line (43° 51.8604', Mile 160), southerly to approximately one mile south of the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek (43° 47.4330', Mile 155). Weather Current Weather Conditions at nearby stations (may take a minute or two on a dialup connection) Tides The NOAA Tide Predictions site may be found here. Click on the station nearest to your location to see predicted tides in graphical and tabular formats. Photo Oyster shell plover habitat   3/5/13 I guess I hadn't noticed this before, or it's new: I was a little confused to see all these oyster shells here on the bulldozed dune just west of Oregon Dunes Day Use Area, but looked online and saw that USFS scatters them for snowy plover habitat. bonnie

30 REPORTS FOR MILE 157: bonnie Mar 5, 2013 12:00 AM   A rainy day; we had the beach to ourselves. Storm seemed to have brought in a lot of mostly plastic debris; much may have been tsunami in origin, but couldn't confirm. Lots of styrofoam in all types and sizes, lots of plastic bottles (some with Japanese writing), some glass bottles, parts of foam fishing floats, scattered dimensional lumber, some with nails sticking out, some unidentifiable molded plastic items, one with a lot of styrofoam insulation attached. In addition, clam shells (razor and otherwise), some kelp, many large, old stumps and other driftwood. But seriously, a lot of plastic garbage. Hauled off what we could carry, which was a fraction of the total. I walked with Melissa Willenborg, a film student working on a documentary about tsunami debris.    MORE    Oyster shell plover habitat    Description: I guess I hadn't noticed this before, or it's new: I was a little confused to see all these oyster shells here on the bulldozed dune just west of Oregon Dunes Day Use Area, but looked online and saw that USFS scatters them for snowy plover habitat. Location: West of Oregon Dunes Day Use Area bzenderson Nov 25, 2012 12:00 AM   Gorgeous day at the beach (crappy and cloudy and cold in Eugene). We arrived at about mid-tide and, at first glance, it didn't look like there was much in the driftline. But we wound up finding a lot of dead birds and a lot of a particular mystery animal of some kind (see below). Some possible tsunami debris (styro, tea bottle, one piece of dimensional wood but without any markings, couple of fishing floats), but not much of that kind of thing. And one large jelly on the beach. Lovely day. Enough dead birds that I was sorry I didn't bring my dead bird guide to facilitate more definitive IDs. RE mystery animal in driftline: Bill Hanshumaker of HMSC notes there have been reports of salps coming ashore. (http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/07/03/ocean-overrun-with-gentle-gelatinous-salps/) Apparently there are many kinds of salps and I suspect this might be one.    MORE    Thetys salp    Description: I later wrote a short "Sightings" piece about salps for this website. Backlit view of Thetys salp    big debris    Description: Looks like the cover on a hold, or maybe an appliance of some kind; plastic plus very rusted metal. hold cover, underside    Description: And here's what it looked like underneath. bzenderson Jun 20, 2012 12:00 PM   There is a lot of buzz about whether the stuff on the beaches these days is from the tsunami. We found a lot of rigid styrofoam (presumably for insulation); normally see very little of that. Many black plastic fishing floats (of the kind we saw on the beach before the tsunami, but more than usual), and dimensional lumber stamped with japanese writing (a couple of roughly 4x4s), along with a couple of light bulbs (could be from a container/the Garbage Patch, as we often find them) and other things, including plastic and glass bottles, some with Japanese writing. I am convinced that at least some of this stuff is tsunami debris. The foam, at least: house insulation?   MORE    Bamboo gaff hook?    Description: Forgot to mention this bit of debris; bamboo, I'm guessing off a Japanese dock or fishing boat at sea. See the snowy plover?    Description: It's right there, dead-center! I thought they were jellyfish babies    Description: But my "Beachcombers Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest" indicates they may be sea gooseberries (Pleurobrachia bachei): about 5/8 inch diameter, "Found near shore, often in large numbers ... Occasionally they wash up on the beach." Stamped dimensional lumber from Japan    Description: No nail holes. From Japan    Description: Off a fishing boat or a tsunami-destroyed kitchen counter? bzenderson Apr 15, 2012 12:00 PM   Fair amount of ocean-borne debris, but unlike my last walk here about a month earlier, when the debris was d0ominated by Japanese plastic bottles (tsunami debris?), it was very cosmopolitan: Russian sparkling water (unopened), Korean ping pong ball, Chinese mineral water, plus a lot of black, apparently Japanese fishing floats and perhaps the same white hardhad (looked to be Japanese origin)that we saw last time. Also a lot of American-origin fishing debris (tub of grease, bottle of motor oil, etc.). LOTS of whole trees and limbs apparently from recent flooding of local rivers, some (shore pines) with needles still on branches. Several large (Japanese) intact lightbulbs (red mostly, plus a smoky brown). The water table in the dunes was the highest I've seen it in several years.    MORE    Anyone know what kind of nut this is?    Description: Found several in the driftline. I don't recognize it. Is it from a local tree or has it drifted here from, say, Japan? The size of a walnut, but not a walnut. Date: Apr 15, 2012 12:00 AM bonnie Jan 28, 2012 12:00 AM   Stunning winter day; we were totally overdressed, kept shedding clothes to the brink of immodesty. Saw a few flocks of sanderlings, no other birds of note. Driftline was pretty slim pickings, though we did encounter quite a few whole trees/logs and one bent and battered green Old Town plastic (or similar material) canoe--guessing that it, and the trees, were flushed down the Siuslaw or another river during recent floods. The driftline was mostly shredded wood, a few features and shells, and a lot of minute plastic particles.   MORE  bzenderson Jul 14, 2011 10:45 AM   The special today was CRAB: Crab legs, whole crab, crab molt, you name it. I was able to identify a lot of crab molt, but there seemed to be actual dead crabs among them. Lots of shells. Lots (relatively speaking) of people out enjoying the dunes, including an older couple from northern England who hiked the whole 3.5-mile loop; what a great experience on their big West Coast vacation! Lovely day, hard to not step on a bivalve shell (mainly) or crab shell or small rock or feather when walking near the driftline. European beachgrass seedheads were, dare I say it, quite lovely, as were the velvety Scotch broom seed bods (aaack!!) What can I say? It was a sunny, warm, lovely day at the beach; even the invasive exotics looked good.   MORE    Dried scum in driftline    Description: Scallops of this dried scum defined the driftline in places. Tiny white critters in driftline    Description: In places the driftline was full of these very small(5 mm?)shrimplike critters, white. I don't know enough to know if they were juvenile shrimp or krill or what. (Broken sand dollar for scale) Beach bling    bzenderson Nov 13, 2010 12:00 PM   Drizzly day on Mile 157; my friend Patricia came along for the first time. Unusual number of dead birds (only once before have I found that many on this mile), but given that it's November and that most were northern fulmars, not that unusual. Most of the dead birds were very fresh, appeared to be juveniles. There were probably additional dead fulmars we didn't see. No crab molt at all; debris was almost entirely razor (and a few other) clam shells and tons of kelp--HUGE wads of kelp, and even several big rocks with kelp hold-fasts attached. Also an unusual number of large driftwood stumps on the beach. Saw almost no live birds (no sanderlings)--just a few gulls busy picking at the dead fulmars. There were large piles of debris at both beach trailheads; apparently beach walkers have collected debris and dumped it here for someone else to pack out.   MORE    Patricia demonstrating kelp wad    Foredune and beach    Description: Photo shows recent erosion of foredune and the abundance of kelp on the beach in the driftline. Holdfast    Description: One of several large rocks we found with kelp holdfasts still attached (but stem ripped off). Evidence of pretty snarly storm. I was surprised at how firm these holdfasts are to the touch--more like wood than seaweed. bonnie Sep 8, 2010 1:00 PM   Stunningly beautiful day on Mile 157; it started out foggy but cleared up. Little wind. As expected this time of year, we saw a fair number of dead common murres. The (presumably organic) scum on the beach was quite pronounced. Lots of clam shells and fair number of crab shells on the beach (and one live crab scuttling back to the water). We don't usually see anyone on the beach here, so were surprised to see a few people this day. Didn't expect to see evidence of the Sanak (the fishing boat that ran aground here in 1983), despite the late spring storm that had uncovered it; usually the summer sand influx buries it again, but the bow and stern were still visible. But we watched two couples walk right by without realizing what it was, apparently.   MORE    A glimpse of the driftline    Date: Sep 8, 2010 12:00 AM Would you have realized this was a boat?    Description: This is the bow of the Sanak, which ran aground here in September 1983; the stern is visible too. We watched people walk by it, as we probably did years ago before we knew what to look for, and where (about 1/4 mile north of southern Oregon Dunes Overlook trailhead). We thought it was a young harbor seal    Description: But Marine Mammal Stranding Network coordinator Jim Rice looked at the photo and thinks it's a shark. Another crummy day at the beach    Description: This volunteer stuff is exhausting. (This is me trespassing on Mile 156.) bzenderson May 8, 2010 3:00 PM   Lovely spring visit--rhodies in full bloom along with beach pea, strawberries and our friend Mr. Scotch Broom. Big surprise was to see the Sanak, the buried fishing boat I wrote about in my book "Strand"; it has been under sand since 2004. The foredune seems to have migrated west so it was about over one end of the Sanak. But the spring storms of about a month ago scoured the sand off the beach and attacked the foredune and exposed the boat and its very rusty head block. I was also struck, as usual, by the plastic bits defining the debris line, and by the absence of seabirds--just not a lot to see this day bird-wise.   MORE    The Sanak rises again    Description: Or the sand is scoured again. The Sanak ran aground in September 1983 (as detailed in my book Strand); occasionally it reappears. I haven't seen it since 2004. Location: 0.25 mile south of south beach trailhead on Oregon Dunes Day Use Area trail. Glehnia (Glehnia leiocarpa)    Description: White-green umbellifer (member of the carrot family, according to field guide) blooming in the dunes alongside the trail. Location: Oregon Dunes Day Use Area loop trail bonnie Mar 23, 2010 12:00 AM   A beautiful day for breaking rules. I'm calling it my winter visit, since I failed to quite get there before the spring equinox. Found what USFS person said was a sanderling, but I'm calling a plover, because I so wanted it to be (and I'm not sure it wasn't). Calm in morning, brisk cold wind in afternoon, but very sunny and lovely. Very little bird action anywhere (but happy to see two bald eagles). Encountered five teenage backpackers, heading south for a two- or three-night spring break backpack along the dunes. New and very nice trailhead signs. Accompanied by Jack Long (AKA Mile 156) once again--great companion! Southern dune on Tahkenitch Creek oxbow continues to erode--I wonder if we will ever see it break through, and if so, where?   MORE    Spring break backpackers    Location: West of Oregon Dunes Day Use Area bzenderson Dec 1, 2009 12:00 AM   A gorgeous day, the Pacific very pacific. Perfect for opening day of crab season; at one point I could see 8 fishing boats from my mile. Beach quite clean; some debris (bits of bleached nylon rope, a few plastic and glass bottles, etc.) well above last high tide. No glass (or plastic) floats; one lightbulb. On the wet sand, razor clam shells mostly, a few kelp clumps. Very little bird activity; not even gulls. Several big, well-weathered stumps. Inland, heard lots of birds in the trees; possibly kinglets, definitely several flickers. A heavenly day. I will add a couple of photos in a bit.   MORE    View west to Oregon Dunes Overlook    Location: north end, Mile 157 (west of dunes overlook platform) Brown pelican carcass    Description: Not sure you can see them in this tight crop, but bear prints approach the carcass. One of many weathered stumps and tree trunks    bonnie Jul 9, 2009 12:00 AM   A beautiful sunny day for hiking. Not much bird activity anywhere (except the two bald eagles at the oxbow); saw very few birds on Tahkenitch Creek, and not many even on the ocean. Not a lot of garbage on the beach (some, such as ocean-borne plastic bottles, etc.), some kelp and crab shells and other shells, etc. Overall an uneventful walk on Mile 157, but it ended with my first overnight on Mile 157; I camped just above the creek, just off the trail a short distance inland from the trailhead at the south end of my mile. It was Day 3 of my 13-day backpack from Yachats to the California state line. From the top of the foredune, I got to watch the sun set in a clear sky and settle into a shallow bank of clouds on the horizon. Woke at 1 a.m., thinking it was morning, but it was just the just-past-full moon shining through the walls of my ultralight tent. Then sometime in the next few hours the weather changed; I woke in the early morning to light rain. And packed up and headed south.   MORE  bonnie May 21, 2009 12:00 AM   A lovely sunny day, but strong winds had blown sand over most everything in recent tide lines; didn't find any dead birds, for instance. I did stop to pick up a small, deep orange agate; when I reached in my pocket to drop it there, I felt something else--another agate, this one larger and cream-colored. I must have dropped it there the last time I wore these pants to the beach. Reminded of the movie Groundhog Day--so many wonderful days at Mile 157, all blending together, even repeating themselves. I watched an osprey pluck something from the water's edge--I'm wondering if it was a sanderling, as there had been a big flock there moments before, and this thing looked round and fat and small, not slender like a fish. Probably saw some 200 sanderlings, in several groups, and a fair number of gulls, and one small group of ducks of some kind, winging north over the waves. At one point I saw several very nonchalant gulls and a single turkey vulture just standing on the beach near one another, "acting natural," which naturally raised my suspicions. I walked toward them and found what they were hoping I'd ignore: the tattered remains of a good-sized fish they'd been working on. The spine seemed to be cartiledge, not bone, and it had a thin forked black tail and what looked like slightly spiny black dorsal fins. No idea what it was--something common, or something rare?   MORE    Lancetfish?    Description: I think I figured out what this is: the remains of a lancetfish. Apparently they have been found stranded in large numbers on Oregon beaches recently. It was pretty well ravaged by the time I came upon it. Location: Mile 157 bonnie Mar 12, 2009 12:00 AM   Gorgeous day. Very little going on. Saw sanderlings on next mile, but all I saw on Mile 157 was one soaring bald eagle and a few gulls. Not much in the drift line; no evidence of any big recent blows out of southwest (didn't see any debris I'd identify as Asian in origin). Really not much going on. But a beautiful day.   MORE    Self-portrait    bonnie Jan 11, 2009 9:00 AM   We went on the day with the highest tide of the year (10.4). Got to the beach early, fortunately; high tide was at 11:45, and we were already running out of beach by 9:45. Weather was very mild, so expect much less impact from this high tide than if it had hit coincident with a big storm. Accompanied by Melissa Hart. Saw no other people. Thank you, Melissa, for IDing the northern harrier. Very large volume of driftwood on beach, from twigs to whole trees and stumps in the surf line. Fair amount of ocean drift, including a startling number of intact lightbulbs, some small but most very large. Among them: one long, thin fluorescent tube; a large (5" D) halogen bulb; four large (5" D) dark red lightbulbs in scattered locations; and one large (6" D) clear bulb, nearly round (it really looked like a fishing float at first). It's not unusual to find one lightbulb, but this must have been a shipment lost at sea. Some were colonized by pink coraline algae, so had been floating for a while.   MORE    Lightbulb tide    Description: Two of the four large red lightbulbs we found--which were among more than a dozen lightbulbs of various sizes and shapes on the beach today. And a fluorescent bulb    Description: How does this not break? Yet the chances of me getting a lightbulb like this home intact from the hardware store are about 50-50, I think. bonnie Oct 1, 2008 3:00 PM   Beautiful day at the beach. Minimal ocean-borne debris; mostly lots of kelp, crab molt, jellyfish pieces. Just two dead murres, who had died not long ago. Sand volume high (no boat visible), and water levels low (seasonal ponds in dunes non-existent, no water to walk through at all on the way to the beach; Tahkenitch Creek low).   MORE  bonnie Jun 21, 2008 12:00 PM   I'm claiming this as my spring quarter walk, although technically it was just past the solstice! Some some low-tide surprises. Otherwise fairly uneventful. There was a marine mammal (seal? sea lion?) skeleton in the waves, but it was on Mile 158, just north of my mile. (So were the best sea stars.) Saw one or possibly two immature bald eagles. Lovely day to walk Mile 157.   MORE    Pisaster brevispinus    Description: One of a half-dozen sea stars found at low tide (technically on Mile 158) Location: west of north trailhead, Oregon Dunes Overlook Cluse-up of dried scum on beach    Location: Mile 157 Overview of dried beach scum    Location: Mile 157 Date: Jun 21, 2008 12:00 AM bonnie Mar 8, 2008 12:00 AM   Absolutely beautiful day, shared with my friend and CoastWatch partner Jack Long; wind picked up in early afternoon and got quite chilly, but sunny and lovely and, as usual, not another soul. We went all the way to the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek and found a protected spot along the creek, behind a big driftwood stump, to eat lunch.   MORE    Mystery bird wing    Description: Any ideas? All black, perhaps some brown in the feather shafts. Location: about 2 miles north of mouth of Tahkenitch Creek bonnie Dec 10, 2007 12:00 AM   Surprisingly little debris on the beach, despite big storms a few days prior. Lots of beach grass in the driftline, but mostly at north end; seems to be more from the earth moving on Mile 158 than from storm erosion. It was my birthday, and a beautiful day: mild, sunny. Walked to the creek mouth (on Mile 156) hoping to see salmon at high tide but didn't.   MORE  bonnie Sep 23, 2007 12:00 AM   Beautiful early fall day at the beach with my friend Jim Weber; no one else on the beach, and interesting wrack, including at least nine dead birds, lots of dead crabs and crab parts, and other flora/fauna (and bits of garbage such as a few plastic bottles and lengths of frayed rope) that seem to have come from local sources, not blown in from the Eastern Garbage Patch. A glide of pelicans and a few sanderlings--otherwise not much bird life.   MORE    Piddock clams dug into shale    bonnie Jul 7, 2007 4:00 AM   Pretty uneventful trip. Very windy. Not many critters. Not much garbage on the beach even; a few plastic bottles and the like.   MORE    Mystery jaw    Description: I am going to try to upload a photo of what must be a jaw of some kind of fish; there is one sharp tooth remaining in what is sort of a cartilaginous jaw. Any ideas for ID? Date: Jul 7, 2007 3:00 AM bonnie May 26, 2007 8:00 PM   In the wrack line, many examples of a fish (decomposed) that we couldn't identify; long, slender, no discernable head, strange. I will try to post a photo. Note the backbone, not symmetrical; on one side, little knobs; on the other, very fine bones about 1/4 to 3/8 inches long. Probably average of 1 to 3 of them per meter. Also lots of dead crabs as well as crab molt, and many, many dead mole crabs.   MORE    Dead fish skeleton and skin    Description: We found hundreds of these per mile in the wrack line. Trying to determine what they were. Don't recall seeing them before. bonnie Mar 18, 2007 10:30 AM   After several sunny days (in valley), a stormy evening prior to our walk, and beach had LOTS of stuff. Many bottles of Japanese origin. Oyster pipes. Two skate egg cases. The many dead birds I reported above. Awesome agates. One "beach ball" (of beachgrass roots, etc.). A couple of huge wads of kelp. Stumps and trees with lots of barnacles. One VERY old shoe that had been at sea a long time; label was gone, but it was stamped "Street Cars" (a brand or model name). Walked toward mouth of Tahkenitch Creek and saw a pair of snowy plovers on Mile 156 (the next mile south!) on the beach outside the roped "plover refuge."   MORE  whitebird Mar 6, 2007 11:00 AM   I saw many post-hibernation fecal plugs from bears inland. Fresh bear tracks were in the sand and driftline. With only two bird carcasses on this mile, and no fish or crabs, I can't imagine that the surf and turf dinner was much of a repast.   MORE    Bear Track    Description: Bear looking for Surf & Turf! Location: mile 157 Date: Mar 6, 2007 12:00 AM Black-legged Kittiwake    Location: mile 157 Date: Mar 6, 2007 12:00 AM VKnox2 Dec 22, 2006 7:45 AM   Monstrous piles of Bull Kelp. One lone strand of Feather Boa... a first. Hundreds of Sanderlings.   MORE  bonnie Nov 11, 2006 11:00 AM   Saw two seals in waves, wondering if Salmon are running up Tahkenitch Creek. Seen one large gull like bird on beach but flew off before we could ID it. Also seen Sanderlings, migrating geese, a Heron in creek, a few other swimming birds in waves. Found part of a whale skull, 58" though it was not wholly intact, it was probably a Gray Whale.   MORE  bonnie Aug 5, 2006 10:00 AM   Very high sand volume, no sharp drop-off at foredune.   MORE  VKnox2 Jun 14, 2006 9:56 AM   Thousands of Mole crab carcasses in the high tide drift line. Some places as many as 20 per square foot also found small amount of Kelp, Rockweed, Bull. Still researching Mole crabs mortality. They are number one food source for Perch and some Shorebirds. They carry a parasite that if consumed in large enough quantities may prove fatal for both Shorebirds and Sea otters!   MORE  bonnie Apr 20, 2006 11:45 AM   High sand volume, boat buried. Quite a lot of standing water in dunes. One Kelp strand 48-50 feet long. Lots of broken shells below drift line in sand.   MORE  VKnox2 Mar 16, 2006 8:30 AM   Seen an Osprey and many razor clams on shore. Part of the dune is caving in and some beach grass has washed away   MORE