Mile Report Browser

Beach is much narrower than in most recent visits. Could not walk far on beach because waves were reaching up to the rip rap in front of a group of houses at South end of mile. Portion we were able to walk on was clean, no man made debris. 

On a sunny, afternoon walk at Gearhart Ocean Beach, I observed 8 dogs and 7 humans, walking and sitting on the beach, enjoying the mild weather. The tide was fairly high at 5ft with little exposed beach. Notable wildlife sightings included 6 Bald Eagles and 4 Common Ravens scavenging on a pinniped carcass. The Bald Eagles included individuals in various stages of development, identifiable by distinct plumage characteristics. At one point, 5 Bald Eagles were perched in proximity to each other on a log above the high tide line. A large group of approximately 300 Sanderlings were foraging in the surf, associating with 2 Dunlin. In addition, along the high tide wrack line, I observed a dead albatross. 

On an interpretive hike led by Jesse Jones, of CoastWatch and Dr Larry Basch of Charleston, Oregon, I observed a pisater ochraceus with what looked to be severe SSWS. I submitted a report to MARINe. Happily, I also saw nearly 100 healthy ochre stars. Larry estimated their ages to be between 2-4 years old. We only covered a small portion of the south part of the point.

Today included a group of 28 Coos and Curry residents, joining an ecological interpretive walk led by Dr Larry Basch. Blacklock Point is proposed as a Marine Conservation Area by the public, to be included in the updated Rocky Habitat Management Plan for the Oregon coast. Dozens of healthy sea stars were spotted in the intertidal, as well as kelps. The trail is well-trod and a somewhat large parking area across from the airport buildings and near the trail head isn't marked and is not obvious. 

A group of nine people today were part of a training for a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) marine debris survey training. CoastWatch coordinated and led the training, which was hosted by Redfish Rocks Community Team. This beach is a drive on beach, though no vehicles were on the beach while the training happened. 

Lots of gulls and several seals playing in the surf.

At 9:16am, on 3/28/2022, I was birdwatching at Silver Point, Clatsop County when I was excited to observe a light-colored, white faced, large bodied sea otter swimming north around the left most sea stack. It was smaller than a seal or sea lion, and had brown fur that looked shaggier than that of a pinniped. I got good looks through the spotting scope, and here are some photographs below that I took with my Canon SX-60 (not digiscoped). The sea otter was repeatedly swimming on its back with its front paws held close to its head, and then it would disappear underwater, diving down, and moving rapidly. I noticed it was a fast swimmer, and spending significant time on its back. The photograph with the red marks shows the path the otter took, swimming towards the north out in the open ocean. 

According to Mr. Jim Rice, Stranding Program Manager of the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network, this sea otter sighting was the second sighting in 2022, and the 52nd sighting/stranding of a sea otter along the Oregon Coast since 2007. I shared this sighting with iNaturalist, Elakha Alliance, Mr. Jim Rice, and Mr. Roy Lowe. 

It was a beautiful day.  Many people were at Mile 188 enjoying the spring weather, leaving the Strawberry Hill parking lot way over-crowded.  A wedding was held on the bluff below the parking lot!  Erosion of the bluffs overlooking the north and south beaches continues.  A large group of harbor seals were lounging on the rocky islands just offshore.  At least two colonies of sea stars were visible in the tidepools right at low tide, looking very healthy and varying considerably in size.  

This is a beautiful, little-visited stretch of beach.  ATVs can be heard from the adjoining recreational area, and two seem to have encroached into the prohibited area at the south end of Mile 167.

A resident was walking from Chapman Point toward the river when two dogs, a husky and a black lab, ran up to her, barking and chasing her.  The dogs had leashes trailing on the ground, but no owner attached to them.  The black lab jumped on her, nipping at her and biting at her clothes.  She was afraid, and wasn’t able to deter the dog’s aggression.  She started screaming and crying, trying to get away from the dog.  The dog’s owner finally walked over to the beach walker to get her dog, saying the dog was abused, and that the local resident had invited this attack by screaming and trying to get away from the aggressive dog.  The local told the dog owner that as a Nurse Practitioner she had treated a number of children attacked by dogs. 

The day started out with high clouds blocking the sun to partly cloudy.

Temp was 62 degrees F and a 2mph wind from the west.

Observed 68 people on the beach along with 14 dogs and 1 house cat.

Observed 16 cars parked. Car count is low due to the number of people that access the beach while staying at the Sea Perch RV Resort along with nearby residents.

Found one crab on its back just above the surf line which we turned over so it could live. Also found one star fish above surf line which we placed into a pool of water along some rocks.  Saw several star fish attached to rocks by Bray point. This is the first time that I have noticed star fish along this mile.

A large number of pellets observed on the northern half of the beach.

Found one tire buried in the sand in the surf line.  (See pic 012)

Looks like a new set of steps were installed coming down the bluff from what appears to be 95500 Hwy 101 S. (See pic 028)

A lot of rocks exposed from sand removal by waves on the beach in front of 95480 south to 95416 Hwy 101 S. made walking extremely difficult. (See pic 007)

Tenmile Creek outflow to the ocean has straightened and removed a large pile of rocks that had backed up water into the creek in the last two months and diverted the outflow farther south than normal. (See pic 044)

It was a warm day with a low tide during Spring break on Ocean Beach. Lots of people enjoying many different activities. This was the first time I got to observe tidepools this year. I saw sea stars, anenomes and lots of little crabs.  I also saw lots of sand shrimp. I observed a dead sea lion toward the north end of the beach. He/she appeared to be recently deceased. I noted no signs of entanglement or predation. I have notified the NFS park ranger. It's my understanding they are typically not removed unless entangled.  A great day.   

Eleven people were walking on the beach. There was one seastar on a large rock south of Arch Cape. There were a few sand dollars and crab casings and the beach was very clean. Everything looked normal.

A beautiful day during spring break week brought many families to this beach with no crowding because of the very wide beach at a minus tide

A nice Spring day on 220. Lots of timy stryofoam bits in the wrackline. The bluff is still falling down with the black drainage pipes showing themselves more every month. 2 Turkey Vultures overhead. Quick nurdle hunt performed.

This is commercial season for what they call Market Squid, small squid that only live a year or so. Last night at dusk, the ocean off Mile 202/203 lit up with squid boat lights. The lights attract the squid, then the boats deploy their nets around the squid. Just a half hour after I took the attached photo, all of the boat lights had been extinguished, probably because the boats had all deployed their nets. Six years ago, there was zero harvest of squid in Oregon. Now the commercial catch brings in millions of pounds a year, with the ocean offshore from Waldport being a hot spot of activity on the central coast. The warming ocean is good for calamari lovers, but unfortunately not so good for salmon.

For the beginning of Spring Break there were very few people there. The beach is quite clean with only gulls and crows in the area.

The year's first beach walk in shirt sleeves, a balmy 60 degrees!  With the tide a low 0.5,'  the almost flat Driftwood Beach stretched far to the west.  I walked my Mile 204 and continued up north on Mile 205, across Fox Creek and Collins Creek to Squaw Creek, looking for potential Western Snowy Plover habitat for this year's Plover Patrol nesting survey. Until north of Collins Creek, recent high tides had crossed the entire beach, so there is very little soft dry sand suitable now for nesting, and no plovers, tracks, or nest scrapes were seen. It's still a little early.

At Driftwood Beach Wayside parking area, the PacWave wave energy project is constructing an enormous underground vault for connecting the project's marine electrical conduits/cables to terrestrial cables which will transmit the wave-generated electricity to PacWave's facility east of Highway 101.

Human activities were essentially confined to those stopping their vehicles on Otter Crest Loop or at the Lookout to observe the views.  Shoreline wildlife was essentially confined to cormorants roosting on a large offshore rock.  No man-made or natural physical changes were observed.

It was a cloudy, drizzly, overcast day with a very strong South Wind that was blowing the sand. Humans had erected numerous wood poles in beach by foredunes by Sandpiper Village.  These should be removed.  They provide perches for birds of prey and Ravens and Crows to feed on shorebirds.  Wrack consisted mostly of small vegetation and small stones.  A very large piece of driftwood had washed in with an enormous piece of rope from a ship. The beach was mostly flat and would provide little plover nesting habitat, if any.  The foredunes were riddled with dog and human tracks and activity for the whole mile.  Several small streams were makiing their way to the ocean.  The tides had come all the way to the foredunes for most of the way.  Dogs were not leashed, but stayed with the owners. Picked up one bag of trash.  Mostly small items. 

Today was a publicized event for a beach cleanup, and we picked up 4 bags of trash and a tire along mile. Parking lot area and just beyond dunes from parking area were notated as having lots trash and debris. Very rainy and very windy.

The usual amount of man-made debris/litter, though it was unsettling to see the hooks and needle. There were 3 water bottle/bottle caps that originated from Asia (including one from a Indian company, which I haven't seen previously); I used to think it was unusual to observe debris from so far away, but I now am more surprised when I don't see this. 

Evidence of much rounded erosion in fore dunes from "Sisters" checkpoint to Neskowin Crest

Cliffs at end of the mile are collapsing as evidenced by dead and fallen shrubs

Oddly I saw no birds or marine life today

Notably, very few birds. Only a few seen flying overhead, but none on beach. Small pebbles strewn on beach. Steep erosion of foredune as we approached parking lot B access to the beach. 

A chilly NW wind didn't deter 9 folks -- 5 rock hunting, the others walking -- from hitting the South Jetty beach on an overcast morning with a low tide of 0.7 feet. Oddly, no gulls or crows were present as usual. Also missing were dead creatures and litter. Drift line contents consisted of small rocks, wood splinters and shell fragments. Storm and King Tides have left their mark in heavy erosion of vegetative foredunes; driftwood logs were tossed into the beach grasses. The northern half of this mile was essentially the same, except for the absence of people.

Two rock hunters, no wildlife, no litter were on this beach north of the Coquille River Lighthouse on an overcast chilly morning. Shell fragments, wood pieces, small rocks and kelp marked the high-tide line. Heavy wave erosion of vegetated foredune and logs up in the beach grasses were noticeable from the winter storms and King Tides. The usual rock beds were missing but probably will appear at some point.

It appears the sand used to cover the sandbags is washing away.  Our local pair of bald eagles put on a great show.

One small State Park vehicle traveling north on the beach .Picked up styrofoam and several light blue plastic bags. Lots of dune erosion falling and sliding off of the crest of the dune. 

25 people, the most I've seen on the beaches yet. Beautiful sunny day. In December 2021, I reported landslides and erosion. Today they look stable, no new movement noticed. Fascinating funnel shaped root on ocean picnic beach, photograph to follow. Big Creek and Rocky Creek both had a good amount of water flowing. Nancy Creek waterfall also had a nice stream of water. Noticed a type of limpet I am not familiar with. Average size limpet with unfamiliar markings. Tried running photograph of limpets through iNaturalist, but unsuccessful (haven't heard back about an ID).I also saw large thatched acorn barnacles that I have not seen before due to the tide level. More gravel and rock is appearing on the beach at Rock Creek. Overall a beautiful quiet day with many people enjoying these two beaches.

Noticed what seem to be an elk carcass but mostly just the hide or pelt maybe some bones mid size.

Mile 26 was the cleanest it has ever been. Four people were walking the whole beach of 3 miles long with small back packs . Two of them walk it with their dog and hike the far end up and out to Hwy 101. Dogs were on leash.

Lots of interesting drift wood. 

A calm, cool day with just a few high clouds.  The harbor seal population was back in its usual place at the tip of the Salishan Spit.  Very little trash - I picked up 4 small pieces.  The access at emergency access #50 has been made more difficult by winter erosion of the sandy bank.

Partly cloudy with a couple of rain squals, sun, and then more clouds, more sun, med wind, wonderful day, low tide and clean beach. At NW 15th St Auto access, Lincoln City, there is sandbag reinforcement of bank. 

North half of mile has more driftwood than usual; south half has significant erosion of foredune.

Everything looked normal - typical winter day on the beach except for the 3 eagles (see photo).

A jeep with two occupants was driving on the beach. No other people were visible. Two dying dungeness crabs were stranded. The dunes at parking areas 3 and 4 are quite high (100' or so).  The descent to the beach from the dune at parking area 3 is very steep and almost unpassable. This beach, which is rarely visited, was very clean. 

This was a nice cloudy day with only 4 cars in the parking lot and four people on the beach, one with a dog. Just one flock of gulls, no shorebirds, no bird carcasses and no debris. The beach is long, with sand starting up on the dunes over much of the wood.  The restrictions for the Snowy Plover are not set up yet.  The invasive grass in the plowed area at the south end has been sprayed making the area look barer. No other disturbances were noted on this mile. 

Large landslide at north end of Roads End beach, 7659 NW Logan Rd.  This property has a history of sliding.  While taking photos, a couple of eagles flew by with one of them landing in the tree above the landslide.

Fun to see the spout of a whale just beyond the surf at the southern border of Mile 194 this morning! Enjoyed observing a group of striped shore crabs as they were feeding and dancing/hiding. A group of four black oystercatchers were quite vocal today! Only a small tote bag of litter was retrieved today including small styrfoam, two small rope fragments and one hard plastic top. No plastic water bottles today! : )  One small dead bird was found at 44.316 degrees N, 124.108 degrees W without sign of obvious trauma, oiling, or entanglement. See photos. 

Nice sunshine brought in the crowds mostly on the vehicle allowed side of the beach.  Some one dumped a pallet on the rocks near the vehicle access entrance so I got my car and hauled it away.  

A huge difference in the sand deposition from the previous month. On the last month's observation logs and debris were on top of the sand; today's observation, the giant logs were almost entirely buried in sand. The sand bluffs along the beach used to have a sharp contrast between their edges and the sand floor. Now the edges of the cliffs are gradual and sloping. Beach grass on the tops of the bluffs seem to be really wind damaged...Absolutely no driftline or wrack along the entire distance of the walk. See photos for reference. 

Animal Life: 6 Gulls (flying) 30 sanderlings (shore line) 12 Crows (flying) 2 crows sitting on log

People and Dogs: 8 people and 3 dogs present but gone withing about 5 minutes of the observation time. Beach was pretty empty of people during the walk

The winter tides have exposed some gravel on the northern part of this beach, and brought out some agate hunters. No noticeable change to the banks and not much medium or large debris.  

The high tides reached up into the dune faces and brought up more wood debris.  Also a green trash bin washed up near the dune and was filled up with sand.  I will email the ranger to pick it up off the beach.

After a spate of sunny weather, we finally have rain, or at least drizzle. Schoolhouse Creek is meandering far north. Ongoing work on bluff repair north of Sijota involves boulder stockpile at Laurel access, continued traffic of trucks with boulders on Laurel, excavators and loaders at repair site.

Sunny day with moderate winds around 10mph from the north.

Temperature was 50 degrees F at the start of the survey.

16 people and 1 dog observed on the beach

9 vehicles observed in the parking lots

There is some undercutting of the bluffs. In particular south of the Sea Perch RV Resort. (pic 32)

The outlet of Tenmile creek into the ocean is blocked with a large number of rocks that have been deposited there this winter. The rocks have formed a small lake that does empty into the ocean on the south side of the outlet and by seeping thru the rocks. ( pic 28-A, 40 and 43)

Not happy with the crab shells/lemon peels left on the sand as well as the human feces.  Concerned that the campfire ashes should have been covered with sand so ashes won't blow around.

This was a pretty typical day on the beach with the exception of the weather. ~20min of sunshine would give way to ~5min of heavy pouring rain/hail, then would return to clear sunshine again. These intermittent showers helped to clear out visitation and prevent the beach from being overwhelmed on a 3-day weekend.

Human Activity: 30 people, mostly walking the beach; 2 dogs on leash

Wildlife: onle 1 dead gull, ~30 seals hauled out on offshore rocks

Physical Changes: none observed 

What stays the same here and needs attention is the plastic drainage pipes hanging down the cliff from private property that drain onto the beach. 

Mild weather for winter. Eleven people on beach, mostly hunting for agates. Two dogs (unleashed). Abundant vehicle tracks, but no vehicles currently using beach. Six western snowy plovers resting on beach (one partially leucistic). Stands of dead pine/cypress at bluff appear to be on private property (signs of drought or disease?).

The parking lot at Patterson State Park had few cars this sunny cool Friday morning. As I walked near the ocean heading south of Patterson Creek, I observed many rocks, small clumps of rockweed and other kelp, a few crab shells and legs, some dead mole crabs and snail eggs.  Overall, the sandy beach was fairly clean. Most of the logs and sticks usually present on the beach had been pushed up against the dunes. The birds were scarce; just a few gulls and crows. I turned around near the Big Stump and headed north by the dunes. Many of the houses on Big Stump Beach have stairs coming down the bluff to the beach. One of the houses used a large piece of crumbling styrofoam to stabilize the path. As I continued north, I observed sea weed, dead mole crabs and crab parts close to the dunes. When I reached the dune that I descended on my December walk,  I noticed that it was now very steep and much harder to climb. I looked for the protruding logs that I documented last time and only found the large one. I snapped a photo and compared the two. The foredune had receded more than expected in just 11 weeks. The "handmade" stairs that I saw in December are now gone. Toward the end of the trip cycle, I stumbled across an old sea lion carcass. I remember reading about a dead sea lion reported last month in this area. I went to the Oregon State Marine Mammal Stranding Network website and found a "Recent Strandings Map" link - https://mmi.oregonstate.edu/ommsn/. Most likely, this was Field Number HMSC22-01-10-Zc, CA sea lion observed on 1/10/2022 (GPS 44.410755, -124.085152). As I finished the walk, I noticed a multitude of vertical logs and a car repair sign in the log debris near Patterson Creek.
 

It was a beautiful sunny day. Not a lot of people walking due to high tide timing. There was very little sand dune build up. The beach was mostly flat. There was one flock of gulls near the outflow of Buckley Creek. The creek has dug a deep trench and a smaller creek before Buckley has cut a trench out of the foredune bank through the vegetation. There was a moderate NW wind. There was a little trash, but not any large pieces, except for a wooden skid. I notified the ranger about the skid and gave him the gps location. 

The sand is sloping upward (east) all along the mile. Clear jellies and small rocks were at tide line. Foredunes are eroding significantly north of the end of the rip rap. 

In fact, one of my "markers" in the dunes, a white stake, has been eroded/washed away.

A quiet day at the beach - just a handful of folks strolling along the shoreline, only one of whom had a dog with them. Visited at the apex of high tide and watched the tide recede; observed an extremely large number of beached moon jellies of all sizes ranging from very small to very large deposited along the high tide line. There had to have been thousands of them - it's the largest concentration of moon jellies I've ever seen (see attached photo of just a couple feet of the driftline). Additionally, there was a significant amount of trash accumulated along the shoreline. There was way too much to carry out to the parking area, so we worked for several hours, filling every large Solve trash bag we had with us and creating a large mound of trash above the tide line on the northern end of the mile. We notified the rangers at Cape Lookout State Park about the location of the trash pile and they said they'd try to pick it up on their next trip along the spit. I'm ready for the pandemic to be over so that the annual spring and fall beach clean-ups can resume!

Several riprap projects are underway in Mile 238. The access at Seagull Lane is being reconstructed and mainly used by bulldozers working on the riprap, so best to avoid that area when working. Another project happening near access 50A, which can't be used at this time. Other unmarked accesses between 50A and 50 are dangerous, either due to naturally-formed drop-offs or current riprap projects.

Driftwood Beach Wayside remains closed for construction of OSU's PacWave South wave energy project, however the drilling rigs have now been removed from the parking area, as have the sound buffering shipping containers that lined the site. Remaining work includes the construction of an underground vault to join marine and terrestrial cables, general restoration of the area, and improvements to things like the restrooms and access paths. No date has yet been set for reopening.

The federal Department of Energy has just awarded a 25 million dollar PacWave related grant to eight entities (4.5 million to Portland State University) to work on developing the offshore technology necessary to harness wave energy for transmission to PacWave's onshore infrastructure. See PSU's link for details:

https://tinyurl.com/PSU-PacWave

It's been two months since I last walked this mile, and although most of the beach was relatively free of debris today, winter storms and tides have washed up and deposited a large amount of micro plastics and small bits of styrofoam against the base of the dunes and sand cliffs, especially north of the wayside. Some of this may be expected during winter, but in the two years I've walked this mile, it's almost always been free of debris. And unfortunately, this isn't stuff you can just clean up with your grabber.

It was a quiet day on the beach. The person and car at NW 68th arrived about 8:30AM, about the time I was almost done walking the beach.

Rather than have a bunch of photos of cliffs eroding under houses, or pipes eroding from cliff I decided to concentrate on TWO THINGS.

First, I found several floats and WDFW tag attached by plastic rope on the beach near NW 68th. I placed them at the Marine Debris collection spot.

Second, I think there is armoring of the houses just north of Schooner Creek/NW 68th. Picture of machine and tracks down to the beach enclosed.

Sand is moving back covering exposed rock and piling up along sand bank.  Recent erosion, sand sluffing down south side of sand dune near access to path up the dune.  See picture...

Probably less people on the beach than a usual low tide mid-Feb afternoon, due to cold, overcast, windy conditions, plus it was the Super Bowl. Everyone seemed to be having a pleasant to good time. 

Nice weather brought out the crowds, about 50 people.  Was concerned about the 2 campfires on the beach, one of them close to the dunes and grass.

It was a beautiful clear day and the wind only started up about 3 in the afternoon. We saw 15 species of birds, one new one, a vireo. The beach was completely cleaned off from the high tide earlier and was much sandier than ususal for this time of year making walking easier. It was exciting to see so many sea stars out on the rocks. Hopefully they are making a comeback. There were a lot of people out enjoying the good weather on the beach. Ten Mile Creek has moved into a big bend coming south, building up a big rock pile where is turns. Behind that makes a good spot of the gulls to congregate.  

There were two dead sea lions in a 1 mile stretch between Driftwood Shores and the north jetty. 

It was a warm and beautiful day! The beach was clean and everyone was enjoying it. Waves were large and beautiful. There was not much to clean up, which was heartening.

Four Eugene Hikers parked in Tahkenitch Campground parking lot (4 other cars present), hiked Dunes Trail, and accessed beach at Emergency Sign #115.  It was foggy, windy, and desolate on beach - only 3 other people observed walking onto beach as Hikers leaving.  No wildlife dead or alive observed - except one small animal skull skeleton.  Small and large animal tracks observed near ridge.  Largest tracks may have been large cat or small bear based on location.  In driftline, there were rocks, shells, some crab molt.  There was more debris than seen in the past.  There were painted wood pieces (perhaps from dock); wood pallet; thick marine rope; large, thick, rusted metal piece; plastic bottles; other plastic pieces; pair of flip flops.  Amount of styrofoam was notable - both in pieces and in tact objects.  The Hikers collected as much debris as possible, and enlisted the aid of several other walkers who happened to be starting a beach walk at the end of this Mile 154.  They helped carry the HIkers' full and heavy bags of debris up the sand bank to a prearranged pick up point for the State Parks Beach Ranger to take off the beach.   

Miles 141-147 did not have any die offs or concentrations of dead marine or invertebrate animals. Pictures will show the steeper bluff formed by erosion of sand to the pathway up and over the foredune. This may fill in later on with the changing seasons. However, I have not ever seen it so steep and impossible to climb up.

Nothing unusual except for the eagle. (Note from CoastWatch volunteer - Before Ed walked his CW Mile, Myself and another CoastWatch volunteer joined him for the NOAA marine debris survey on the north end of CoastWatch Mile 338. We found a handful of items in the 100 meters we surveyed. According to Ed it's notable that on this Mile, 339, there is always more trash accumulated than on Mile 338. Also of note, the bluffs at the end of the trail from Parking Lot B were much more difficult to ascend than the last time I was at this location.)

Very quiet and pleasant walk! The beach was very clean, I only found a few bits of microplastic. Abundant diatom bloom in the surf and washed up on the sand. Several fire pits amongst the beach grass look rather large and unsafe.

Lots of visitors to Ocean Beach on this warm February day.  For the first time in several visits, I was able to walk the entire length of the beach.  It appears that the landslide/foredune erosion on the north end of the beach by the cave has gotten larger. Lots of driftwood on the north end of the beach as well. The recent tsunami brought a lot of sand onto the beach; many of the rock fields were covered again.  There continues to be a large amount of big pieces of styrofoam all along the beach, but again; many people were picking it up.  

Basic, sunny day at the beach, approaching high tide. I did carry 3 pieces of pressure treated wood off of mile 245, which I use to access mile 246. See pic below.

It was great to see so may people enjoying the beach. Parking is limited with most of the jetty parking lot blocked due to the Sough Jetty repair work.  Lots of driftwood has accumulated. Very little trash of any kind. My guess is that I have others picking up trash on a regular basis. I am on this section of beach regularly.

A 60-degree weather report brought out lots of people on the beach.  A beautiful day with no wind; plenty of room on this long beach. People were strolling, playing with their dogs and children, picnicking, and just enjoying the sunshine.  The beach was clean, with some broken shells. 

A warm February day. About 40 people within the mile out enjoying the sunshine and low winds. Kids playing in the sand, a few kites, and several groups with multiple dogs walking the beach.

The beach was relatively clean except at the drift line. Small items like plastic fragments, styrofoam pieces, and plastic wrappers found much closer to the higher trafficked area of Rockaway by the wayside. Normal amount of moon jellies and crab shells for the area.  

This time of year we see an increase in the number of people on the beach - even more than during summer. This is no doubt because the winter currents pull sand from the beach exposing cobbles and small rocks, which attract agate and fossil hunters. This day was no exception especially since it was a Sunday and beautiful weather.

This report contains observations of Pine Beach Loop and the north and central sections of Camp Magruder, as I pass those on the way to Mile 290 and have been monitoring and submitting info on PBL activity for OSCC.

Lots of people out today on all three beaches, lots of people rockhounding. Small pieces of styrofoam in the wrack line,pieces of jelly fish and feathers in wrack line. A few sneaker waves hit a couple of people but they remained upright.

This is a beautiful beach, with few visitors.  Tire tracks extending south from the Siuslaw River south jetty area may indicate prohibited activity.  Large driftwood pieces thrown up into the dunes overlooking the beach indicate storm activity in this area can be quite intense, easily reaching up into the dunes.  

The beach was empty. No plastics or trash were observed. We stumbled across 10 western snowy plovers on the north end of our survey. Shorebirds were hunkered down in deep foot prints in the sand--providing some shelter from the rain. Woody debris on the beach was composed of mostly large wood pieces. 

The Siuslaw River north and south jetty areas are generally clean and in good shape.  Many people recreate in these areas, even on an overcast weekday such as February 4.  The appropriate authorities should perhaps monitor the south jetty area more closely for people using chainsaws to cut driftwood and spraypainting graffiti.

What a sunny, relatively warm and no wind day it turned out to be.  Terrain and conditions much different from Jan. 3rd ( a King Tide day). Able to walk the entire beach. A little bit of human debris (small pieces styrofoam and only at by the South Jetty part of the beach ) but really a VERY clean beach. 

Wood debris, pretty clear, except for the large pieces that tend to stay, a few wood creations due to human activity, make shift benches and a castle type structure, built out of the debris.   

No beached birds (dead) or marine mammals along the entire mile observed.  Only observed 6 gull feathers spread out on the entire mile. Pretty clean beach. Human activity consisted of 17 people (7 walking,6 surfers and 4 people fishing ( only counting those on the the beach side of the jetty) 5 dogs. 

A flock of appx 30 sanderlings on the south access point of south beach and a flock of about the same on  the north access point....both at the surf line. No gulls or other birds in the air, no sign of marine mammals.

Nice morning to exercise the dog on Heceta Beach.  Louie the Lab can't get enough of running along the surf line with his favorite ball in mouth.

The are two dead adult sea lion carcasses washed up on the high tide line today.  Both are about 6 feet long, likely females.  One is halfway between the Siuslaw River North Jetty and Driftwood Shores resort, the other carcass is at the south end of the Driftwood Shores complex (north end of Mile 171).  No tags or markings observed.

This is my initial survey of this mile. Total length was 1.5 miles. Remainder of this section is uninspected by me. No photos this time. Litter removal. Stunning day; light winds, clear air, moderate sun. Very isolated beach with few people. Hard walking as no packed or wet sand to ease the way. Off Road Vehicle Trail up dunes about 1.2 miles N of Paradise Point. 

Relatively high amount of people at the beach to enjoy low tide and the beautiful day. Several families with adolescent aged kids, who all seemed to be enthralled by the beach and tide pools. Good day for birding; I had never seen oystercatchers at this mile; likely attracted by low tide exposing more than usual rocks. The hawk scavenging on a beached loon was notable, helped by being in a part of the beach that wasn't busy with people. No dogs on a leash, other than one, whose owner put it back on a leash as I approached. The other dogs seemed, at times, far enough away from their owners to be considered under direct control. None seen chasing birds. 

Beautiful day but sad to see the path to the beach widened significantly with the creek changing path due to the back hoe that was in the process of rip rapping the property just to the north of Mile 220.

I walked 1.5 miles and observed the bluff crumbling and gorse falling down the banks. It was very clear and very calm this day. I picked up styrofoam bits, plastic wrap and a water bottle. Beautiful day. Took photos of erosion.

As Carl Sagan would say "billions and billions" of tiny plastic bits.  Unfortunately, a routine occurrence during the winter months.

It was a gorgeous day at Mile 301 on January 24, 2022. The sun was shining, no clouds, and very few people on the beach at 4-5pm that afternoon. Debris on the shore was minimal and consisted of wood and seaweed. Though motor vehicle travel is prohibited along Neahkahnie and Manzanita beaches, I observed car/truck tire tracks in the sand around beach sign #21, but no vehicle on the beach. There was copious water runoff from inland, with one "creek" I'd never seen in that location before running into the sea. A large stump that we have been tracking since 12/31/2020 had moved 400 meters south and now rests on the sand at beach sign #21, which is the southern border of mile 301. A clever person had crafted a natural wooden sign reading "you're cute" and nailed it to the stump.

Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Clear skys, calm waves, clean beach, reasonable people and controled dogs. Priceless.

33 people and 4 dogs noted on a calm day in mid-January. A brutal king tide of 9.45 hit the north coast on January 3, augmented by 70+ mph winds. Bluffs up to 10'-12' tall were cut into the dunes. The beach itself was generally swept clean although a massive pile up of driftwood accumulated near the mouth of the Nehalem River with large logs tossed up on the jetty itself. Fair weather arrived for the third week of the month with east winds, clear skies, mild temperatures and starry nights.    

Very nice day on the beach, little if any wind, clean beach and sunny skies.  Only item of note were good numbers of Common Mures on the rocks for this time of the season.  

An unusual warm day on the beach with just a breeze present. Just lovely. Usual pick up of debris, a lot of rope found, along with a few dead seagulls. Everyone enjoying a exceptional day on the beach.

It was a beautiful and sunny day out on Short Sand Beach and in Oswald SP. There was not much of a breeze on the beach and it was warm for a January day on the Oregon coast. Beach was fairly packed with surfers and beachgoers and there was much more human debris/litter along the beach and hiking paths than seen in the past coming out here to survey (usually it's a very clean beach! today not so much). Most notably, there was more plastic in the driftline than usual for this beach. No wildlife to be seen, including birds, which seems to be common for this beach when people are here. Many dogs, though. The numbers for the amount of people walking/on the beach are not exact; many people were coming and going throughout the time we were there, but there were still quite a lot of people.

Beach access previously had been closed for reconstruction.  The area south of Henderson Creek continues to be the area to watch for erosion -- pebbles everywhere  in low tide areas with basalt rocks.  Not many shells or kelp.  No wildlife except the one gull with perhaps a broken wing in a safe area away from dogs. 

It was a sunny and calm day with the temperature at 48F at the start of the survey.

Wind was calm/light at approximately 1.5 mph out of the west.

There were 30 people and 6 dogs observed during the survey. A large number of these people were nearby residents or people staying at the Sea Perch RV Resort.

While we started the survey within 1.5 hours of low tide there was very little sand to walk on with most of the beach being loose rocks. Residents that we talked to stated that the sand started to disappear in December the storms at the beginning of January removed most of the sand. The very north end of the beach did still have quite a bit of sand. 

The driftline near the north end of the mile did have quite a bit of small pieces of plastic. There was also bigger pieces of styroform scattered throughout the rocks.

No new development was noted but there has been some repairs made to stairs due to being damaged in the storms.

There appears to be parts of the bluff that have been receding compared to when we started surveying this beach over seven years ago. Rarely have we seen very much of a landslide.

Shoreline surveyed was found to be relatively unchanged, with below average concentrations of marine debris for this location. Continued presence of resident harbor seal colony confirmed, but few other wildlife sightings were noted. Little evidence of valandalism or litter. Visitors to the beach were strolling or viewing scenery and wildlife.

The day at Otter Rock (Devil's Punchbowl State Park)  and Otter Crest Resort was clear and warm for January. The visitors were just enjoying the great views. No wildlife was disturbed. The beach at Otter Crest Resort had very few logs washed ashore, and the cliff appeared intact. 

It was a foggy, misting cold weekday afternoon with virtually no wind and few people on the beach. No significant changes that I observed, except for a lot of logs and wood debris on the beach below the overlook at marker 76 at Yachats State Park. Marker 77 has not yet been replaced by the stairs at Yachats Ocean Road State Park south of the river, but the stairs are still standing (no railings though).

It was a foggy, misting cold weekday afternoon with virtually no wind and few people on the beach. No significant changes that I observed, except for a lot of logs and wood debris on the beach below the overlook at marker 76 at Yachats State Park. Marker 77 has not yet been replaced by the stairs at Yachats Ocean Road State Park south of the river, but the stairs are still standing (no railings though).