January 28, 2012

Report Details

This "hotspot" for international windsurfing competition in the summertime,the Pistol River Wave Bash is nearly abandoned now and there was no one else to see the sunset from there tonight ... except Snazzy dog. There were plenty of footprints, showing and interest in the decade old two-story driftwood condo that is half gone from Pistol River mouth moving northward, cutting away all of the beach from the west side of Henry Rock and traveling as far north as Windsurfer Rock where the judges and spectators gather to watch the competition, further north than it has been in the lifetime of local residents, it is said. I have seen a photo in an old photobook showing Pistol River mouth coming around the north end of Henry Rock from the east side, but it didn't go as far north as it has lately.It is prevented from returning to that course by a buildup of dunes, secured by sandgrass, against the north end of "The Rock."Right now the appearance is of major change, but by the next windsurfing competition, it may look fairly normalized. Right now there is a sheer cliff of sand where the river cut away and invited in the ocean.A great amount of driftwood has been deposited to the north of Windsurfer Rock, probably mostly from the first batch brought in by the storm just after Thanksgiving, and by the second one just before New Years and the last one that climaxed on Wednesday, January 18, with more than 8", and by the time it stopped had dumped more than 18" here.The driftline today had only woody matter.The motivation for filing this report is something that I had never seen or heard of before, a bird apparently died because it could neither swallow nor eject the spiny rockfish that it had caught.See the posted photo and remark on it, please.Thanks.Mureen