June 20, 2012

Temperature: 65 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: N. Tide Level: 2.0 feet.

Number of people: 16. Number of dogs: 3. Walking or running: 2. Playing in surf: 2. Playing in sand: 4. Sitting: 5. Photography: 1. Fishing: 2. Other Activities: Driving. We made two visits in the last two days. On Tues, 6/19 we saw an eagle along the waterline at about mile 331 or 332. A woman was trying to get close to it with a camera, the eagle moved away from her. The eagle may have been ill.

Disturbances: Shorebirds moving in response to humans/dogs

There were very few birds.

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Land-based debris (picnics, etc.), Ocean-based debris (from fishing boats, ship trash, etc.), Marine debris (plastic, styrofoam, etc. washing in from the sea), Shells, Small rocks, Styrofoam, Wood pieces.

Picked up a couple of big bags of trash, mostly styrofoam. There was far more styrofoam noted than in visits in previous months. Pieces of styrofoam were bigger than I'm used to seeing, and much of it looked like it had come from flat pieces as are used in insulation. There were a couple of pieces that looked like they'd been fishing floats, and one looked like the sort of segment of a circle that could have come from a life preserver. There was a sort of uniformity in the state of decomposition of the "large curd" pieces of styrofoam. Some pieces of debris had mollusks of some kind that had started to grow on one side of the piece.