Mile 49 - Graveyard Point, Port, Harbor, Battle Rock - August 20, 2022

Report Details

It was a gorgeous day to be on the beach. Not much going on, wind went from light to moderate in the course of our visit. The beach looked quite clean and people were behaving themselves.Of note, the information gathering and survey only took about 45 minutes, but posting this report took another 30 minutes, mostly to upload and identify the pictures. Then I got an error message about the photo file size being too large, and the only option was to submit the report, not knowing whether the photos I had uploaded previously were still there. Had to submit, and will come back and add photos.

Conditions

Temperature: 70 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Moderate. Wind Direction: NW. Tide Level: 4.3 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 10. Walking or running: 6. Sitting: 2. Kayaking: 2. Other Activities: The 2 who were sitting were up at the picnic table by the Fisherman's Memorial. The count includes myself and my sister, doing the report.. Not much going on - the biggest excitement was the two kayakers launching from the beach (these appeared to be personal kayaks, not the rentals from the tour company) and one of them overturned himself trying to get in. There were no people besides us on the little beach on the north side of Battle Rock.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 4.

Notable Wildlife

There was a seal or sea lion in the water, and some birds foraging in the surf line.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 1. Couldn't tell the species of the one bird. It was very decomposed.

Stranded Marine Mammals

Total stranded mammals: 1. There was a seal or sea lion carcass on the little beach to the north of Battle Rock. Or possibly two. The remains were very decayed, but there were two distinct piles. One pile had a large driftwood log on top of it, which led me to speculate whether the seal had been trapped by the log, though that seems fairly far-fetched. Some bone pieces (one looked like a large vertebrae) were in the surf on the other side of the small beach, but we guessed they were all part of the same animal(s). See photos.

Dead Fish or Invertebrates

There was a single large fish head in the dry sand, and some fins or maybe bones (flat, flexible) in the surf. I suspect they were cast off from a fisherman.

Driftline Content

Small rocks, Seaweeds and seagrass, Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt). Not much on the shore besides sand, the most common item was the backs of crabs, possibly from molting? They didn't appear to be damaged by a predator.

New Development

Nothing noted.

Man-made Modifications

Just a couple of driftwood structures on the little beach north of Battle Rock, and one small one on the Port Beach.