September 8, 2010

Temperature: 63 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: S. Tide Level: 8.7 feet.

Mile 156 is a somewhat remote stretch of beach, so on a weekday it is rare to find people here.

5 Sea Gulls; a large crab walking along the top of the surf line (it eventually dug itself down into the sand, I didn't know they did that!); 15 to 20 Sanderlings.

Total stranded mammals: 1. Medium sized dead seal carcass, mostly devoured at this point, lying in the sand just above the recent high tide line.

2 jellyfish, just below the recent high tide line.

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Land-based debris (picnics, etc.), Shells, Small rocks. several plastic bottles, very large plastic survey stakes, a peeled wooden pole, 3 foam floats.

Not much out of the ordinary for this stretch of beach. The summer winds had blown sand back onto the beach and filled in along the base of the foredune, covering a lot of the more permanent old driftwood stumps and logs as well as other debris. The only evidence of humans were the tire tracks of the Forest Service truck that the biologists use to monitor the Snowy Plover nesting area on the sand spit north of the mouth of Tachenitch Creek.