Mile 157 - Oregon Dunes NRA, west of Perkins Lake - July 14, 2011

Report Details

The special today was CRAB: Crab legs, whole crab, crab molt, you name it. I was able to identify a lot of crab molt, but there seemed to be actual dead crabs among them. Lots of shells. Lots (relatively speaking) of people out enjoying the dunes, including an older couple from northern England who hiked the whole 3.5-mile loop; what a great experience on their big West Coast vacation! Lovely day, hard to not step on a bivalve shell (mainly) or crab shell or small rock or feather when walking near the driftline. European beachgrass seedheads were, dare I say it, quite lovely, as were the velvety Scotch broom seed bods (aaack!!) What can I say? It was a sunny, warm, lovely day at the beach; even the invasive exotics looked good.

Conditions

Temperature: 65 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: S. Tide Level: 4.0 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 15. Walking or running: 15. Only ATV I saw was one (presumably USFS or USFWS) heading to mouth of Tahkenitch Creek.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 10.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 3. One larger dark bird that I think was some kind of storm petral. Also found two little clumbs of white fluffy feathers. Couldn't ID, but I hope they weren't snowy plovers.

Driftline Content

Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Shells. sea palms. Lots of what looked like krill, bleached white, and scum in driftline in places (see photos)

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bzenderson

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