Mile 171 - Heceta Beach South, almost to North Jetty - July 7, 2017

Report Details

One of those "Now this is why we moved to Oregon!" days on Heceta Beach today - sunny, warm, light breeze (instead of the usual gale). Very clean beach in spite of the tourist hordes over the 4th of July weekend. Deposits of Cellophane Tube Worm (Spichaetoperus costarum) casings are beginning to accumulate at water's edge, a dead Common Murre (Uria aalge) was floating in the near-shore surf, and something new for me! There were numerous huge dense swarms (100+ individuals) of Pacific Mole Crabs (Emerita analoga) working the surf run-back, with individuals ranging from 1/2" to 1+" in length. I've never seen mole crabs doing large group swarming behavior before on Heceta Beach. I usually see them in solitary feeding patterns.

Conditions

Temperature: 65 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Moderate. Wind Direction: NW.

Human Activities

Number of people: 46. Number of dogs: 9. Walking or running: 15. Playing in surf: 3. Playing in sand: 10. Sitting: 6.

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 14.

Notable Wildlife

Large clusters of Mole Crabs (100's) in the wave run-back.

Beached Birds

Total dead birds: 1. Floating but dead in near-shore surf. Looked like a Common Murre.

Driftline Content

Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt).