June 11, 2011

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The shallow waters of the beach wave run-back are literally a living soup of tiny fish fry, larvae, and amphipods. What looks like small pale grains of rice in the shallow receding wave is a gazillion little critters scurrying around, with the occasional mole crab chasing after the critters. All quickly re-bury themselves in the sand as the last of the water runs out. It's amazing how fast the mole crabs are!On Saturday, a basketball court-sized mass of small, thin fish (sand lance?) was literally turning the near-shore water and waves black, about a 1/4 mile north of the Siuslaw River North Jetty. A mass feeding frenzy was underway, with hundreds of gulls, lesser terns, brown pelicans, and cormorants plunging into the surf. A group of 20-30 sea lions were rapidly swimming about in the shallow water feeding on the mass. Another group of 10-20 sea lions (California?) were rafting just beyond the breakers, holding their flippers in the air and noisily arfing away. We usually see harbor seals feeding in this section of Mile 171, sea lions are rare.