May 11, 2018

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Lots of bird activitiy on Heceta Beach today.  Two bald eagles, an osprey, the usual gaggle of turkey vultures, crows and ravens, sanderlings everywhere, several low-flying flocks of black turnstones heading north, a half dozen whimbrels, and a single Greater Yellowlegs (I think) with a long straight beak, tannish coloration, and noisy alarm calls as I walked by.  The alarm calls are apparently a distinquishing feature, according to my birding guide.The turkey vultures have reduced the previously reported necropsied sea lion to not much more than a rib cage and hide and they're still working on it.  Only a few fresh Velella velellas have washed ashore today.  The usual gaggle of harbor seals were out feeding in the near-shore surf.I've been walking Mile 171 for 12 years.  I went back and looked at older photos of the foredune at the south end of Mile 171 near the North Jetty Road parking lot.  The once straight-line fordune has now morphed into an upside-down "Y" shape, with a newer beachgrass-induced foredune building to the west of the original, joining together about 1/4 mile north of the jetty.  I'm guessing that since the sand can't migrate east anymore due to the beach grass, the beach is moving west ...