October 6, 2018

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Beautiful fall afternoon for strolling on Heceta Beach - sunny, light breeze from the NW.  Several small flocks of sanderlings were feeding in the shallow surf, crows digging out and eating mole crabs, a large flock of brown pelicans plunge-feeding in the shallows of the "lagoon" area north of the North Siuslaw River jetty.  An equally large flock of brown pelicans were resting on the jetty rocks.  The wet sand is coated with a thick layer of that greenish-brown algae scum from the seasonal near-shore phytoplankton die-off.  Several smashed moon jellies and a gazillion marble-sized clear comb jellies were observed along the mile today.There is a very noticable increase in the volume and height of the wet sand in the "lagoon" area on the north side of the Siuslaw River north jetty.  In addition, the surf line was much further west than usual for this level of tide (1.8').  The river navigational channel was recently dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers, so maybe the off-shore dumped sand has migrated back to the beach??It's been unusually windy this summer.  The new foredune building about 100 yards west of the original 2000's era foredune has dramatically increased in size and height (photo).  I suspect that since the European beach grass no longer permits sand flow off the immediate beach area, that our ocean beaches will be migrating westward, backed by an increasing series of foredunes like the Clatsop Plains geology.