August 11, 2025

Temperature: 60 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Moderate. Tide Level: 0.8 feet.

Walking or running: 12. All visitors were well-behaved. As usual the north and south beaches (north and south of the parking area) were extremely clean. The only human debris I saw was a single plastic drinking straw.

Disturbances: Shorebirds moving in response to humans/dogs

As usual, there were 10-15 resident harbor seals dozing on the rocks just offshore from the parking area, rising to 20-25 by the time I left the site at 10 am. There was an unusually large number of gulls at the site, as well as several crows. There were also birds calling in the trees above the bluffs, which I could not identify. There were many hundreds of ochre seastars (purple ones and orange ones) visible among the rocks at the northern side of the north beach, in the central region offshore from the parking area, and to a lesser extent in the tidepools and rocky areas on the south beach. All appeared to be very healthy, with no sign of the wasting disease that was such a problem in the past. There seemed to be a large number of smaller seastars and anemones, suggesting that they are reproducing very successfully. In one area of the south beach about 50 yards north of the parking area there were several dozen orange creatures that I could not identify. See attached photo. I did not see them anywhere else on the site.

Total dead birds: 1. It seemed to be a gull but was too weathered to be sure.

Unusual concentration. On the south beach there were 15-20 dead juvenile seastars. This is not a large number, given the many thousands of seastars that seem to be living here above and below the low-tide waterline, but I do not recall seeing any dead seastars here in the past. I could not tell what had killed them, but predators like gulls and maybe seals seem to be the most likely culprits. There was no evidence of wasting disease among them, though several were quite beat-up, either by predators or by prolonged exposure. There also seemed to be more crab shells and fragments on the north and south beaches than usual, perhaps due to seasonal changes.

There were no new developments of this sort. But erosion of the bluffs -- especially those beneath the south side of the parking area -- and the steps down from the parking area remain serious problems. And the continuing erosion of the two paths leading from the parking area to the south beach is a major problem, posing considerable danger to anyone trying to get to the south beach.

None.

Sand on the north beach seems to shift considerably with the seasons. There is more of it now than in my recent visits.