July 18, 2022

Temperature: 62 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Moderate. Wind Direction: N. Tide Level: -0.3 feet.

Number of people: 30. Number of dogs: 2. Walking or running: 20. Photography: 1. Tidepooling: 10. The parking area and the beaches north and south of it are very clean.

Pyrosomes and seastars, as detailed below. About 15 harbor seals were dozing on the rocky islands directly west of the parking area.

Several hundred pyrosomes were washed up on the beach or stranded in tidepools along the lower part of the beach south of the parking area. They were translucent white, about finger length. The birds were not eating them -- all the ones I saw were fully intact, and many seemed to be alive. See attached photos. There were also many hundreds of sea stars clinging to rocks exposed only at very low tide, especially at the far northern end of the north beach but also along the south beach. Most were purple, but a few were orange. They seemed quite healthy, with no sign of wasting disease. See attached photos.

Seaweeds and seagrass, Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Wood pieces. The pigeon guillemots nesting in the bluffs above the south beach in March are gone. I did not see any of the orange sea cucumbers that have recently washed ashore in the Yachats area.

Landslides/major boulder falls, Major cracks appearing in bluffs.

Erosion of the bluffs above the north and south beaches continues.  There is a fairly recent landslide on the bluff about 30 yards north of the parking area.  See attached photo.  A large, stream-fed gully cuts through the bluff about 100 yards north of the parking area up close to highway 101, which is visible from the beach.  See attached photo.  It is not clear from the beach whether this gully threatens to undermine the highway.