February 18, 2022

Report Details

The parking lot at Patterson State Park had few cars this sunny cool Friday morning. As I walked near the ocean heading south of Patterson Creek, I observed many rocks, small clumps of rockweed and other kelp, a few crab shells and legs, some dead mole crabs and snail eggs.  Overall, the sandy beach was fairly clean. Most of the logs and sticks usually present on the beach had been pushed up against the dunes. The birds were scarce; just a few gulls and crows. I turned around near the Big Stump and headed north by the dunes. Many of the houses on Big Stump Beach have stairs coming down the bluff to the beach. One of the houses used a large piece of crumbling styrofoam to stabilize the path. As I continued north, I observed sea weed, dead mole crabs and crab parts close to the dunes. When I reached the dune that I descended on my December walk,  I noticed that it was now very steep and much harder to climb. I looked for the protruding logs that I documented last time and only found the large one. I snapped a photo and compared the two. The foredune had receded more than expected in just 11 weeks. The "handmade" stairs that I saw in December are now gone. Toward the end of the trip cycle, I stumbled across an old sea lion carcass. I remember reading about a dead sea lion reported last month in this area. I went to the Oregon State Marine Mammal Stranding Network website and found a "Recent Strandings Map" link - https://mmi.oregonstate.edu/ommsn/. Most likely, this was Field Number HMSC22-01-10-Zc, CA sea lion observed on 1/10/2022 (GPS 44.410755, -124.085152). As I finished the walk, I noticed a multitude of vertical logs and a car repair sign in the log debris near Patterson Creek.