January 13, 2021

The past few days of King tides have scoured the build-up of summer sand and made a 5-10 foot "cliff" at the high tide mark from south of the Day Use (61B) to North of 61A.

Report Details

The past few days of King tides have scoured the build-up of summer sand and made a 5-10 foot "cliff" at the high tide mark from south of the Day Use (61B) to North of 61A. There is a small area of 5-10 feet between the sand cliff and the dunes to walk when the beach is not accessible, but the ocean-side edge is unstable. 35+ snowy plover have been seen on mile 214, for several months.

Conditions

Temperature: 47 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Tide Level: 9.0 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 6. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 5. Photography: 1. Other Activities: it was 1 1/2 hours until high King tide of 10.0, so my questimate was about at 9.0 at 9:30-10am. There was no walkable beach, only above the "cliffs" formed by prior days King tides. the only place to walk mile 214 was above the cliff formed by the tides, which was a 10-15 foot area to the dunes. Day Use beach access met a 10 foot drop to the beach, so had to stay above the 'cliff'

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 2.

Notable Wildlife

35 snowy plover, large flock of sanderling, 1 eagle 1 injured red phalarope (in the Day Use parking area.

Driftline Content

Small rocks, Seaweeds and seagrass, Wood pieces. Huge logs, and small debris at high tide mark, otherwise, beach was scoured clean.

Natural Changes

Major cracks appearing in bluffs, Erosion of vegetated foredune, Visible retreat of solid bluff. The waves were undercutting the cliff of sand, making the edge vulnerable to collapsing.