Mile 259 Report
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
November 7, 2024
Students and educators from the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (Salem) were joined by CoastWatch Programs Manager Jesse Jones on their mile walk.
Report Details
Students and educators from the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (Salem) were joined by CoastWatch Programs Manager Jesse Jones on their mile walk. They tested their developing wrackline protocol, a project in cooperation with the CoastWatch in Schools program, and made multiple observations on the beach. A large group of what we think were semipalmated plovers were seen throughout the walk, approximately 80. Also seen were brown pelicans over the surf, thousands of cellophane worm casings in the wrack and also, a lot of jellyfish parts including lions mane, moon jellies and a lot of whole gooseberries.
Conditions
Temperature: 56 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Tide Level: 3.4 feet.
Human Activities
Number of people: 15. Number of dogs: 8. Walking or running: 2. Sitting: 6. Fishing: 2. dog prints
Vehicles
Cars/trucks on beach, allowed: 2.
Notable Wildlife
Sea lion in surf, 5 sea gulls flying, butterfly/moth, 2 other shore birds flying, 4 brown pelicans, 80 semipalmated plovers.
Beached Birds
Total dead birds: 2. one juvenile gull and one unknown
Driftline Content
Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt). dead dioxins and cellophane worms, dead jellyfish parts, lions mains jelly 3, moon jelly 4, gooseberry jelly 9
Natural Changes
Erosion of vegetated foredune.
JGEMS Sea otter research group 2024-25
Beautiful day at the coast.
Some piles of bull kelp, but much less than last year at the same place on the same date.
Report Images
JGEMS
CoastWatcher
All Mile 259 Reports
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
Students and educators from the Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School (Salem) were joined by CoastWatch Programs Manager Jesse Jones on their mile walk.
JGEMS
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
The day we visited the beach was busier than what it has been.
JGEMS
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
extreme cliff/dune erosion from recent King Tides
Linda Fink
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
It was a sunny and beautiful day at the coast.
Polaris Polaris
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
We were not able to walk the entire mile, but we could see down the beach.
Mike Weddle
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
This was the first trip for JGEMS for this beach with Jesse Jones from Coastwatch and Patricia McBride from the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
JGEMS
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
Overall a very clean and beautiful coastline.
Polaris
Mile 259
Nestucca Spit State Park, Kiwanda Beach
It was a pleasant, sunny day with well-separated groups of people--including young children--just relaxing on the beach.
powston1