July 11, 2020

Temperature: 55 F. Cloud Cover: Partly Cloudy. Wind Velocity: Strong. Wind Direction: NW. Tide Level: 1.7 feet.

Walking or running: 15. Playing in surf: 3. Playing in sand: 8. Sitting: 10. Surfing: 3. Other Activities: It had rained this morning, so people were just starting to come out to the beach. The tide was nearly out to low, and seemed much lower than 1.7. The tide had created a sand bar forming a large shallow “lake” just at the shore south of the jetty. It was windy, dry sand was blowing, but the sea was fairly calm. The upper beach showed covered remnants of lots of bonfire pits from the Fourth of July holiday. A couple of new signs are posted at the Nadonna Beach parking area entrance, explaining how to properly deal with bonfires. But aside from two tires that has evidently been dumped in the parking lot, I saw no trash on the beach--a SOLVE beach cleanup on July 7 in Rockaway must have picked up the fireworks remnants and bonfire trash. When I started my walk I counted 21 people on the beach and five on the jetty, and five dogs. Three teenage boys were peeling off their wet suits after surfing. When I returned to the jetty from walking mile 295 south, I counted about 40 people on the beach and 3 or 4 different dogs. Kids were flying five kites, taking advantage of the strong winds. A small boy was swimming, wearing a life jacket and watched by his mom. Earlier a young girl had been playing in the waves but nobody was visible watching over her, which worried me a bit. A family grouping set up a wind tent, others brought beach chairs and sat in groups up near the dunes. Most people were just walking on the beach near the water. A couple of runners strode by, and one cyclist on a fat-tired bike rode up from the south to the jetty, then turned around and rode back south along the hard-packed beach. I walked south to the marker that says 25 in big black letters on a yellow background. I’m not sure if this is the end of my mile, but I could see all the way up to the first little stream crossing the beach and there was nothing else happening except for one black bird waddling along until it flew off. Saw only one seagull. By the time I left at 1:30, two of the surfers were now dressed and starting a small bonfire at one of the 'fort' shelters up by the dunes..

One still-alive small 4-inch fish was flapping its last flaps at the edge of the water.

About 3/4 of a mile south of the jetty I found a small 4-inch fish still barely alive at the edge of the water. I put my sandal near it and it started to flap around. I nudged it back into the water but it could not swim for some reason and just was laying on its side. I guessed it would perish. A little further on I found another fish just like it, also about 4 inches, this time dead. It's rare that I find ANY fish on the beach, and first time I found one still (barely) alive.

Small rocks, Seaweeds and seagrass, Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Wood pieces. Not much had been washed up on the beach. A mix of small stones, shell parts, some foam and a little sea weed here and there. The sand is smooth and hard packed since the last high tide. A few crab bodies and legs were scattered here in there, and an occasional jellyfish. I found a whole tiny sandollar less than 1 inch in diameter up on the high tide wrack. No human trash was visible aside from a wooden pallet is stranded at the high tide mark about half a mile south of the jetty.

The jetty has a new big tree added since I was here last. It's weathered white and located at the tip of the jetty. It must’ve taken a huge wave to put that up that high on the rocks. My neighbor had mentioned this to me as noteworthy, and I could see she was right.