June 1, 2011

Temperature: 55 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: SW. Tide Level: 2.0 feet.

Number of people: 2. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 3. Beach WalkWednesday, June 1st, 2011.I started out for our dinghy, the Second Sea Sprite, at eight-fifty in the morning under sunny skies and mild temperatures and breeze. Blaine had told me she would meet me at the east bank of the New River. My faithful dog, LucieAnne, the Bassett, followed me at a distance, as is her wont, through the grass which was now up to chest deep, probably due to the wet Spring.We got the boat into the water and rowed down the Lower Fourmile Creek and into the New River. The Lower Fourmile is over six feet deep, but the mother river is shallow enough that I think I could have waded across. I tried several different landing spots and finally found one a little north of the Logan’s property line where I could get the boat right up to the land. There are several large objects, perhaps water-logged logs, laying on the bottom of the river that guard various promising looking landing spots on which my boat high centered.Blaine joined us but by then Lucie had climbed out of our craft. She wound up swimming across. Unusual for a Bassett. I made for a little sandy beach on the West bank where I assume waves had overtopped the dunes in the past and was rewarded with another good spot to beach the boat so Blaine could disembark. Lucie, on whom I was keeping a sharp eye lest she experience any difficulties on her swim, joined us and we all walked over the dunes to the beach.The waves were noticeably larger than on our previous visit, four feet from trough to crest and beautiful, with spindrift blowing back over them as they broke. We headed South.The beach was about seventy-five yards wide from edge of the dunes to the water and evenly sloped for the most part with a slight hump midway between the grass and the surf in spots. We walked South for twenty-five minutes under sunny skies and in a slight breeze (less than five miles an hour) from the Southwest.As a consequence of the size of the surf, the spindrift created enough mist that the rocks and peninsula around Cape Blanco and the haystacks in front of Old Town Bandon were visible but thru a haze.Unlike our previous visit a little over a week before, the driftline contained pieces of bull kelp every couple of yards. I saw only a couple of signs of other seaweed, decomposing patches of something vegetable and reddish on the wet sand.Again there were plenty of crab carapaces but no whole sand dollars, although many pieces of that echinoderm were present. We saw one nearly entire crab, perhaps six inches across its shell but dead. We saw no jellies nor sea stars. Haven’t seen either of them since we got here is early March.On our way south we saw only one bird, a gull. I was a little surprised to see ATV tracks in the sand near the surf about halfway along our walk. It was a single set, and I assume they belonged to the predator control guy or perhaps the biologists that visit this stretch of the desolate Oregon coast. The tracks made a loop as the driver turned South after heading North.The wet sand was fine for the most part with the coarsest being only about the size of a period at the end of a sentence in the newspaper and less than a third the size of a grain of white uncooked rice. There were small rocks here and there, at those locations perhaps one per square yard, up to the size of a golf ball.I prefer to take my barefoot walks on the hard packed wet sand near the surf as it is firm and easier to walk or jog on. Blaine spent some time up on the dry sand where there was a consistent line of drift wood and crab carapaces and shells and an occasional crab float. There was also one seat, presumably from a boat.We walked past the BLM post labeled “Information” and continued down to a place where the dunes are knocked down, I assume by a dozer. I wish that dozer would come and knock down the dunes in front of the Lonely Plover, our home. There we walked across the dry sand up to one of the stakes which said that this was a Snowy Plover nesting area and we should not enter. Lucie obediently turned back from exploring beyond that point, and we all returned to the wet sand.As we walked back we saw one other gull. We also were intrigued to see white objects floating in the water beyond the surf. We saw dozens, but they were too far away to figure out what they were. I figure they were birds, but none ever took off nor did any land. So, Blaine and I are puzzled as to what they were. We saw them off and on all the way back to our starting point. If we go again we’ll try and remember to take the binoculars.There was an interesting sighting as we drew back toward the northern terminus of our walk. Nine to twelve little birds were flying low above the dry sand and landing on it. They were too far away for me to be sure, but I think they were the type of swift or swallow that live at our house and build nests made of mud. The ones at our house are insectivores, I am pretty sure, and fly like super fighter pilots thru the air twenty to forty feet above the ground. So, I am not sure if the birds I saw at the beach were the same species, as they were close to the ground, not more than five feet or so above the sand. I don’t recall seeing them at the beach ever before. The ones at our house have forked tails and, when viewed up close, have some purple feathers and light tan tummies. And, in the past, they have taught their young to fly off our deck.On our way back we walked across the dry sand and up onto the dunes to the BLM post and past it to their little kiosk. There we left a note using the pen and form the government had provided; answering their questions about how often we visit the beach and our address. I trust someone will retrieve it in the future. We took a little card they provided with advice and instructions for using the outdoors (“leave no trace, etc.”). I am not making light of their advice, it is all good and we should all observe it.I dropped Lucie and Blaine off on the East bank of the New River. Partly because I accidentally pushed Lu out of our boat while rowing. It was hard rowing South against the wind and, in the lightened skiff, made my way back up the Fourmile Creek. Along the way I saw some of those swallows or swifts. I suspect they get the mud for their nests along the banks of the creek. I also noticed one muddy slide coming down into the water. I wonder what animal was responsible. It looked too wide to me to be the work product of river otters.All told it took us about an hour and a half. We brought back two pieces of drift wood, one very small, and three crab carapaces, and one sand dollar, and two little interesting rocks. We will give them to two boys, Little Anthony and Nicholas, we know at Lake Tahoe.It was warm enough that I made most of the walk without a tee shirt, donning it and a sweat shirt only for the boat ride back as the wind on the New River had picked up.

2 gulls, 9 to 12 little birds I think were swifts or swallows

Crab carapaces, mussel shells, sand dollar fragments

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Shells, Small rocks.

None new

None new

None