June 12, 2010

Temperature: 50 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: N. Tide Level: -2.0 feet.

Number of people: 2. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 3. Photography: 1. Coast WalkMile 93Saturday morning, June 12th, 2010Blaine and I and our dog, Lucie Anne, set out from the house at 7:40. It was bright and sunny, but there was already a mild breeze from the North. I rowed the dingy down Lower Fourmile Creek (which was very high and the water was brown) and across the New River (also high) and beached the boat. We walked over the dunes and found the beach was very wide as there was a minus tide, about one hundred yards between the waterline and the edge of the fore dune and its beach grass. The drift line was clear for the entire mile save a few small rocks up to about the size of golf balls here and there. We saws only about eight birds, probably all various gulls, all flying except one big one standing in the water on our side of the surf. And I spotted only one jelly about two inches across. There were no signs of any recent human activity, no tracks, either footprints of vehicles. This is unusual, as over the years I have found at least some vehicle tracks on most visits. Not sure if the BLM has pulled back on the biologists and predator control. I did find some small mammalian tracks, about the size that might be left by a cat, but I did not recognize their source.We did pass two areas with posts which no doubt are protecting plover nesting areas but we didn’t approach close enough to read them. On the way back we picked up three glass bottles, one 500-watt red light bulb – completely intact with filament – and Blaine found a glass float a little smaller than a soft ball. It was the first glass float either of us had ever found and a cause for celebration. It was made of clear green glass and will be found in our library henceforth.Along the way we saw many of the round plastic floats in various colours and sizes but the only colorful Styrofoam crab floats were two Blaine spotted floating in the surf. Once again there were lots of shards of plastic up on the dry sand. But there was no seaweed the entire mile although there were parts of crabs and mussel shells and fragments of sand dollars and shells of other molluscs. The waves were small, no more than three feet and the vast majority less then about two feet trough to crest. The sand was fine to small grains up to the size of uncooked rice. The wet sand was cool under foot. The north wind picked up and was between five and ten miles an hour by the time we got back to the dingy an hour after starting our beach walk. We spotted another gorse bush on the West bank of the New River. An alarming new development seen only this calendar year and never previously. I also suspect the width of the sand between the West edge of the New River and the edge of the Pacific Ocean is growing greater over the years.

About 8 birds, probably varieties of gulls, one jelly on sand (alive, dead, who knows?)

None

Mostly crab parts and, of course, shells, mostly mussels.

Small rocks. Very empty drift line.

See above re Snowy Plover

We brought back three glass bottles and one small glass float.