May 7, 2009

Temperature: 50 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: N.

Number of people: 1. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 1. Other Activities: 1-Snowy Plover Biologist. I found one set of foot prints on the west shore of the New River and two sets of ATV tracks. I saw one of the ATVs, it appeared to be operated by a biologist.

One white bird flying just out beyond the surf line and possibly one seal also just beyond the surf line. Crustaceans (probably California Beach Hoppers).

NA

Some clam and mussel shells, very few crab shells.

Seaweeds and seagrass, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Shells, Small rocks. Two plastic bottles, an aluminum can (beer or soda), one brown glass bottle, one fishing float (small) and one plastic object.

None

None

I took the fishing float and brown glass bottle.For the Beach walk on May 7th, 2009, I rowed down the Lower Four Mile Creek and across the New River shortly after ten in the morning. I walked over the dunes which, my wife and I have observed, seem taller than they were when we bought our place in 2000. (The result of the European beach grass?) I did notice that there was more beach grass and less open sand on the west shore of the New River than there was on my last visit during the final quarter of 2008.The weather was sunny and the breeze mild, the sand was warm under my bare feet. Visibility was eight to ten miles horizontally. There were clouds over the coastal hills inland and some far out to sea but none above the beach.There were two (fishing?) boats visible off shore. There had been five or six during the previous night judging from the lights.I don’t have a current tide table, but I think it was coming in as the sun was approaching its zenith and the moon is nearly full (and therefore opposite the sun).When I crossed over the dunes and reached the beach, I found clumps of kelp, some ten to twenty feet across and a foot to two feet tall on the beach, but they were concentrated at the point where I crossed the dunes and were less frequent as I jogged north. They had lots of little jumping crustaceans on them (probably California Beach Hoppers), but I also saw similar creatures on the open sand. Except for the bird mentioned below (and the tracks of two ATVs, my dog’s paw prints and my own footprints, there were no other signs or sights of animals save the possible marine mammal mentioned later, the footprints I found at the end of my visit on the west bank of the New River, and the shells. On earlier visits I have seen, on occasion, the tracks of deer and elk and raccoons on one or the other bank of the New River.)I was struck by the lack of birds. In the thirty-five minutes I was on the beach I saw only one, flying south over or just beyond the furthest line of surf, a white bird the size of a gull. Three hundred and fifty yards inland, from our house, there have been plenty of birds visible, hummingbirds, hawks, swans, egrets, gold finches, crows, a Red Wing Black Bird and swallows among others, so this dearth of birds was unusual so nearby.Where I reached the beach (almost directly west of the mouth of the Lower Fourmile Creek) the waves were only one to two feet high from crest-to-trough. And they were approaching the beach at right angles altho’ a day or so earlier I had seen them (from my house) approaching the beach at what looked like a thirty degree angle coming out of the south.However, as I jogged north the sand, which had been as fine as children’s play sand, turned more course, nearly the size of grains of white rice for a stretch of perhaps three hundred yards. There the sand also contained rocks around the size of golf balls. There the waves were bigger, about three foot from crest-to-trough. I wonder if there is a connection between the courser sand and the size of the waves.When I first approached the waterline I found one set of ATV tracks. Later, as I was returning to my starting point I saw a second ATV driven by a single male. We did not interact. He dismounted and took what I think was some sort of scientific instrument on a tripod up into the dunes. I am guessing he was a biologist. The first set of RV tracks may have belonged to the fellow in charge of predator control but that is speculation. (Last year I saw such a guy on an ATV with a long gun and a big black bird riding on the handlebars.)I did see an object out just beyond the furthest part of the surf which I think might have been a seal. It appeared and disappeared several times while I watched, but it was far enough away that it might have been a floating log or something else. (Old tenants of our house told us about surfing with the seals in front of this beach and on beach walks a few years ago I did find a dead adult sea mammal and a little one, both possibly elephant seals.)In addition to the big kelp, I did see two small clumps of other types of seaweeds, one rather bushy and fluffy and very green.There were very few mussel and clam shells and crab casings compared with my previous visits. But I have never been to this beach during May before.I found the following flotsam and jetsam: 2 plastic bottles, one plastic sieve, one brown glass bottle, one small yellow foam fishing float and one aluminum can. I retrieved the float and the glass bottle. All of these were up on the dry sand.At the end of our visit, when my dog and I crossed over the dunes and back to our dingy on the west bank of the New River, I found footprints of what I suspect was a woman wearing sneakers near the river’s edge.