May 1, 2016

Temperature: 70 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Wind Direction: NW.

Number of people: 10. Walking or running: 2. Sitting: 2. Fishing: 4. Other Activities: 1 Flying kite, one State Park Ranger on ATV. The ATV was driven by a State Park Ranger.

Disturbances: Shorebirds moving in response to humans/dogs

A pinneped in the surf, a lone gull, then about a dozen little shore birds, then flocks of gulls, little shore birds, and sandpipers.

Total dead birds: 1. Probably a raven on the west back on the New River which we found in the sand. It was pretty desiccated.

Pieces of crab, shellfish and sand dollars.

Small rocks, Shells, Animal casings (e.g., crab, shrimp molt), Wood pieces, Marine debris (plastic, styrofoam, etc. washing in from the sea), Styrofoam. Lady bugs

No action aside from taking out some litter. We rowed our dinghy down Fourmile Creek before noon under sunny skies, in warm weather and a light breeze. When we rowed across the New River and north, downstream, to find a suitably hospitable beaching point on the west bank of the New River, we noted a blue skiff already docked on the side, which we think belongs to Farmer Gibbs. We beached our craft and crossed the dunes. Saw no gorse, although there was LOTS of it on the south bank of Fourmile Creek on Bandon Biota's land. We made our way over the dunes and I was stuck by how green (as opposed to blue) the ocean water was). The waves were about three feet from trough to crest, maximum, a few a bit taller. We spotted a person fishing the surf and assumed it was Farmer Gibbs. We did not engage him and he was unaware of our presence. We proceeded north into a moderate breeze (estimate 10 to 15 mph) from the NNW and within a few hundred yards passed four male adult fisherman also fishing the surf. I took a photo of one of their fish, apparently perch. One commented that there weren't many but they had already retained at least three. Another few hundred yards and we passed a man flying a kite and two people, apparently a dipolar couple, lounging on the sand at the base of the dunes, sunning themselves. I wondered if I would have been better advised to bring a bottle of wine . . . Anyways we plodded on. Round the first mile mark, so now probably Mile 95, we spotted some sort of pinniped in the surf quite close to shore. He was very curious about us as we were about him or her. We studied each other for about five minutes. We continued on, the beach itself was broad the entire way, a hundred yards wide, of sand, gently sloping toward the surf, with a slight hump between the dunes and the water. And it was pretty clear. Occasionally we would come across areas where little stones (up to the size of silver dollars on occasion) or pieces of marine shells would cover the wet sand. We walked where the sand was hard, down near the water. There was virtually no driftwood. But there were lady bugs walking around on the sand. Never seen them before. Not swarms but occasionally one every square yard or so. Go figure . . .