Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Coast Watch




Today Johnny and I hiked a mile on the Oregon shore... for another of my many volunteer survey projects, this one for CoastWatch. It was a beautiful day on Mile 262 that stretches north from Cape Kiwanda almost to McPhillip Park, which is basically a secluded parking area with a rough and rocky road to the beach.

At high tide today there were quite a few "beached" birds and I was glad I was not doing a beached bird survey here. There was a good variety, though, better than on the Bob Straub Park beach where I get 99% Common Murres. This beach had freshly washed in carcasses of grebes and scoters and auklets and others I didn't know what were.

But it also had, on a headland off Cape Kiwanda, four live Black Oystercatchers. I was hoping some would be fledglings, showing me that the two pairs that nest on Haystack Rock, off the cape, had been successful but, alas, these were all adults, showing me quite the opposite. (Fledglings don't have red around their eyes so even if I don't see their not-all-the-way-red-yet bills, I can tell if they are birds of the year or adults.) Oh well, any day I see Black Oystercatchers is a successful day.


 I then hiked over the dune to meet Johnny, who had hiked the mile back to our starting point and was driving around to the south side to pick me up. On the way I spotted the resident Peregrine Falcon. I clicked a fast photo in case it flew.


And it did a second later!


A little farther along, I took a photo of an underwater channel that is eroding the dune. The ocean is finding more and more ways to divide and conquer.


 Down on the beach on the south side, Haystack Rock was reflected in this outgoing tide.



Against those cliffs in the photo above, on rocks just above the water line, a lone sea lion was napping, raising up a few times to look around, wondering where its friends had gone, maybe.


Johnny was waiting for me at the parking area so off we went to try out a new restaurant in Pacific City, Beach Wok. It was good but the Mexican restaurant, Los Caporoles, remains our favorite.

On our drive home, we stopped by the Little Nestucca River and hiked down to a scenic spot where we found two American Dippers. Any day I see a Dipper is a good day.



In the photo below, Johnny stands by a pool in the creek (at my request. I said "Stand still and look like you're enjoying yourself so I can take a photo.")



A beautiful day with lovely weather, one Peregrine Falcon, four Black Oystercatchers and two American Dippers. It doesn't get much better than that.



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