Another Day at the Beach

It was a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach in Bandon, and HOT, which is a rarity. I arrived at the Jetty around noon. There were several people perch fishing in the surf, and lots of agate hunters.

There was a slight haze to the air, though it is difficult to see it in the photos. It wasn't as thick as mist or fog...but it did affect visibility somewhat. I am not sure what causes that but I have experienced it before on the coast on warm sunny days.

The little blue specks on the rocks are actually tiny dried dead jellyfish. It was hard to get my phone to focus on them close up. They looked almost like part of the rock at first.

On the cliffs at the edge of the beach, the sand changes to large gravel and boulders and then to land; I photographed a scraggly willow trying to grow out of a rock bank.

Most of the slopes are covered in nasty, nasty gorse.

There was a variety of early successional species of algae, lichen, moss, and other small vegetation growing on this rock. I call this cave the "wind tunnel" because at times the air whips through there at incredible speeds. However, it was fairly calm on this day.

I tried to climb up a little ways to photograph this little ledge which features some slightly later successional species on it, but this was as close as I could get.

 

I looked for some decent tidepools, but the tide was too high. I will have to return at a very low tide to get some better examples. These were found just south of Face Rock.

I did not note any crabs or fish in these, although I thought there might have been some very small sea anemones hiding under the ledge. Unfortunately I did not have enough time between waves to take a very close inspection.

A female seagull was sitting on the sand in the middle of the beach. I thought maybe she was wounded; it seemed odd for a seagull to just nest down right in the middle of the beach like that especially with all of the people that were out that day. She stood up as I tried to approach, but this was as close as I could get. She did not fly away but I felt like I shouldn't harass the bird.