Walking the Beach #71 (Jun 07)

 Hot and humid weather is here. At 7 AM with a slight breeze, wearing a t-shirt, you can be pretty sweaty after a short beach walk. Cloud cover is thin and a humid haze helps block direct sunlight, which helps, but Izzy still starts panting shortly after we start.

A few fresh deer tracks from a lone deer are along the waterline. More show up at several places over the entire distance we cover. Could be the same critter.

The small sink hole in sand by the first jetty has been filled in. I just noticed the change, but don’t recall seeing it for a couple weeks.

A decapitated water moccasin is close to the waterline at the fancy pier. It has been there several days and looks like someone chopped or shot off the head. Nothing has touched it, yet, in contrast with fast attacks by vultures on any stranded fish. In that vein the osprey carcass past the promontory had been gutted and stripped to the breastbone only a couple days after washing up. The wings and head are untouched. The legs with impressive talons are also gone, which may be by human hand.

Otter tracks appear in several places and may be along much of the beach toward the less trafficked area. I have trouble distinguishing otter from dog. They are much alike to me, but I think the otter prints lack toenail marks.

The place at the turnaround point that had been used as a sandbox by the otter went untouched for a couple weeks. I thought it had left the area until today when the usual spot showed some disturbance.

The tide is low so beach obstacles were easy to skirt. Only a couple of crabbers are out today, but no boats have been around on several days.

Contrails are also few these hot, humid days. This morning a couple jet liners crossed over the river on their way from the local airport.

Bird life is greatly reduced the last few days, too.  Today typically one young eagle appears as we start our walk.  Close to the mid point a lone heron launches from a tree top.  No kingfishers and only a few starlings can be seen.  Even fewer fish can be seen jumping in the warmer river water which is about 80 degrees.

The low damaged pier is now under construction. New two-by-sixes now connect 25 pilings spaced about eight feet apart. These are what the planks are attached to, so they connect pilings on each side plus running along the inside and outside of each pile. That’s a lot of expensive lumber.

The used pilings that were in the water, then pulled up on the beach are now gone. It doesn’t look like they were used on this pier, so may have been carted off for use elsewhere.

Pilings or piles is a strange name for these wooden posts, but if you look up the word in the dictionary, this same term applies to batteries, nuclear reactors and part of a rug. No wonder English is such a tough language.

I’ve started doing slow pull-ups on the pull-up tree, taking thirty seconds for each one. I can now do seven of the usual version, but barely two of the slow ones. Doing fewer repetitions causes less joint irritation, but the difficulty and benefit seems to be equal.

We had a breeze going down the beach, but not coming back, just the opposite of what you want. Off the beach it’s shady and more of a breeze seems to be available and it’s appreciated…

Walking the Beach #69 (Jun 07)

 

 

It’s nice and cool today with low humidity. The haze is gone and clouds, too. Rain did come yesterday, but very little and the ground shows no effect.

A comfortable breeze follows us down and back up the beach. It’s probably the cause of increased wave action that has filled yesterday’s void with slowly rolling waves breaking with irregularity.

Two crabbers work their way across the bay, following different tracks, one constantly moving and the other traveling in slow hops. A smaller boat is manned by two people, guys I presume, one of whom is using oyster tongs. The boat has been in place each morning a little ways upstream and a few hundred yards offshore. I’d thought it was anchored and unmanned until binoculars showed the men. The boat is half the length and width of the usual oyster boat and lacks a superstructure.

More lumber, the big stuff – 2 x 6’s ten or twelve feet long — is piled on the bank near the low damaged pier. No work has been done. The pile-driver looks unused. When work does start we may have to stay away for the few days until it’s done.

The sky is clear of any past or present air traffic. One jet liner passes overhead halfway through the walk, heading out of the area, just barely visible and without a contrail.

Izzy draws my attention to a dead falcon on the beach just past the promontory. It looks full grown, bedraggled from being in the water and lying face down with wings spread and head turned to the side. It’s eye is open and clear like it might arise at any moment, but the body condition and being half buried in sand says otherwise. Death is common on the river, for crabs, for fish, turtles, deer, dogs, and tons of shellfish. The falcon is just more striking than crushed shells. It can also be more smelly.

The mole or gopher that was working on the beach yesterday had been at it again. The trails are longer like it is bumping against the bank as it works along the beach. Still no tracks in the sand where the mounds start or stop.

The breeze brings the scent of something nice on the way back. It turns out to come from a small mimosa tree that has slipped down the bank with some attached soil to continue its life until carried away by some storm. The flowers on this version are pink. I’ve never noticed a scent from them before. They are very nice..

Walking the Beach #64 (Jun07)

 

We’re a little earlier than normal, about 6:30AM, and it’s a cooler day with some overcast. No breeze, but the tide is high, again, and sloshing against the shore. It’s a dull gray day that’s accentuated by the many bright, sunny days that preceded it.

Only two working boats are out, initially. A third comes along shortly. All three are moving about more than the oyster boats, which are pretty stationary.

Two dead turtles are on the beach. One is saucer-sized and the other a little larger. Both are the same type, solid color and round tops. I don’t think they are snappers, but can’t do a better identification. A good web site is thttp://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Turtles but none of the images seem to match. I made photos and will use them to do more research. The smaller was just the shell. The larger was stretched out with head and feet extended. If you wonder if turtles die with legs in or out, it appears it’s legs-out.

More dead fish have washed up along the beach. Some are pretty decayed and others look fresh. They vary in size from a half pound up to a couple. Vultures are working on some of these and fly off at our approach. The marks they make in the sand around such food seems distinctive and different from several spots seen previously and associated with raptors eating their prey.

Once again we don’t make it all the way to the halfway mark due to high water. On the way back I pick up a wrinkled sheet of cemented fossils about a half inch thick and almost two feet in area. Various pieces of this stuff are found in one small area. Other areas have irregular chunks rather than layers. It’s a nice size, but about fifteen pounds. I’d found it on another day but just laid it on top of a boulder-size piece on the beach, something we all seem to do based on items left like markers on the top of driftwood, rocks, piers and boat ramps. The cool weather and shorter walk seemed like a good time to bring it on home. It’s drab looking, as is all this stuff, but close examination reveals small fossil shells that are almost whole and many pieces of others all bound together. Although heavy and hard the material will shatter if dropped, so a little care is needed to preserve it….

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