Close up Eagle!

Eagle on the beach - enjoying the sunshine. There isn't really much more you can say about this one - what a sight!!

Grayland Beach Shipwreck Find

One neat area out here that we rarely get to explore is Washaway Beach. This is the beach area between North Cove and Tokeland that is known for recent rapid erosion that has in the past 5 or 10 years has caused huge parts of a neighborhood to fall into the ocean. The beach is kind of neat to walk (and sad, also because so many lost property there), because you can see old foundations and septic tanks and water pipes the have been abandoned where homes have washed away.

A coastal storm over New Years caused a little more erosion and also uncovered a bit of a treasure that has caused some excitement on the South Beach. An old shipwreck, about 100' long was found peeking through the sand. According to the Daily World, "they" believe the ship is the "Canadian Exporter", a freighter that went down in 1921 at the mouth of Willapa Harbor.

According to Rex Martin, the Executive Director of the Maritime Museum, its a pretty complicated process to determine who owns the salvage rights to the wreckage, and it would be a bit of a job to uncover the whole thing. So it sounds like it might just end up laying there until it breaks up into flotsam. But in the meantime, its a sight to behold.

We went down there this afternoon to check it out, and there were more people on the beach than I've ever seen down there, actually more than I've ever seen on a South Beach outside of a warm clam dig. The shipwreck itself is pretty cool. Definitely worth a look. To get there, drive south on the beach to just south of Warrenton Cannery Road, or drive South on highway 105 from Westport, and park on Warrenton Cannery Road and it's just south of the entrance.

Safety first! The county has posted "no trespassing" signs and built a sand barricade where the road has washed away, due to the danger involved in walking down there. Be mindful of the tides, and don't get caught out there in a storm.

Secrets From The Sea Beachcombing Great Lecture at Westport Winery

Beachcombing is one of the best things about living on the coast. If you have ever wanted to know more about everything from sand dollars to agates, you are invited to attend the next free Great Lecture at Westport Winery. Secrets From The Sea will be presented by Gene Woodwick of the Ocean Shore InterpretiveCenter on Sunday, October 18 from 3-5pm. This class is open to all ages and is free to attend. Pre-registration is required as space is limited.

Gene became an Olympic Peninsula ethno-centric after she and her husband moved to Forks to teach in 1960. She cooked at the Sappho logging camp of Rayonier, Inc. when he was head teacher at the Beaver Elementary School. She later worked for the Port Angeles Evening News and the Associated Press as a hard news reporter covering the area from Lake Cresent south to Lake Quinault and from the ridge of the Olympic Mountains to 200 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. During this time she covered the development of Ocean Shores. She worked for over 32 years at King County newspapers as reporter, editor, and columnist for four newspapers specializing in land use, inter-governmental issues, logging and tourism.

Gene moved back to the coast in 1984 and worked for newspapers in OceanShores and as a freelance writer. She also worked at the Grays Harbor Economic Development Council, Grays Harbor Tourism and the Chehalis Fisheries Enhancement Task Force. In 1987 she was hired to develop the Interpretive where she now serves as the curator under the directorship of Neil Eldridge. Gene continues to write for the Puget Sound Historical Maritime Museum journal The Sea Chest and the Washington State Museum's journal The Columbian.

For more information call Westport Winery at 648-2224.Westport Winery is located on the corner of Highway 105 and South Arbor Road (halfway betweenAberdeen and the Westport ‘Y’). The winery is open daily, year around from 11amto 6pm.

Whale Watching off the Westport Coast

This past weekend, as we were recovering from an amazing Cleanwater Classic, and enjoying the fabulous weather on the beach in front of Westport by the Sea, we noticed something that we've heard a lot about but never witnessed first hand - a pod of grey whales. It's a little hard to describe, and if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I probably would not have believed how close they were to shore - maybe 200 feet. Close enough to see the barnacles on their skin!

Since Sunday, we have heard from many neighbors that the Whales have been spotted offshore along the beach from the Jetty south all week long. It's an amazing sight, and one well worth the drive. I was not able to catch a picture, since you're never quite sure where they will surface, and I'm simply not that patient.

Here is a link the Washington Department of Ecology page on whale migrations off the Washington Coast, as well as the American Cetacean Society Gray Whale Page. Hope you can see these special creatures yourself!

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/coast/animals/gray_whale.html
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/graywhl.htm

Beach Glass Treasures in Westport and Grayland

On a recent weekend road trip to Ocean Shores, I met an artist who happens to be a neighbor here in Westport. Beth is the proprietor of Seashore Collections, a small art studio that specializes in Beach Glass Jewelry. She was participating in small beachcombers fair there at the Ocean Shores Convention Center. Beth had some of her jewelry on display and for sale, and it was so beautiful.

She told me that she finds almost all of her glass on the Westport and Grayland Beaches. I love that. I love hearing about finding treasure. I don't have the patience to comb the beaches and find cool stuff. I try to keep my head down when I walk the beach in front of our home, but I don't really have the patience (and now I'm usually chasing my 2 year old). But the payoff is gorgeous, as you can see in these pictures.

To own a piece of beach treasure without the long walk, find Beth on ebay (search for Seashore Collections Westport), or at one of Westport's many street fairs this summer.

Grayland Driftwood Show

The Cranberry Coast Chamber of Commerce will be hosting its 46th Annual Driftwood Show on March 15 and 16, 2008 at the Grayland Community Hall. I have wanted to attend this for years, and am looking forward to finally making it this year.

You can purchase a "hunting license" for $3, which entitles you to "hunt" in designated locations on Grayland Beach for a specially marked sand dollar. If you find one, you can exchange it for a glass float. It looks like a lot of fun - who doesn't love a treasure hunt?

Additionally, there will be tons of driftwood, flotsam, jetsam, and the like on display (and being judged for awards). You can enter your interesting driftwood and beachcombing finds, as well as photography on Friday afternoon or early Saturday morning. For more information, check out the Cranberry Coast Chamber's website at http://www.cranberrycoastcoc.com/driftwood2003.html

Good luck!

Winter Beach Day

After a long hard winter, full of 133 miles per hour winds, weeks on end of overcast weather, and the most rain I have seen since I moved here, we are having a fantastic February. This past week we have been treated to clear skies, a fantastic lunar eclipse, and warm (for winter) weather. The weatherman is forecasting 50's and sunny for the next few days, and we are taking advantage of as much sunshine as we can get our hands on.

As an added bonus, the end of winter and beginning of spring means the start of shorebirding season. I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of birds the recent clearing at the Links site might bring, as well as the changes made a Bottle Beach State Park. Today, we enjoyed the sandpipers on the beach here in Westport.

Clamming is On!

The Department of Fish and Wildlife rules the roost when it comes to saying when you can gather food and what you can gather from our local beaches, and this weekend they told us it was okay to dig for clams. I have mostly avoided this local activity for the past few years because, frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with the clams if I did find some, and I hate to waste food.

But we had out of towners and it was a beautiful day, so we gathered up the necessary clam guns (big PVC pipe things that act like a coring tool), shellfish licenses, and containers and headed out to the beach.

The trick to clam digging, apparently, is to know what you are looking for. And what you are looking for is the clam "show". Which I like to describe as air bubbles. Which is impossible to notice in the sand if you've never seen it before. Our friends Mary and Matt were joining us for this little adventure, and for the first hour that we were out, I'm pretty sure they thought they had been scammed into thinking there was something to catch. However, once we figured it out, we caught a handful of clams, enough for Matt and Mary to make a homemade clam chowder, which would put any Seattle Restaurant to shame.

I think this might be our last clam dig for the season (until fall), but when the WDFW gives us the thumbs up again, it will be Clam On!

What is that! It burns!

This week brought some of those beautiful, sunny, seventy degree, spring days that make all of life's problems just melt away. It was a great opportunity to head down to the beach at Westhaven State Park and let Baby munch on the sand without being bundled up in a million layers.

Despite the perfect weather, the beach was, as usual, completely empty. After being down there for maybe a half hour, I bumped into one of the local real estate agents walking her dog. It still amazes me that this area is so unspoiled and underused. I know come summer I'll be wishing for my solitude, but on days like today, its a little lonely.

Stormwatching

Having lived in Seattle for the past 5 years, rain and stormy weather is not new to me. But I must admit, the word "storm" takes on a whole new meaning when you are living 200 feet from the Pacific Ocean. While the entire Pacific Northwest has been drenched with over 13" of rain this November, the really scary stuff was reserved for those of us at the beach.
It started with torrential downpours early in the month, continued with thunder and lightning rivaling that on Poltergeist, and ended with sustained 40 -60 MPH winds on two occasions over the past week.

Last Saturday evening, the sky was growling, the surf was pounding, and I was ready to take my 5 month old and crawl under the bed. I literally jumped out of my skin at 3:30 AM when I was CERTAIN we were being attacked (by who?) because the thunder sounded like a grenade outside my window. (That is either a testament to the thunder or my sheltered life, so maybe I should just be thankful). That particular storm completely blew out our condo building elevator breaker and fried my television (along with a dozen others in my building), but we survived to tell the tale.

I was lucky enough to witness a truly spectacular sight was last Wednesday, after the strongest winds left Westport without power for over 12 hours, was the evening sky. The closest streetlights were across the bay in Ocean Shores, and in the absense of light, there was the most amazing display of the milky way that I have ever seen. It was a breathtaking view, and was a sharp reminder of the good that sometimes comes with the bad.

When it was all said and done, the tree branches and debris were cleared from the roads and the power was back on, we weren't that worse for the wear despite how scary the howling winds and the complete and utter darkness were at the time.

It made me understand the ads I used to see for "stormwatching" specials and the stream of people that come into town when the sky is particularly foreboding. So for you Seattleites and Portlanders who frown when the skies get gray, take a weekend and visit the beach, bundle up take a walk on the beach in the weather, and experience the splendor.