Of taking out the trash, Bald Eagles and River Otters.

Taking out the trash.

Where else but here is there such a glorious view for such a mundane task! Here is Patty bagging away as visitors stroll along and enjoy the beach. Saturday was the perfect day for gathering up debris.

Vacationers hiked from both ends of the beach as we gathered the remains.

Patty and Diane doing the good work as they collect and stack debris.

Darren and the flying kelp. There is alwasy adventure on the beach! A little known fact. Kelp will fly if persuaded. Bull Kelp is usually found resting in large tangled piles with their feet all wound up. To make kelp fly you've got to cut them loose from each other as well as cut their single foot off. Then the gas in the bulb will allow the kelp to rise into the air. This can be accelerated with the aid of any 17 year old teenager with a good arm.

Darren observing flying kelp as it wings its way low over the dunes. A rare view of kelp in the wild. Notice how it is looking down as it searches of another good place for a nap.

The point of all this is that on Saturday, the Friends of the Columbia River Gateway (the 501-c3 that runs the LCIC bookstore and North Head store and donates proceeds to Long Beach Area State Parks) participated in the Grass Roots Garbage Gangs beach cleanup.

Participants were located in local tavs, bars, and watering holes. A cruise to new lands was the bait and a free trip to the Pacific was the hook.

Most eagerly hopped on board, a few weren't so sure and clung to the sides just in case they needed to make a quick get away.

Shanghaied in the end!

The "Friends" have adopted Benson Beach and soon Waikiki Beach as our ward and so we bagged trash from nine to noon. Here we are in the largest piece of trash. A fiberglass lifeboat that has been on the beach for quite a few years. It's not going anywhere and is sort of what visitors might expect to find..an seagoing artifact truly "beached".

One of the most interesting "natural" trash events we spotted was the immature Bald Eagle pondering a breakfast of California Sea Lion. Eagles are opportunists, carnivores and scavengers and in the latter, they tend to be as gross as Turkey Vultures when they dive into a morning snack of well aged marine mammal. Makes one want to gag. No need to bag that as it is part of beach ecology.

This brings up an important point. Dead things need to stay on the beach (well..whales and seals, sea lions, etc..not humans) and not be buried, blown up or hauled away. Why leave them there? They area much a part of the ecology of our area as the living organisms. Benson Beach is a natural beach (aside from the accreted land). Crows, vultures, eagles, gulls, insects, etc. all feed on such dead animals.

Otter tracks were spotted as well, based on the size, I'd guess these to be River Otter (not uncommon for our area). I know that a couple of Sea Otters have been spotted in our area earlier in late winter but these tracks appear smaller than Sea Otter.

We salute the trash picker uppers of The Beach!

For those statistically minded, we found substantially less trash than 3 months ago, I'd say about 25% or 300-400 pounds. Tires were still common (4) but mostly we found rope, water bottles, and misc pieces of plastic debris from the tiny to garbage can sized. Nothing totally weird or unusual.v