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An interesting walk. Started at English Boomwith a long stretch of fairly wild beach. There was a lot of chain-saw activity on the driftwood and fallen trees. Along the populated section of Arrowhead, one lady was heard telephoning someone, describing the odd fellow she had just seen on her beach. Soon after passing around the point to the west side, the satellites would not support additional data collection. We had to stop about 750 yards short of connecting with the Utsalady segment which had been done earlier. I'll just have to come back to do the remaining short segment. | ||
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Since I'd had so much fun walking Thursday, I decided to walk along
Friday with Don and his official helper for the PM section, John.
I was also most interested in seeing the section of beach they
were covering, from English Boom Park west around Arrowhead Point.
The weather was even better than the previous day, with blue skys, sunshine, and a gentle breeze. A glorious Western Washington day! After the first few houses near the beach, there was nearly a mile of beach with no visible houses, and an interesting estuary area which is being monitored on a regular basis by the Skagit Cooperative, a combination of the Skagit, Suiattle, and Samish Tribes. John is hoping to have them make a presentation at the October Beachwatcher meeting. Unfortunately, Spartina is a problem with the esturay and it has filled in noticeably in the past 10 years. After a mile of unpopulated beach, the Arrowhead community of houses closely spaced right on a no-bank beach was quite a contrast. Although we saw several people, no one seemed to have the slightest interest in our presence. Wildlife sightings for the day include a pair of nesting eagles, a skitish deer on the beach, and much to our suprise a mama Mallard on her nest, with several eggs. We inadverdently scared her off her nest when we were only a few feet away. Quite a surprise to all! John pointed out a sand spit out in the bay with whitish spots all along it. Upon closer inspection with binocs, the whitish spots were 50-75 harbor seals hauled out in the sun. There were also many blue heron fishing all along the shallows. After we rounded Arrowhead Point the bank steepened, and the cliffs were noteably sanding, and in one spot there was interesting cross-banding visible in the sand from dune action many years ago. The sandy bluff also showed much recent erosion(last 1-2 years) and new bulkhead installation. Don phoned Brittany on the cell phone, and soon we were ushered up a steep set of stairs for cool drinks and good coversation on Brittany and Brian's deck. Brittany did shuttle duty to get us back to English Boom. John pointed out the 2 acres east and south of English Boom Park that are being considered for purchase with Conservation Futures funds and are the subject of a hearing June 6. The 2 acres would be a nice addition to the public open space. |
