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Category Archives: Washington coast

A Little Time at the Beach

We all got away to the Washington coast last week to dig razor clams and walk on the beach and generally relax. It was lovely. The weather was pretty good too. Not very rainy or windy, for a change. There was a Bald Eagle nest across the river from where we stayed. I saw the birds near it but they weren’t using it, yet. I saw one shorebird – a Greater Yellowlegs, I think. Sunsets were lovely. There’s not many things better than a beach sunset. Both dogs found a tennis ball. And we ate fried razor clams and fresh ceviche too. We got our limits on three of four days. Here I am with a limit of fifteen clams.

Sights Worth Seeing

We enjoyed walking to both of the lighthouses with a tour of the North Head Light. As we walked through the woods, we could hear the noise of a nearby helicopter. Once we were out on the bluff we could see that the Coast Guard crew was practicing rescues off of the cliff. There was a child wearing ear protection along with a couple of adults. When we asked if he always walked with ear protection, we were told that his dad was part of the helicopter crew and he was there to watch him work. Pretty cool.

The North Head light has been restored and is open for tours. The Cape Disappointment light is in a state of disrepair and while we could walk to it, no one is allowed in. We also visited Fort Columbia State Historical Park and the town of Long Beach.

Foxglove grows wild everywhere
An old water tower
Looking north to the Long Beach Peninsula
I wondered about this viny plant with the delicate while flowers
It’s a wild cucumber!
And native to western WA
Salmonberry, a NW native
Like many other Washington State Parks along the coast, this one used to be a military installation and the old infrastructure is still present.
This relic and the next one are from Fort Columbia State Park on the Columbia River.
The world’s biggest carved razor clam is in Long Beach.
And the world’s biggest frying pan used to make the world’s biggest clam fritter.
The campground is in those trees.
North Head Lighthouse
Pelagic Cormorants nesting on this vertical cliff
Can you imagine going over the dangerous Columbia bar in this open boat?
This fresnel light used to be in the North Head lighthouse
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

A Break in the Weather

Earlier this month I spent a few days at Pacific Beach on the Washington coast. The weather was mostly unpleasant with powerful winds, lots of rain and high surf warnings. This is the second year in a row I’ve experienced bad weather in December on the coast. Hmmm. Next year, let’s not plan to do that!

There was one partially sunny break in the weather and I took advantage of it and hurried outside with my camera and tripod and the dogs to watch and photograph the waves. I got maybe an hour out there before it began to rain again and I took my equipment inside. Too bad. I learned that I missed seeing a magnificent rainbow over the little community of Seabrook. A friend, Sheila Siden, has a place there and she was on the beach at the same time I was and she captured the photo of me and the dogs. I saw her from a good distance away in her orange raincoat. Later that day I saw on facebook that she was in Seabrook and saw her photos. You can see her image of the rainbow here.

This is the landscaping in front of the cabin. The pond just kept expanding into the grass!
This stream was more like a river.
With my tall boots, I was able to cross it, very carefully.
You can see the edge of the Seabrook community behind the row of trees in the background.
Sand shrimp sign
I like watching waves.
Me and my dogs. Photo by Sheila Siden.

Dogs on the Beach

Well, of course we took the dogs! And of course they had fun!

Where’s the ball
Sky wants that ball
Luna got a ball
Sky got a ball
Frida wants a ball
Frida got a ball
See how fluffy her normally sleek tail looks? That’s from the powerful wind.
Wind blows her ears back
White socks from all the sea foam

Birds on the Beach

I’ve never been very good at identifying shorebirds. It used to be that I birded with some experienced birders and I could muddle my way through the peeps and such but not anymore. And this time of year, the birds are in winter plumage so very few clear ID marks stand out for me. Someday I’d like to go to Alaska in the late spring and see the breeding shorebirds decked out in all their fine feathered plumage. But for now I will have to settle for wintering birds on the Washington coast once in a while.

This Bald Eagle didn’t seem to bother the shorebirds.
He finally moved on.
Two gulls.
Beautiful patterns when they fly.