Seal Rock - 4/9/15

Somewhere, Beyond the Sea...

Ahhhh, Beyond the Sea. This might be my all-time favorite song. Hahaha, I really rock it whenever it comes on the car radio.

Fun Facts: Beyond the Sea is a 1946 contemporary pop romantic love song written by Jack Lawrence, with music taken from the song La Mer by Charles Trenet. 

Trenet wrote the first version of the song's lyrics at the age of 16 in 1929, many years before he came up with a tune for it. The tune came to him while he was traveling by train in 1943 as he was gazing out the window at a couple of ponds. He jotted it down on a piece of paper and in the afternoon he worked out the details. That same night, he performed it in front of an audience. 

Trenet had composed La Mer with French lyrics completely different and unrelated to the English-Language version that Lawrence later wrote. Trenet's French version was a homage and ode to the changing moods of the sea, while Lawrence, by just adding one word Beyond, to the title, gave himself the start whereby he made the song into one of a dear lover mourning for a lost love.

While it's been recorded many times by many different artists, Bobby Darin's 1959 version is the best known. His song reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 15 on the U.S. R&B Chart and No. 8 in the UK Singles Chart.

And so today we went to the sea shore to see seals. Specifically, we went to Seal Rock State Recreation Site.

I swear, it is confusing trying to figure out what is what here in this state. There are Wayside Parks, State Parks, State Recreation Sites, Memorial State Parks, State Natural Areas, State Natural Sites and on and on and on, ad infinitum et ultra. (to infinity and beyond!!)

Hahaha, OK, I'm done griping...for now. But it is confusing.

Anyway, we went to the Seal Rock State Recreation Site. I had read up on it and knew that when the tide is out the park has a number of tide pools you can visit.



This picture was taken from the ADA Accessible Observation Deck overlooking the beach. Oddly enough, that huge rock to the right has no name. I would have thought they'd have given that Bad Boy some kind of catchy name just for the Tourista trade alone. Money talks, y'know.

There were definitely more seagulls here than there were seals. A lot more. And they were all over everything.

And they seemed to be a fun, happy-go-lucky crew of gulls.

Uh, 'cuse me but, y'know, you're, like, on my back, Dude.

This shot looks down the park to the south. You can see the rocks where we found most of the tide pools. I don't know why, but the rocks nearest where we entered the park had no anemones or starfish. It was just dead. 

Fortunately, the further away we went, the more marine life we saw.

Here's the only route down into the Recreation Site. It's paved and pretty good until you get near the beach. Then the trail peters out into a muddy path and a bunch of round, smooth beach stones.

We were initially disappointed when we got down to the beach. We found some likely tide pools but, as I said,  there wasn't anything in them. All we could see were the seagulls. And there were plenty of them.

Still, it was a beautiful day and so we continued walking down the beach seeing what we could.

Which was, mostly, gulls.

Everywhere.

You had to be careful where you stepped on the beach. The, uh, gulls, had obviously been there before.

The rocks formed an effective barrier for the beach taming the action of the waves coming in from the ocean.

But we persevered and slowly made our way down the beach farther and farther.

               CB

It's a beautiful area and everything is accessible. Just bring some water shoes or galoshes to protect your feet as you climb up on the rocks and wade through the water.

Everywhere...

Sometimes I felt it was like looking at a moonscape.

But that didn't stop folks from exploring.

Especially this one. Hahaha, she is fearless and bold. She'll go most anywhere to get a look-see at whatever catches her interest. And she finds most things interesting!!

There were a few cormorants to break up the gull routine. No pelicans yet.

Some serious tide pools on this beach. Plenty of them. But we hadn't seen much in the tide pools.

We'd gone a good distance down the beach when a couple passing by asked if I had seen the seal sunning himself on a rock yet. I hadn't and so they pointed him out to me. 

Thank goodness for the zoom lens as this Fat Boy was a small blot in the middle of the water way out there. I saw a rock in the distance but never saw the seal. I had to know what I was looking at in order to see the seal and then, BAM!! I whipped out the ol' camera and zoomed in on his fat butt. Literally,  because, you see, I was looking at the south end of this particular seal who had his head pointed north. He was definitely enjoying this sunny day stretched out on the most convenient perch he could find and he wasn't looking to share it with anyone. 

I've explained before but I feel I should mention it again now; I present the pictures, normally, in the order they were taken. It means I don't have to try and artificially create a story, I just let it flow as it happened. I say this so that you understand the pictures, sometimes, appear to bounce all over the place with no particular rhyme or reason. Not so. 

It just reflects my very short attention span and how easily distracted I usually am.

That's all.

So from seals to this...coraline algae, rock weed, sea palm and sea lettuce. Hahaha, jackpot!!

We may not be seeing any starfish or anemone but we finally got some vegetation with color.

And then this guy tried getting up on the rock for some of that sunshine. Tubby wasn't having any of that and he reached down and started nipping at the little guy until he went away.

My rock!!

The water is, and this always pleases and surprises me, startlingly clear!! Crystal clear.

And then...starfish and Giant Green Anemones.

Finally!! We'd gotten far enough down the beach to find some live tide pools.

Fun Facts: Similar to their jellyfish relatives, sea anemones use their tentacles to sting and retrieve prey. Small fish, open snails and other intertidal animals are caught by the tentacles, pulled into the mouth and eaten. An anemone with tentacles tucked inside while underwater is probably eating; an anemone with tentacles tucked inside when out of the water is probably protecting its tentacles and mouth from drying and other damage.

Houston, we have life here on this distant planet.

And then we saw more. Like this Shore Crab. Amazingly, he is in a small pool of water clearly visible to everyone and he hadn't been taken or killed or whatever. 

Maybe there's hope for us after all.

And the hunt went on for wildlife.

               CB

And we started finding it. A lot of it.

Amazing!!

I know I feel like a child when I call out to Carol, "Look!! There's another one!! Oh, wow!! There's a whole bunch over here!!" But I am honestly that excited seeing them.

Hey, it's fun.

I'm thinking this is some more rock weed but I'm not sure. Still, it made for an interesting picture.

The starfish were everywhere.

As were the gulls.

What'chu lookin' at, Willis!?!

Hahaha, I'm sorta like a male version of Dora the Explorer.

And a much older version, too.

               CB

Carol got down low for this shot with her cell phone.

               CB

The day couldn't have been better. But we did notice the tide was coming back in.

This rock formation ran from west to east and it kind of split the beach. There was a break, towards the ocean side, where you could walk over to the other side of it on the beach but if you were on the other side when the tide came in then you'd have to climb over the rock to get back to the other side.

And on the far side there is this pool. It's like a swimming pool. I didn't go in but I estimate this pool is about 4 feet deep. And calm. It's be a perfect place to picnic. Hahaha, if I ever get some grandkids out this way, I'm taking them here so they can explore and go swimming.

And this is the beach on the other side of that rock formation.

Carol was channeling her inner artistic self today. You'll see it again, later.

               CB

They were everywhere.

A Black Leather Chiton. I'm given to understand they hang out in groups around malt shops and ride motorcycles.

Seriously, this sucker is about 2 or 3 inches long. Ugh.

It's a Thursday and I'm sure this is why, on this beautiful, sunny day, there weren't many people there enjoying this park. We saw a couple of families, like this one.

With the tide coming in even Ol' Tubby had to stir himself. 

As we were walking back to the mini, Carol spotted this little Hermit Crab. Mind you, he is in about 2 or 3 inches of water here. I just don't remember the water at Huntington Beach being this clear when I was a kid...way back when.

This little guy was less than an inch from side to side.

One last look back before we leave.

Ah, wistful Jackie. 

Always stylish. Always.

               CB

And we saw another Turkey Vulture. These large birds are pretty common in the skies along the Oregon coast. We've seen them a number of times, now.

Fun Facts: Like all other vultures, the turkey vulture has a bald head. This adaptation is so bits of carrion won't stick to its skin as it would if they were feathered.

The Turkey Vulture, with its bald red head and dark feathers, was given its common name due to its superficial resemblance to the wild turkey.

               Internet

You are on ugly turkey!!

Turkey vultures are the only scavenger birds that can't kill their prey. Their feet are useless for ripping into prey but their powerful beaks can tear through even the toughest cow while. You'll appreciate this now and understand why they have bald heads; they feed by thrusting their heads into the body cavities of rotting animals.

The Turkey Vulture has an extraordinary sense of smell. They've been known to be able to smell carrion from over a mile away. These birds have the largest olfactory system of all birds.

Hahaha!! We're Number One!!

I decided to drive on over to Waldport, about five miles south of Seal Rock, just to see what there was to see, see? On the way down, I pulled over to get another view of the Seal Rock Park. The tide's coming in.

Waldport was completely Tourista. It was total tourist shop from one end of the short main street to the other.

Hahaha, we can get all that in LCO. So I turned the mini around and we headed back up the 101. And since it was a lazy day and we had the time, we stopped by the Ona Beach State Park. 

We just stopped to see what it was like. And it was, like, pretty nice.

The parking lot is about a quarter mile back from the beach and you have to walk through a wooded area to get to the beach. And, naturally for Oregon, there was some standing water and, naturally, it reflected the sky and, naturally, I took a picture of it.

It's what I do.

Hahaha, this just struck me as a busy tree.

The Tracy Creek runs alongside the path and then empties into the ocean. As we were walking down we saw these two kayakers gliding along. They came down towards the ocean and then turned around and went back up the creek.

Hahaha, I know what you're thinking. Yeah, this would be a good place to come kayaking. I agree. Oh, by the by, apropos of nothing other than they were a lot like us, this couple were well into their 50s and, quite possibly, pushing into their 60s. 

Hahaha, like us.

Crazy retired people. You're so silly.

The tide was still out but here's a view of the creek streaming towards the ocean.

Just as we came into the park, I got a call on my cell from Michelle, waaaaaay over there in Maryland. Ah, modern life. She called to say Howdy and we had a good talk. That meant Carol was left to cool her jets and so she found a likely piece of driftwood and stretched out.

And got this picture. Hahaha, I told you she was channeling her inner artistic self, didn't I? Well, she was

               CB

Here's the creek as it makes its final turn towards the beach. We didn't go across the bridge as we still had some things to do. We'll do it another day.

Walking back I found this guy. 

Ol' Rockin' Robin.

It was a good day. I'm thinking I'll be heading back to that Seal Rock Park...with maybe a stop at Ona Beach for some more fun. 

There's just so much to do here. Good thing we have the time. Hahahaha, love being retired.

Retirement Rocks, y'all!!

Life is good!!

     Hooah!!