Renee cleans up in Zone 0 and enjoys being dive bombed by the birds!

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 12:06 PM, Renee Tevelow <reneetev@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Ginger,

A beautiful first day on the beach.

No tracks but lots of trash.

I think a lot of the trash was being washed back onto the beach from the ocean.  So, as I like to say,  It's our second chance to get it.    You'll see in the pictures- ropes and lines with a lot of tiny pieces of trash caught up in it.  I've attached quite a few pictures.....not very pretty....ugh  (But I did take some pretty ones of the full moon and the sunrise too.....those are for later )

There were some things I couldn't get.  I took a picture of a balloon that was way beyond the rope in the nesting area....so I couldn't get it and a large piece of burlap that is so deep in the sand I couldn't get it out either.....also a large tire piece that wasn't accessible.  Maybe as the tide washes over some of these I'll be able to pull them out before they get washed back out into the ocean.  

I tried to identify the pieces and count as many as I could for the tally sheet....

I also saw lots of pieces of horseshoe crabs....like Nancy has observed.  Also, one dead jelly fish and gull.

Their is an oyster catcher pair at the north end - by the new mailbox.  Also lots of terns?  The roped off area is smaller than it was last year....but I think the birds remember where it is supposed to be because even tho I was well outside the roped off area as I walked above the tide-line.....they were squawking and a few even did their dive bomber imitation!  

Have a wonderful day.

Renee

Our first walk for 2014

I don't know many people who look forward to Monday mornings.  What about getting up at 5:15 AM on Monday morning?  But….when it is your first walk to look for sea turtle nests, you have an excited anticipation!

John and I did not find a nest, but we did get to enjoy a beautiful sunrise and that never gets old!

Unfortunately, we were greeted by a big dredge pipe this year, which gives the beach quite a different feel.  The interface of heavy equipment and serene nature almost feels eerie.  We hope the dredging will be complete soon so that our beautiful beach can be a peaceful place for a nesting sea turtle.

Given that we have had a chilly start to spring, we did not expect to find as much trash as we did, but were glad that we could leave the beach better than we found it.  We hope others will do the same.  :-)

The animals (all rescues) also anticipate the beginning of KIC season!

Gigi relaxing in the shade on a blanket we collected from the beach years ago.  She is hoping for a ball in the trash finds.

This is Kahuna's first trash season and he does not know what to think!  He is an awesome cat who is up for adoption.

Sasha and Ringo Starr observe the trash sorting from inside.  They are finding the tree frog much more interesting than the trash.

Our trash today consisted of:

12 cigarette butts (so few thanks to the ordinance)

16 food wrappers or pieces of food wrappers

11 plastic bottle caps

3 metal bottle caps

21 straws/stirrers

2 plastic cutlery

1 long piece of rope and 14 pieces of a shredded rope

1 balloon piece

1 plastic cigar tip

4 pieces of burlap (part of the dredging operation)

2 fireworks

6 unidentifiable foam pieces

16 unidentifiable plastic pieces

6 plastic bottles

7 glass bottles

9 aluminum cans

2 plastic grocery bags

4 "other" plastic bags

4 plastic cups

3 foam cups

1 condom-yuck

3 articles of clothing

1 broken sunglasses

8 toys

28 zip ties (maybe that is part of the dredging operation as well?  mostly found along the pipe)

2 chap sticks

bag of metal stakes

1 hair tie

6 mismatched flip flops (mostly good brands too!  one even had a bottle opener on the bottom!)

Ginger

A new dawn, a new day, a new season!

Somehow the start of May has just been all that much sweeter this year: the long-awaited spring after a cold and icy winter. It's here!

For weeks, Friday May 16 was circled and highlighted on my calendar as my much-anticipated first morning of walking in zone 0, on the north end, with my trash bag. So I was a little concerned when I was kept awake for much of the night before by torrential rain and roaring thunder. At 5:30 a.m., I grimly pulled on a hat and my raincoat and made my way toward the beach.

Wouldn't you know it, though, just minutes after I arrived, as dawn began to break, the heavy, dense fog that was blanketing the shoreline was sucked out over the Atlantic like a giant plume of smoke. The dark gray clouds began to roll rapidly across the sky. And as I walked along, the sun began to peek through the beautiful storm clouds. It was really just breathtaking, and much to my surprise, it was a gorgeous morning to be on the beach.

As I walked, I quickly noticed that the stormy weather from the night before had deposited a lot of garbage along the shore, especially tangled within large clumps of sea grass.

But it also left some beautiful treasures, and I was super excited to find a whole sand dollar.

My litter total for the day included:
-7 cigarette butts
-1 drink packet
-1 goggles band (but no goggles)
-1 broken shovel
-1 drink lid
-2 plastic water bottles
-1 balloon string (but no balloon)
-3 beer cans
-6 plastic bags
-various bits and chunks of unidentifiable plastic

Peace,
Susan