Thursday, December 25, 2014

Winter Beach Erosion: Northern California

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I live in northern California where erosion of up to 10 feet vertical of beach may leave during the stormier months, especially during an El Nino which I believe this is at the very least a mild El Nino we are presently in which affects the weather all around the world in various ways.
If you notice the size of the corgi in relation to the rocks to her left, she is at least 2 feet high so that makes the rocks to her right about 8 to 10 feet high. The lighter marking on the rocks likely is cause by the sand being up that level partly so between 5 and 6 feet of sand has washed away during the last 30 days or so from storms. But, don't worry, if you are in a place with no cement structures like piers or house foundations the sand here will replenish itself without people having to work at it in the spring and summer months. Also during that time the root balls of the kelp forests will regrow those forest (weather permitting) until another big storm hits in the fall or winter and breaks the tops of the kelp forests off and brings them into shore once again.

So all the rocks to your left up close were buried under the sands when I took photos of this same area less than a month ago.

These I believe are at least two varieties of sandpipers. There are just a couple of the larger ones and the rest are a flock of a slightly smaller variety. But, since they both seem to eat likely "Sand crabs" under the sands of the beach they seem to be happy hunting together as they run from the waves when they are too big for them (over an inch or so tall). The birds (smaller ones are about 3 to 4 inches tall and the larger ones are 5 to 7 inches tall.

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