Redfish Rocks Community Tour

3. A Walk On The Beach

Port Orford, OR

My name is Jesse Jones and I am the Volunteer Coordinator for CoastWatch. CoastWatch is an Oregon volunteer program where a volunteer adopts one mile of the Oregon coast and reports observations, changes, and anything notable through our website, Oregonshores.org. Battle Rock Wayside is CoastWatch mile 48. It is a beach with a fantastic rocky shore of large serpentine and basalt boulders right on the beach, as well as views of Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge in the near distance. During a low tide in the Spring and Summer, you can access rich intertidal areas teeming with purple and orange ochre sea stars and aggregating anemones. The sea stars, known as Pisaster, are a species being closely monitored right now by volunteers up and down the coast, as they succumbed to a mysterious disease a few years ago. The anemone are a beautiful creature and a predator; below the water, they open their beautiful tentacles looking like flowers to capture their prey, such as crabs. Above the water, they close up, looking like a soft green pebble. It is safe to gently touch the tentacles or green parts of these animals, just don't touch them in the center, as this is their sensitive mouth. Keep a lookout for hermit crabs in the tide pools, too. They have adopted snail shells and other shells as their home. Birds that use the rocks as nesting areas and homes are seen here: cormorants, common murres, gulls, falcons, eagles, and more are especially busy foraging in the summertime. You will probably also see brown pelicans diving into the water. Sadly, dead birds can also be common on all beaches. Some of these deaths are natural, as birds are territorial and eat each other as food. Others are caused by starvation as well as marine plastic and other causes. You are likely to see lots of bull kelp, large and whip-like and long. All of these, along with shells, are important to the fabric and ecology of the plants and animals here, so please look and observe, but only take with you the trash you may find.