Birthday Beach Trip

God blessed me with a great 17th birthday this year, with so many kinds of creatures to see. On the first day of the trip, we went down to Newport to have lunch, then my family and I headed to a long beach out in Yaquina bay. At the end of the shore was a long line of boulders piled up so people can walk farther out to sea. I went inside the boulders and found a huge abundance of sea life, like three sea stars, tons of mussels, barnacles, anemones, and more crab than I ever remember seeing anywhere.

After that, we headed to a special village full of nice shops and drove around. Outside the place, was a statue of a giant sea monster about 20 ft. long, with strong similarities to the fossil marine reptile called the Kronosaurus, which means ” time reptile”. The statue was based upon a fake report of that creature in Yaquina bay back in 1992. But, when I researched it back at the inn our family was staying at, I found there was a real report in that same area in 1935 of two sea monsters disturbing a population of sea lions.

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There was a sign on the outside of the door at the room we stayed in, that mentioned there was a seagull nest to the left of our room. It said we must be cautious around them. The nest was made of sticks, pine needles, and other things.

I enjoyed opening presents that evening. Most of my gifts were books. A book on penguins, one on everything about the ocean, a Nat Geo book, Beginning Spanish book, and a life looking figure of one of Antarctica’s few dinosaurs, the Cryolophosaurus. Then we had chocolate cake, and French vanilla ice cream.

I checked out the nest, and took pictures and videos of the seagull parents and their two chicks. The parents were very protective. If I got too close, mommy or daddy gull would swoop in and start squawking at me. Here is one of the nice pictures I took of the herring gull family.

The second day, we first headed out to the beach that was down below our room. There I found a hand full of creatures like periwinkle snails that were grazing on the algae, a lot of barnacles, mussels, and one crab. I also collected some sea water and seaweed to look at under my mini microscope I brought. I only found tiny swimming dots, and a nematode, which is a kind of parasitic worm.

Later, we headed back out to downtown Lincoln City to a fossil and rock shop. Inside, I took pictures of fossils of all kinds. Trilobites, fish, insects, brittle stars, dinosaur dung, a huge dinosaur tail, shark teeth, and life like models of African and North American animals.

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Then we walked around town, and checked out different shops. One of the last places we headed to was an antique shop. I took pictures of different things. Some of the depictions and figures on pottery and other antiques, looked like dragons or dinosaurs. I find that fascinating. Down stairs I found an old book from 1936, about the life of John James Audubon, and how he started the study of Ornithology in America (ornithology is the study of all birds). I really wanted this book, so my Dad bought it for me and I thanked him for what he did.

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Around evening, we went down to the south part of the beach from where our room was, and saw harbor seals out on the other side of the bay. Some were also swimming out in the water, doing interesting tricks.

On the last day, my family and I headed out to the rocks at north part of the beach. The tide was so low that God blessed me with another huge abundance of life. The first creature I found was a kind of sea snail, which had a golden yellow shell. One of the most strangest creatures I found was the mole crab. When I let it go, I watched it burrow itself in the sand, which is it’s special way to defend itself from predators like sea ducks, shore birds and sea otters. I also found a couple crab, and a lot of anemones. One anemone was feeding on a crab! There was also a purple ochre sea star I named Star trek and a baby sea cucumber I named Larry.

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I also caught a weird and creepy crustacean that made me freak out! It looked like a deep sea isopod or a potato bug except it was way bigger than a potato bug! And yes I found more mussels and barnacles. I saw some barnacles using their special feet to collect tiny microscopic animals to eat (video on that below). One of my favorite creatures I found was a small fish called the sculpin. I caught it with my bare hands, but was very tricky to catch. These fish use camouflage as a way to hide from animals that might eat it, and are very fast swimmers.

Mom and I prayed and thanked the Lord for blessing me with so many things to see and do. When we got back we packed up the van and headed home.

God bless everyone.

I hope you will enjoy all the pictures and the videos, below.

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“So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts”. Psalm 104:25

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day”. Genesis 1:20-23

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