Yachats! Part One - A Beachin' Place

 I took a little trip up to Yachats, Oregon this past week to see my Dad and Gail.  The weather had just gotten warm and sunny after a long, rainy Spring.  It was a natural paradise!

On our way to Yachats from the airport Dad and I stopped for lunch in Florence and checked on the Purple Martin nest box colony there.  We didn't see any activity at this time.

Making our way up the coast, we made another stop to check out Heceta Head Lighthouse.  There were people swimming in the ocean, it was so nice out!

The guest house, looking most idyllic, up on the cliffside.

We saw some Common Murres on the offshore rocks.  They look sort of like penguins, with their feet positioned near their bottoms and an upright posture when on land.
[picture taken through binoculars]

Wild Cucumber blooming

That evening we relaxed and caught up over some delicious chicken cacciatore, excited for the days that lied ahead.

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(I am doing this a little out of order, as we actually did a hike on our first full day, but I will get to that later.) 

 Here is our morning at Strawberry Hill Beach, one of Daisy's favorite beaches to run around and play fetch on.

I was smitten by the myriad plant life adorning the wet cliffsides.  Purple Clover,  yellow Mimulus, among others. 

Yellow Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium), a petite member of the iris family, growing on sheer cliffside.

Some type of Castilleja (aka "Indian Paintbrush").  Castilleja is a hemiparasite, meaning it has green leaves and photosynthesizes for itself, but also takes energy from host plants.  Finger-like projections called "haustoria" connect with the roots of a wide variety of host plants and absorb water and nutrients from them.

I call this one "Plastic Jesus"

They showed me this unbelievably-positioned driftwood log that ended up inside a tunnel that goes through a large rock.  The tunnel, as well as the log, goes clear out the backside of this little rock mountain.  The log is wedged in there, plugging the tunnel near perfectly.  We speculated about which direction the log could have entered from. . .

Log Jammin'

We got down to the end of the beach and the highlight of the day was the family of 3 river otters Gail spotted across the way!  They were making their way down to the ocean water along the rocky cliffside.  I was very lucky to be able to rest the binoculars on some rocks and aim my phone's camera through to get these videos.

One by one, they each jump into the ocean:

Once in the water, they wasted no time snatching up a quite large crab and hauling it back up onto the rocks and going to town on it!

I had to break this next video up into 3 parts to upload it:

A few still shots of the feasting:

Wow, what a treat!  This makes the second family of RIVER otters I have observed at the BEACH, and been fortunate enough to capture on video, in a 6 month timespan!

Well that is about all the excitement I can handle for now.  I will share some photos of our hike and other adventures soon!