Cornet Bay

I'll try to keep this post relatively short. The recent work has only just been completed and I'm sure I'll be back often to check on how the restored beach performs.  Also, I don't know all the construction details, so there are elements I can't really comment on very intelligently (I suspect some readers will point out that this has rarely stopped me before).

Here's a post from several years ago to compare with:
Cornet Bay: 2008

The old creosote timber bulkhead is gone and much of the fill has been removed.  The beach and backshore slope has been regraded and erosion control measures have been put in place.  I suspect this is to protect the site until planting and landscaping can be completed (possibly late this winter, but maybe they're planning to do something sooner?).

Based on the tides during my visit, I believe the straw wattles are located 6-12" above MHHW.  This means that the final beach should extend up into the area that is currently covered in bark, so it's a little hard to appreciate the scale of the beach restoration in these photos.

AERIAL VIEW

This will be a valuable site to watch and I hope to be back up a few times over the next few months. There are a whole suite of neat beach projects in the vicinity - too bad that my informal monitoring is sort of an extracurricular activity!

Keystone

I suspect this short stretch of beach just east of Keystone Harbor wins the award for most rapid, sustained, long term erosion rate on Puget Sound.  But there's a catch!

We don't know a whole lot about erosion rates on Puget Sound, but we know that one foot per year is unusually high, at least over any significant period of time, and such rates are probably limited to the most exposed sites along the Strait or the toes of big, recently reactivated, deep-seated landslides.

Where erosion rates are unusually high, we usually find out that it is an area that was historically filled.  You pile dirt out into the ocean and, of course, it goes away quickly.

This particular gravel bank erodes 5-10 feet per year, every year, and has done so for five decades.  Every five years or so, the Corps dredges gravel from the mouth of Keystone Harbor (so the ferry doesn't run aground) and places it on the adjacent beach - a classic, albeit fairly small, bypass operation.  The pile of material forms a steep, rapidly eroding bluff that advances rapidly on the parking lot for five years, at which time the Corps comes back, dredges again, and the whole process repeats.

AERIAL VIEW

The simple version of the sediment transport story is that drift is from north to south, so that gravel eroded from the bluffs farther north on the island gets moved south around Admiralty Head and then east past Keystone to accumulate on Keystone Spit (the large barrier that fronts Crockett Lake).  This is why the bypass notion works.  On the other hand, storms here are still largely form the south, so why isn't the drift the other direction?  This issue arises elsewhere on the west side of Whidbey, too.  My preferred explanation, but one that is purely speculative, is that longer period waves from the north, down Admiralty Inlet, are more effective at moving sediment than the choppier waves that come more frequently from the south.

Jeff Ho

Style all the way. Jason's board in the middle is the reminder that Jeff had said he might be doing a run of boards, but now he's slipped out of sight. The man is very much of the old school mysto shaper deal, but that's why his boards are so damn good.

Sandy bringing rare waterbirds?

By now it seems everyone from Florida to Maine is well aware of Hurricane Sandy. The system and its potential could make for a historic storm at a very late date. There has never been a hurricane making landfall north of the Carolina border in October, and the intensity of the system may surpass nearly anything seen this late in the season before. Nevertheless, after a flurry of incredibly unfathomable and nearly impossible model runs, the stage seems to be a set for a bad but not as nightmarish outcome probably more focused on regions to the south of Connecticut. This is the 11AM update of the projected track by the National Hurricane Center for October 26.

Much has yet to be determined about timing, track, intensity of wind speed, pressure, angle of attack, rainfall amounts, and so forth. The devil, as always, is in the details, but Connecticut is going to be impacted by Sandy in several ways pertaining to coastal waterbirds and their habitat. We all know tropical cyclones can literally reshape the coastline, and in some cases this helps birds with additional habitat created for Least Terns on enlarged sandy beaches. Irene did this in several key areas just last year. Any tropical-storm level winds sustained over a prolonged period will once again damage and destroy woody vegetation in near-coastal areas and on offshore islands.

This brings me to the birds of the storm - take a look at the graphic above and imagine Sandy centered on those dots in the track. Then divide her into four parts like a pie. Connecticut will get the right-front quadrant, the area of strongest winds, with the precipitation focused mostly to our west. This is also somewhat similar to Irene though further to our southwest (Irene made landfall near New York City). Still, this could be a stronger and larger system.

So what is important about the right-front quadrant? It is also where most of the very rare birds from the tropics and southern U.S. coast will be, and where more are going to be pushed in from the Atlantic directly onto Connecticut. Once again, think of Sandy centered on those dots, moving onshore in New Jersey or around Delmarva, and imagine her spinning in a counter-clockwise circle. Areas of low pressure spin in this direction in our hemisphere (and areas of high pressure spin clockwise). The winds would be coming right off of the water, and with an expansive wind field projected, thousands of seabirds and waterbirds picked up from other areas will be pushed here, seeing parts of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Masschusetts as the first piece of land they have seen in hours. Exhausted and lost, they will navigate to the land to use it as a place to rest, feed, or follow as they head back home. Some birds, like Sooty Terns, can be seen during the worst of the storm and quickly exit south as soon as conditions even begin to abate a little. Others, like shorebirds and waders, may be displaced for days as they remain in the area.

There is much more to come on Sandy but, if it comes in to our south in the manner depicted above from Delmarva to New York City, we stand a good chance of seeing some incredibly rare birds as we did during and after Irene. Please remember your own safety first during and after the storm, and keep your mind open to anything and binoculars ready! We would love to hear about any strange waterbird sightings as soon as you see them. Until then we can hope that the storm will dissipate as much as possible and end up much weaker than forecast for the benefit of everyone.

Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

The True Meaning of Early Action Plans

The first of November is usually an exciting time with Thanksgiving right around the corner, and the rest of the holiday season not too far behind. However, for many seniors, Thursday, November 1^st, 2012 is a day they have had circled on their calendar for many months, for an entirely different reason. This is the Early Action deadline for many of the competitive colleges and universities across the county. Another popular Early Action deadline is November 15^th and you many see a few schools that have Early Action a little later than that. Since the Early Action season is near, I thought it would be appropriate to explain early application plans, and everything that goes into them.

First, it is very important to understand that applying under Early Action, will NOT improve a student’s chances of admission. Since EA is non-binding, it does not benefit a school to accept a student who is on the border, as that student is not committing himself to the college. Additionally, the regular decision candidates are in a much larger pool, and admissions counselors will often wait to compare students on the edge to that larger, more representative pool. Applying Early Decision can often give students an advantage of being accepted, even those who may be a bit lower than the average student accepted.  The reason for this is simple; ED is a binding agreement, and colleges are assured that if they accept the student, that student will be attending their school. For Early Action, unfortunately if you are well below the average student accepted, applying this way will not give you an advantage of being accepted.

For students who are satisfied with their current grades and testing scores, and are competitive with the middle 50% of accepted students, the real advantage to applying early is for peace of mind. For most schools, students will hear back before Christmas, which can be a great present, and will put students and parents in a better mental state! Applicants applying through Regular Decision often will not be notified of an admissions decision until March or April, so finding out 3-4 months in advance can make a huge difference (emotionally and mentally).

Next, let’s discuss the decisions that come from applying early to schools. Unlike regular decision, where students are accepted, denied, or waitlisted, students applying early will be accepted, denied, or deferred. Being deferred is not necessarily a bad thing, as it really just means that the admissions counselors like the student’s application, but they just need more time to make a decision and need to compare that applicant to the larger pool of candidates. The applicant will then be moved to the regular decision pool and will be reviewed again, with a final answer coming in March or April.

Finally, make sure you truly understand the parameters of the early action plan you are applying to, as there are numerous options, and various ways colleges approach early action plans. Take a moment to review the following types of early application types:

Early Action: Non-binding and student can apply to as many schools as they want this way. Student usually needs to apply by the 1^stor 15^th of November and will receive a response by Christmas.

Early Decision: This is a binding agreement, and if a student is accepted, they must withdraw all other applications.

Restrictive Early Action (REA): Non-binding, but a student should not apply Early Decision to any other schools (i.e. Boston College).

Single-Choice Early Action: Non-binding, but students agree not to apply early at all (EA, ED) to any other schools (i.e. Princeton).

Rolling Admissions: Non-binding and students can apply anytime throughout the year and will have an admissions decision generally anywhere from 3-4 weeks after application submission. It is usually a good idea to apply earlier to schools that have rolling admissions (SUNY schools).

Priority:Non-binding, but students should apply before their priority date, as this increases chance of admission and will make them eligible for merit-based scholarships (i.e. Penn State, USC).

-Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA

Photo quiz - coastal waterbird?

This is a different sort of coastal waterbird - can you identify it?

It is a species that utilizes many of the same habitats as our shorebirds, long-legged waders, and even terns. It can be found infrequently across Connecticut in much of the year. Some of our volunteers have reported them on International Shorebird Surveys as well. Examine it and see what you can come up with, and I will post the answer in a few days. Good luck!


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Ryan Burch & Derek Hynd & Mick Sowry & Jon Frank

Les Boreades/Ramifications/Electric Insects from Mick Sowry on Vimeo.

Orawa from Mick Sowry on Vimeo.

Absolute magic.

Ninelights Twin

The thing about having a lot of surfboards is you wind up surfing 2 or 3 of them in rotation most of the time, and for me the compsand modern twin made by Jeff Beck is definitely one of those 2 or 3. The construction and materials of the board are amazing, it utterly convinced me of how good vacuum bags and veneer can make a surfboard, and coupled with the fact that Jeff is a really good shaper, you can't go wrong. The guy who bought this certainly didn't- 6'7" balsa & redwood version of a MR twin. Epic. The autumnal swell is showing signs of showing, and the thought of a board like this on a decent wave (there's a jetty left that sometimes works very nicely indeed I'm thinking of mostly) that makes me believe it's owner will have a good winter ahead.

Port Madison Bay

This is another site where an old bulkhead - or perhaps more accurately, several old bulkheads and a lot of rubble - have recently been removed.  A complex partnership of many different people came together to make this project happen.

This is a relatively low energy shoreline - wave action fades quickly entering the bay and the last real beach ends just short of this site.  That doesn't mean that the banks aren't subject to erosion, but the rates are low and the site is developed in such a way that minor erosion is not a problem.  Over time, some of the bank will crumble and a few trees will fall, but the resulting shoreline will be richer and more natural.  Ironically, it looks like much of the past erosion is of fill material that was placed over the natural bank - which is so often the case.

This is a concept that could apply to many, many sites in Puget Sound and maybe some more examples like this one will help show folks that unarmored shorelines can provide as many benefits as those that are buried in rock and concrete.

Tracyton

The old concrete bulkhead at Anna Smith Park had stood for decades - well, most of it had stood for decades.  Some segments hadn't made it so long.  But its original purpose was at best a fuzzy memory and it offered an opportunity to recover a natural shoreline.  The wall, along with some of the rubble behind it, was pulled out a few weeks ago and the remaining back fill is rapidly redistributing itself on the beach.

AERIAL VIEW

Kitsap Sun (30 August 2012)

The sites that lend themselves to removing seawalls are probably a lot harder to find than the sites that lend themselves to building seawalls - although there is some thinking these days that maybe some sort of balance can be achieved.  I suspect that even if we can, we will find that the types of locations where we can take them out are significantly different than the types of locations where we can't stop them from going in!  Which makes simplistic thinking about the net gain or loss of armored shorelines ... simplistic.

Cama Beach

Two weeks ago, I headed up to Cama Beach to give a Friday night talk.  I've always like Cama for its accessibility - 75 minutes or so, door to door, no ferry to catch, in the middle of the night when the wind is howling and the waves are breaking over the seawall. Which I've done.  But late on Friday afternoon, there was a slow wall of traffic moving north through Everett and it took forever! Somehow I made it in time to get the laptop set up and still had time to wander down to the beach for the sunset and a chance to gather my thoughts.

I've posted from Cama Beach many times and there's no particular geologic message buried here, but the light was nice and the beach always looks different.

Note the band of sandy gravel a couple of feet above the water line.  It corresponds roughly with the morning high tide.  Because subtle differences in wave action sort sand and gravel so differently, and do so differently on rising and falling tides, mixed beaches often record small details. This band is bracketed by two tiny beach ridges - I can picture two boats, maybe 30 minutes apart, going past between 9 and 10 in the morning as the tide was beginning to fall.

The big slide at the north end can be seen in the background of the photo with the two boys walking on the beach.

AERIAL VIEW

Thoughts about Test-Optional Schools

People often say that death and taxes are the only two things we can be sure of in our lives. Well for high school students, you can add one more to that list, and that is ‘standardized testing’. For some this is no big deal, and for others, this can be a very scary thought. There are tests to get you into high school, college, graduate school, professional schools, and tests to keep you enrolled in these schools. After that, there are tests to gain professional certificates and then to keep those certificates. As someone who was never a good test-taker, I wish tests didn't exist, but they do and we all better get used to that fact.

For high school juniors and seniors, the SATs and ACTs are a very important part of the college application process. Although some schools have started going test-optional, which means they do not consider a student’s standardized test scores for admission, there are still many questions about the effectiveness of this option. This is a very new process, and it is important for all students to research this option before applying test-optional to colleges. Please take a moment to read an article recently composed by Jennifer Karan, Executive Director of the SAT Program at the College Board, which talks about their view on test-optional schools:

-Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA

“Test Optional” May Not Mean What You Think It Means

Much has been made in the past few years about the ‘test-optional’ approach some colleges have taken toward admissions.  For those not familiar with the term, this means that these schools do not require students to submit a college entrance exam score.  At least, that’s what many of them would like you to think.

By making the admissions process appear a little easier or less cumbersome, higher education – and everyone else – knows students will be more likely to submit applications. To wit: in his 2009 report in The Journal of College Admission, Jonathan P. Epstein examined how dropping test requirements affects recruitment and enrollment. He said, “With colleges and universities engaged in intense competition to recruit ever more talented and diverse students… test-optional policies become alluring.”

Test-optional colleges often cite grades in core coursework and academic rigor as the most important factors on an application, and there’s no question that high school GPA is central to the admission process. What they don’t say is that the SAT actually serves as an objective validation of the factors like GPA. When test-optional colleges don’t require an entrance exam like the SAT from every student, they eliminate a fair and reliable predictor of how the applicant would perform at their institution.

Despite the label, test-optional schools still see the value in an SAT score.

College Board score-sending data indicates that 60 to 80 percent of applicants to test-optional schools still send SAT scores – and test-optional schools consider these scores when they’re received. Why?  Because students inherently understand that the SAT corroborates the other academic information on their application and colleges have seen that prove out time and again in their retention and graduation rates. 

Further, these schools often require scores to be submitted upon matriculation for course placement,  scholarship opportunities, and internal research, meaning that students who thought they didn’t need a college entrance exam end up taking one anyway, often on the fly.

As colleges work to become applicants’ dream schools, it’s important for students to remember that a seemingly easier application process – or the “alluring” path, as Epstein put it – isn’t always best.  College entrance exams provide critical information to students, parents and admission officers to help inform important decisions that will impact their future. 

By: Jennifer Karan, Executive Director SAT Program at the College Board

International Shorebird Survey site forms

As we near the end of the International Shorebird Survey fall season I wanted to remind everyone of one final task we would ask that you complete - filling in the site form. If you take a look at the right-hand column of this blog under "Important Documents", you can see we have linked to a whole list of forms for the season for all sorts of species and surveys. Looking towards the bottom of this list you will find "ISS habitat form" which is the document I am referring to. This questionnaire asks you for a variety of facts in order for scientists at the Manomet Center for Conservation Services to better understand the location you have been surveying.

It is a very straightforward document, asking about the location, its characteristic, how shorebirds typically utilize it, what sorts of habitats are present, the human disturbance that occurs there, and so on. If you have any questions when filling out this form, please send them to us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. This document can be sent back to Manomet at the address included at the top. Your site new can be the name of the location you are entering the data in ISS eBird, and you can mention that is where you have put all of your survey results.

Thank you for all of your hard work finding those shorebirds! The results we have received have been awesome. If you have yet to enter your ISS eBird data, we look forward to you sharing it with us soon.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Gerry Wedd

As far as surfer/artists go, Gerry Wedd is a unique one. There's not that many guys riding Lazor Zap's that are internationally renowned potters. There's a really good interview with him by Michelle Lockwood here. Totally worth the read, as are the other Coastalwatch columns.

Dead Common Gallinule

Last week Anthony Zemba, the Connecticut Audubon Society Director of Conservation Services, had an unfortunate discovery while conducting his International Shorebird Survey at Durham Meadows. While on the road he discovered a recently struck Common Gallinule (what was until not long ago known as a Common Moorhen) that was crushed by a car. It likely occurred only minutes before he arrived, but was killed instantly with its neck snapped. The gruesome sight is below.

Millions or maybe billions of birds are killed by cars, trucks, ATVs, boats, planes, and more each year across the country. This was a particularly horrific find because the Common Gallinule is a state-listed endangered species. Suffice it to say, the last thing we want is to see harm come to even a single one of these birds in Connecticut. He could not tell if it was a resident, migrant, or bird that had dispersed post-breeding. Anthony also mentioned that people driving down that road often go very far above the speed limit, making these accidents all the more likely. He had even heard honking a little bit before and perhaps that motorist thought the bird would clear out of the road by blowing its horn.

It is a sad reminder of the introduced and sometimes entirely avoidable threats some of our most imperiled species face every single day.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Ur-Simmons

John Mellor built this. It's a tidy little hoop finned bellyboard that predates the Bauguess mini Sims by a bit, and looks a lot like some of the modified versions of the mini's that were being touted as a progression on the originals. The Simmons-ness was always out there, just looking for the correct lightening rods so it could earth itself in suitable designs. This board is apparently being ridden as a stand up by some kids at present which is how it should be. A RANDOM UPDATE

Are you in or around New York? Go to this, it'll be great. Two fine surfers who are also brilliant raconteurs and do enough interesting stuff to keep an evening's conversation on the entertaining side. And how's this for the hoop fin concept in a different context?

Taken from the always good Hye Tyde blog. That's it, as you were please.

Wintering long-legged waders

Sometimes we tend to think of long-legged waders as spring and summer birds, just like the Piping Plover or Common Tern. In reality, that is only their breeding time in Connecticut, and many of these species regularly spend the entire year in our state, or have members of the species that attempt to survive the winter with increasing frequency. One easy way to see a little more about this is to examine historic records, and the fastest (and free!) method to do that is to pull up eBird. I went ahead and pulled up the bar graph for all of Connecticut, year-round and all-time, and cropped out the waders.

Right off the bat, we can see that Great Blue Herons are a widespread year-round species for us. That is probably something most birders are aware of. While their numbers may decrease in the fall and increase in the spring, they are here for the long haul. A more surprising entry for some may be the Black-crowned Night-Heron as individuals and small groups typically stick around warm pockets of the state every year. Those who participate in Christmas Bird Counts may have known that one.

It gets more intriguing when examining the species immediately underneath both of those year-round birds. The Great Egret has been making a valiant attempt to become a resident in Connecticut. Increasingly warm winters and shorter seasons have helped some individuals hang on in coastal areas - unfrozen tidal marshes, for example. They are now an almost expected bird for the Big January list. The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron has even been making strides at sticking it out well into December and even into the New Year! They typically are pushed to our south or succumb to the conditions in January, similar to the Snowy Egret that is following a similar path.

In recent years, a few of these species have been putting up high and sometimes record numbers in Christmas Bird Count circles like Stratford-Milford and New Haven. As the planet warms, they and others will be able to stick it out on the coast of New England more and more. For our purposes, we would love to continue to learn about these birds throughout this fall and winter, so please keep sending us eBird checklists that include them or any unexpected sightings as the days grow shorter and we dip below freezing.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Delivery #1

Couldn't feel better. That epic Mackie is out of my house and no longer a temptation. The run north was smooth as silk; easy drive through wonderful late summer scenery- all tan hills and chaparral-y scents and just waiting for rain, a good fish dinner with surfer/shaper I have serious respect for, and the next AM there were waves to be had. Nothing spectacular, chest high and peaky fun which after 3 months of LA summer mush was like being given the keys to the funpark. I surfed until my arms gave out, then went back out on the bellyboard, then a last few attempts on some inside pocket waist high delights on the mini Sim, but I was largely done. The capper was mad good carnitas in Oxnard on the way home. Well pleased.

Chaos

Apologies for the lull in posting, it's been a bit of a week. There was a lot of work and bills to be paid and a diabolically bad surf, but there were highlights too. Tony Alva's DJ set at the Hollywood Amoeba Music store. TA was seriously on; great set and a bit of an impromptu signing afterwards, Jeff Ho came to check it all out too. LA County Fair, full consumerist depravity. An excellent show of LA tattoo art at the Craft & Folk Art Museum , well worth your attention if you are in Los Angeles, and up until January. The Mackie goes north tomorrow, I hope to find a wave or two en route.

Rat Island

The story behind Rat Island is a little ambiguous - I've heard slightly different versions.  But basically it goes like this.  Rat Island is the distal portion of a long spit that extends westward across the mouth of Kilisut Harbor from Marrowstone Island.  At some point, the spit was artificially breached, perhaps to bring larger boats in -- there were old warships of some sort parked in here at one time.  And the breach has never really healed - it might take more sediment and more time than has so far been available.

AERIAL VIEW