A Perfect Day at the Beach 5/21/11

I didn't get a beach report done last week, due to a work obligation on Saturday and rain and having forgotten the camera on Sunday.

Today was the first day in a week without rain.  The weather is a gorgeous as it gets here. A week of rain has left everything clean and green, the temperature is 70s going to 80s later, no humidity and a gentle breeze. 

The cliffs are becoming cloaked in vines, like this wild rose (Rosa multiflora), which is considered to be an invasive species.  But they smell wonderful.

You can see them cloaking the cliffs here, with Georgia and Skye on up ahead of me.  Georgia was looking for shark's teeth, while Skye was hoping to find something small and furry.

Something interesting I had never seen before.  The water was sheeting down the clay cliffs (that happens a lot), and because of all the nutrients from septic systems, algae was growing on the cliff face (that happens a lot, too). But something was eating or killing the algae in concentric circles, making this unusual texture.

Honeysuckle is another common vine in the cliffs.  I remember as a kid we'd take the flower, nip off the back with our fingers, and extract a drop of nectar from the flower using it's own pistil, and drink it.  It took a lot of flowers to fill a kid up.  I think the hummingbirds are way more efficient.

The rains and high tides caused the stream at Matoaka Cottages to do something new too. The sand built up and pushed the creek right up to, and then over the groin that separates Matoaka from Calvert Beach.  Skye is refreshing her self in the little pond formed there.

Here's the stream flowing over the groin, forming an interesting waterfall.  In all likelihood, it will all be rearranged by the wind and tides tonight, and be entirely different tomorrow.

Some legumish shrub that is common on the beach.  It has an interesting spike flower these days.  I'm not quite sure what it is at this point, but I'll update this post if and when I figure it out.

The season for sunbathing has arrived here as well.  That's always a plus.