Coast Weekend put together a great guide to the haunts and happenings in our area this Halloween.  Check it out!

Even more Halloween happenings on the north coast are on this page of CoastWeekend.com.

Here on the Peninsula, churches are working together to host a community harvest party from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Pacific Bible Church, U.S. Highway 101 at Advent Avenue in Ilwaco (across from Black Lake). Have fun in a safe and friendly environment. Kids will enjoy playing games and earning candy; get your face painted or grab a piece of pie and some coffee at the concession. There will be door prizes. Dress up or come dressed as yourself. Admission is by donation, or one large bag of candy.

Sadly, there is no haunted bunker this year, but the Elks in downtown Long Beach are doing a Haunted House!

Hundreds of sea birds found dying along the Southwest Washington Coast are getting airlifted to California for emergency care after they came in contact with a toxic sea foam algae.

Dr. Virginia Huang of Oregon’s Wildlife Center of the North Coast said as the algae die and decay, they produce a slimy foam that strips the natural waterproofing from the birds’ feathers, leaving the birds starving, dehydrated and hypothermic.

The birds affected include the Common Murres, Loons, and Surf Scoters. Last weekend, the Coast Guard announced plans to help by airlifting the sick birds to the International Bird Rescue Research Center, based in California.

“Nearly 200 sensitive migratory birds arrived in California on Saturday night with teams of volunteers working around the clock to provide emergency care to state-threatened species like the Common Loon,” said Paul Kelway with IBRRC. “Preparations are now underway for a second wave of birds to arrive by plane from Oregon.”

The IBRRC expected to spend more than $50,000 on medical care needed to save the birds.

The sick birds started washing up on beaches from Gearhart, all the way to the Olympic Peninsula last Tuesday, and the crisis hasn’t slowed down. Herb McClintoch from Ocean Park said he’s been picking up truckload after truckload of seabirds.

“Even though I’ve been picking them up I go back to the same place on the beach and there’s more birds coming in,” said McClintoch. “It never ends. There’s probably another 100 out there right now at least.”

The wildlife center on the North Coast near Astoria was overwhelmed.

“We’ve actually had to stop taking birds until we see where we are and get some of these birds out,” said volunteer Barbara Linette.

More than 500 birds were being treated in the center which has never handled more than 150 birds before.

Churning currents and waves from a recent Alaska storm also increased the problem, officials said.

Wildlife officials said they need donations to cover the costs to feed and care for the birds, used towels, large dog kennels, and bleach, along with experienced volunteers

“They’ve lost their waterproofing so they end up cold and hungry and on the beaches and needing help,” said Linette.

Marine biologists with NOAA and the University of Washington said they’ve collected algae samples off the coast from the Olympic Peninsula to the central Oregon Coast.

They said thousands of birds were impacted and many were dying in the surf. Experts don’t know how long this will last.

Officials said the rescued birds were responding well to treatment and most will survive.

Wildlife centers in Washington and California were sending trucks to help take away birds.

Scientists said this happened once before in Monterey, California two years ago. Hundreds of birds died, but experts said that was a small event compared to what’s happening right now along the Northwest Coast.

Anyone that rescues the birds was asked to place the bird in a box and keep it in a warm and dry area. Do not give it food or water or try to wash the bird — and call the Wildlife Center of the North Coast at (503) 338-0331 or visit CoastWildlife.org.

Read this story, with photos, at http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_102609_animal_algae_seabirds.255404569.html

The Inn at Harbour Village will host its fourth annual

Community Day of Thanks

on Thursday, November 26, 2009 from 1:00 – 5:00 PM.

With support and donations from our community, and the help of volunteers, The Inn will be providing dinner and holiday atmosphere with festive flair for anyone wishing to attend. Come and enjoy a delicious home-cooked dinner with us. The dinner is free of charge and open to the public.

We are seeking your support to make this event a success. 100% of all food and/or cash donations will be used for the dinner and entertainment. Remaining resources will be forwarded to PACE Senior Services to provide for their meals on wheels program.

You support in the form of monetary assistance or donations of food items to help with the meal will be greatly appreciated. Our goal is to feed as many people as wish to attend, and to turn no one away. Last year we prepared well over 300 meals all with the generous donations within our community.

We will be advertising and supplying bulletins throughout the Peninsula to communicate this event. We would appreciate your help also in spreading the word – please forward this information along.

To make donations or volunteer your time, please contact:
The Inn at Harbour Village  360.642.0087
PO Box 861 | Ilwaco WA 98624

For further information, please contact:
Russell Maize – 360.642.5141 or Genita Hansen – 360.642.0810
If no answer, please leave message

The coastal razor clam season started off with rough weather on Oct. 16, but that didn’t stop thousands of diggers from flocking to their favorite beach.

“The weather was lousy for the opener especially on the beaches south of Grays Harbor, but it got a little better by [Oct. 17], and then it was a beautiful fall day by [Oct. 18] and the clams were just popping out everywhere,” said Dan Ayres, the head state Fish and Wildlife coastal shellfish biologist. “I was out on Copalis [Oct. 16] where the average was 13.7 clams per person, and I ran into a guy soaked from head to toe who managed to stay pretty happy because he got his clams.”

Ayres said coastwide there was 30,250 digger trips made, and the average was 14 clams per person [the first 15 clams dug is a daily limit].

Read the full Seattle Times article.

“It looks like they’re lying in a sea of bubble bath,” said Greg Schirato,  regional wildlife program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said thousands had died.

This algal  bloom, unlike the toxins produced by blue-green algae, poses no threat to humans or pets. But the bloom could kill fish by clogging their gills, said Zachary Forster,  phytoplankton specialist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Read the full Oregonian article

A suspected algae bloom left thousands of shorebirds dead or dying on Oregon and Washington beaches Tuesday.

Local residents and members of the Discovery Coast Chapter of the Audubon Society mounted an impromptu rescue in an attempt to save as many birds as possible. Chinook Observer writer Kevin Heimbigner called former Audubon Society board member Mike Carmel of Long Beach, Wash., with the news of the emergency Tuesday morning. Carmel contacted other local birders and drove to the Cranberry beach approach on the Long Beach Peninsula with cardboard boxes, garbage cans and pet carriers.

Carmel estimated that as many as 1,000 birds were affected by the algae, collapsing on the beach or appearing bedraggled and dazed. Unable to fly, many had been killed by vehicles and some had drowned.

Read the full Daily Astorian article

California seabird specialists are swooping into Astoria on Saturday to help weary wildlife rehabilitators.

The workers have been overwhelmed by trying to help hundreds of seabirds injured off the Oregon and Washington coasts by recent algal blooms. Perhaps thousands more have died.

Experts from the California-based International Bird Rescue Research Center will take up to 200 birds from the Wildlife Center of the North Coast in Astoria and drive them to a facility in San Francisco for treatment.

About 100 other birds were sent to a center north of Seattle on Friday to relieve rehabilitators in Astoria.

Read the complete Oregonian article

LONG BEACH, Wash., Oct. 23 (UPI) — Foam from an unusual algae bloom has killed thousands of birds along the Oregon and Washington coasts in recent weeks, marine biologists said.

Akashiwo sanguinea, a single-cell algae or phytoplankton, strips the birds of their natural waterproofing, said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University.

Coastal birds sing out a cry for help. (Daily Astorian)

A slimy foam churning up from the ocean has killed thousands seabirds and washed many others ashore, stripped of their waterproofing and struggling for life. The birds have been clobbered by an unusual algae bloom stretching from the northern Oregon coast to the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. “This is huge,” said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University who leads a seabird monitoring group. “It’s the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of.” The culprit is a single-cell algae or phytoplankton called Akashiwo sanguinea. Though the algae has multiplied off the coast of California before, killing hundreds of seabirds, the phenomenon has not been seen in Oregon and Washington and has never occurred on the West Coast to this extent, Parrish said. “We’re getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water,” she said. “Think about that. That’s pretty dense.” Marine biologists said it is not clear why the algae are multiplying, though they do flourish in warm weather. Recent storms could have contributed to the problem, with crashing waves breaking them up.

The algae get whipped by the surf into something akin to a sticky soap which looks like the top of a root beer float. The foam can be deadly to seabirds because it washes off the natural oils that keep them waterproofed. Without that protection, they get cold, wet, eventually dying of hypothermia. When they wash ashore, they are covered in foam. “It looks like they’re lying in a sea of bubble bath,” said Greg Schirato, regional wildlife program manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said thousands had died. This algal bloom, unlike the toxins produced by blue-green algae, poses no threat to humans or pets. But the bloom could kill fish by clogging their gulls, said Zachary Forster, phytoplankton specialist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We haven’t seen any instances of that,” Forster said. The first seabird die-off in the Northwest occurred in mid-September, with swarms of dead and dying birds washing up on beaches around Kalaloch on the Olympic Peninsula. At least a thousand scoters or sea ducks, were killed, Parrish said. “Then it subsided and we thought it was over, but it started up again,” she said. This time Oregon was hit as well. On Tuesday, birds flooded ashore on the Long Beach peninsula and on beaches as far south as Cannon Beach, prompting an outpouring of calls to the Wildlife Center of the North Coast near Astoria. The center, the only wildlife rehabilitation facility serving the northern Oregon and Washington coasts, is working around the clock treating more than 500 birds. “We’re in an emergency crisis mode,” said Dr. Virginia Huang, president of the center’s board.

[caption id="attachment_705" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Red Throated Loon"][/caption]

Not only are volunteers retrieving struggling birds in northern Oregon and Long Beach, but officials from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife are also trucking them in from the Olympic Peninsula. Barbara Linnett, a volunteer at the wildlife center, said the majority of seabirds that have poured in are Common Murres, Common Loons, Red-throated Loons and grebes. The center feeds them vitamins and fluids to hydrate them, then puts them in shallow pools of water. Swimming in clean water — and preening — helps the seabirds rebuild their waterproofing. Linnett hopes some of the birds can be released in a few days. In the meantime, marine biologists from Oregon, Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service are watching conditions closely, hoping that this was a freak event. The last time it occurred was in 2007 in Monterey Bay, when hundreds of seabirds were killed. “That event enabled us to figure out what is happening here,” Parrish said.

October 22, 2009 on 11:20 pm on EarthWatch