Cascade Loop Spring Ride

The lack of good low tides and warm weather made the choice of a Cascade Loop ride perfect.
The Cascade Loop crosses the North Cascade Highway which opened only 2 weeks ago after removal of winter snow.  The route follows the Columbia River in part and returns to Seattle via the Central Cascades.
A slight detour from the normal route takes you past Omak Lake...a saline lake 10 miles long and 325 feet deep which is home to large Lahotan Cutthroat Trout.  Roads on weekdays are uncrowded...to empty, weekend fair weather increases the traffic.  Along the route one passes through Winthrop WA, Electric City WA home of the Grand Coulee Dam, and along the route of the Columbia River during the last ice age where one can view what is believed to have been the largest waterfall on earth (Dry Falls).....3.5 miles wide and 400 feet high.
During the maximum flow the amount of water flowing over the fall was greater than the flow of all the rivers on earth today.
The Bretz Floods created the landscape known as the Channeled Scablands in Eastern WA.  These floods, perhaps as many as 40 during the last ice age were the result of ice dams collapsing and releasing vast amounts of water from glacial Lake Missoula.  These floods which ended some 13,000 YBP are the largest known floods in the Solar System.  There are considerable references to these floods on the Internet...just search Bretz Floods or Lake Missoula.
For anyone visiting Seattle during the time when the North Cascade Highway is open....usually mid-Spring, through October...I highly recommend this road trip which can easily be accomplished in 3 days at a moderate pace.....520 miles total.

Large Basalt boulders dropped by the Bretz Flood waters near the Columbia River .  The largest one is house size.

Along Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee

Columbia River from the Columbia River Road near Omak WA.

Omak Lake - saline lake from the Columbia River Road

Electric City - Banks Lake - Sky Deck Motel back yard

Steamboat Rock and Banks Lake

Whitehorse Mt. Darrington, WA

Along the Columbia River Road

Methow River Winthrop WA

Harbor Porpoise Strands on Alki Beach

On May 1, 2013 a male Harbor Porpoise was found dead on Alki Beach in Seattle WA.  The individual was 4 ft. in length which is about the minimum size for a male that has reached sexual maturity, so this may have been a juvenile. Maximum size is around 6 feet, with females being slightly larger than males.

Food consists of small fish and squid with some shrimp.

 The porpoise had some trauma to the area just forward of the tail.  One eye was missing due to scavenging likely by gulls.  The body was taken to Cascadia Research Collective for necropsy.

Harbor Porpoises are found the both the North Pacific and North Atlantic as well as the Mediterranean.

Puget Sound is a normal area for Harbor and Dall's Porpoise.  Since the 1960's Harbor Porpoise have been absent from Central and South Puget Sound but during the past few years have been returning to the area.

Dall's Porpoise, which were relatively common in Central and South Puget Sound, now are seen less frequently.  The reason for the possible switch is unknown.  The ranges of these two porpoises overlap in Puget Sound.  The last population surveys were a decade ago with an estimated total of 10,000 animals in Washington inside waters.

For more information:

http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/Statement%20on%20Salish%20Sea%20Harbor%20Porpoise%20Research%20Needs.pdf

Harbor Porpoise Male

Teeth

Harbor Porpoise Alki Beach

Harbor Porpoise

Anus left, genital slit middle, umbilical right

Trauma right side forward of tail flukes

Genital Slit

Trauma to left side forward of tail flukes

Left eye missing - likely gull scavenging 

Left Side

Blowhole 

Right eye and teeth

Location on Alki Beach of Harbor Porpoise

SPRING IS IN THE AIR.....AND ON THE BEACH. Updated 5-1-13

Long hours of daylight.....mind you, I didn't say sunlight...that would be a lie (this is Seattle after all), encourages the rapid growth of seaweeds and reproduction in all kinds of marine animals on our local Washington beaches.  Enjoy your season....Spring or Fall depending on where you reside.
Some images of action on the beach and other things....new images added 5-1-13

Dungeness Crabs mating

Slimy Snailfish - little known of natural history - species believed to have been seen at  Alki on 4-28-13 by Linda Peters

Mating of Frilled Whelks - both males and females have a penis but it's unknown why females have one.

Female Frilled Whelk laying eggs

Frilled Whelk egg capsules with newly hatched whelks at bottom

Gravid Tidepool Sculpin

Gravid Tidepool Sculpin

Amorous Kelp Crabs 

Spotted Bubble Shell snail with egg capsule

Unidentified segmented worm feeding on egg mass of Spotted Bubble Shell snail

Red Rock Crab with eggs

Sunflower Star interrupted in middle of lunch on Moon Snail - note; stomach of seastar outside of mouth .

Sunflower Star feeding on Red Rock Crab

Witches Hair seaweed - contains sulfuric acid....not good for seaweed soup

Siphon of Butter Clam

Horse Clam siphon

Bonaparte's Gulls Spring arrival

Dunlin moving north

Northern Kelp Crab with eggs

Shaggy Mouse sea slug feeding on Aggregate Anemone

Purple Sea Star feeding on Thatched Barnacles

Purple Sea Star removed from barnacles on lower right on which it was feeding, note stomach hanging out of sea stars mouth

Siphon of Moon Snail poking above surface for air

Frilled Whelks feeding(?) on Shaggy Mouse sea slug eggs

Fin Whale Washes up on Seahurst Park Beach near Seattle

Rare species in Puget Sound

At 9:40 am on April 13, 2013 an adult Fin Whale washed ashore at Seahurst Park Beach south of Seattle.

The whale was estimated to be about 65 ft. in length but the tail and most of the body aft of the head was missing.
 Researchers believe the whale died when struck by a ship. Ship strikes on large whales appear to have become more common in the last decade.  Since 2002 10 Fin Whales have stranded in Washington State and 8 have been ship strike victims.  How many whales were ship strike victims and not recovered is unknown but the number is likely greater than the recovered number.   They are a world wide species with a world population estimated at 100,000 and a West Coast of the US population of about 3,500 maximum.

Fin Whales may live to 80 years and age can be estimated by counting layers built up on waxy ear plugs.

Fin Whales are baleen whales that filter krill and small crustaceans and to a lesser degree small fish from the water.  The baleen consists of hundreds of flat fringed plates that hang from the upper jaw.  The inside edge of the plate is divided into fine hairs that form a filtering mat of hair inside the whale's mouth.  Food taken into the mouth in large gulps is trapped on the baleen while the water is ejected from the mouth between the plates.  Fin Whales are the second largest whale bested only in size by the Blue Whale to which they are closely related.  

Fin Whales have an interesting color pattern on the lower jaws and baleen.  Baleen plates on the left side of the head are all the same uniform dark color (lighter in the center of the plate) while the most forward 1/4 of the baleen plates on the right side are cream color as is the lower jaw on the right side.  The lower jaw on the left side is uniformly dark.

When the whale feeds it gulps its food; the mouth can be expanded in size due to the presence of pleats on the underside of the jaw and some distance aft of the jaw.  As water and food are gulped into the mouth it expands greatly even to the extent of giving the whale a tadpole like shape.  Ejecting the water through the baleen plates is accomplished by contracting the expanded pleats to the original non feeding size. When Fin Whales have been observed gulp feeding they have been noted to roll on their right sides during the process.  The white color on the right side likely has some role in the effectiveness of the feeding process. A new scientific find of an organ at the front of the jaws sheds some light on how these whale feed.

The whale was removed from the beach 4-16-13 by a marine salvage company and will be allowed to naturally decompose on a undisclosed beach in south Puget Sound.  The skeletal materials will go to an educational institution.

For additional information on Fin Whales"    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fin_whale
Also check web for Cascadia Research Collective for more literature.  http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/
Feeding:   http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=32106

Single hair on lower jaw

Head of Fin Whale

Upper and lower jaws

Eye was removed by researchers

Jaws and head

Damage near missing tail flukes

Measuring the whale

measuring the whale (white color due to skin removed and visible blubber)

Right side and flipper

Left side and flipper

eye and pleats for mouth expansion when feeding

Left side

Right side, note white lower jaw

Right side

Frontal shot with blowhole at top of head

Left side

Forward baleen plates right side

head on view

Right side not white lower jaw

Right side front area baleen plates

dorsal fin

Right side rear baleen plates

Large crowd on beach 

pleats

Front of lower right jaw

External ear opening

External ear opening

Preparing the whale for removal 4-16-13

Preparing the whale for removal

Preparing the whale for removal

Preparing the whale for removal