Welcome to Brian of bushboy, this weeks Lens-Artists challenge guest-host. He introduces the subject by noting that there has been “a bit of fragmentation happening around the world, a disconnect.” I agree. Yet, bushboy reminds us that “we always have been made up of pieces,” and he invites us to reveal “some of our fragments – distant or recent.”
On the mile-long sandy stretch of Long Beach, Washington, USA, all manner of detritus arrives from the Pacific Ocean. Above, a nonbreeding, adult Black-bellied Plover is making a meal of a Dungeness crab claw. Parts of crabs often wash ashore providing feasts for many different shorebirds.
Gooseneck barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus) are another common sight along this beach. *”They attach to rocks or other objects by a strong, rubbery stalk, the peducile, which is up to 10 centimetres (4 in) long.” While I see them more often attached to driftwood stranded on the beach after high tides and strong winds, this cluster looks like it was torn whole from its home.
The remains of trees, such as this huge root remnant tossed upon the shore, are a constant reminder of both the lumber industry history in this area, and the formidable power of Pacific Ocean storms.
Along the interior dune trails are scraps left from earlier times, perhaps from when this part of the dune was close to the shoreline and therefore the recipient of beach flotsam long ago.
Oysters abound in Willapa Bay, and their shucked shells can be found in huge dump sites, or sometimes sun-bleached and used as ground cover, and as above, in a local heap of discarded, decaying left-overs.
Lindy Low LeCoq 