Update from the Lake: Tracks and Things...

...on the beach at Butt Valley Reservoir, also seen here and here.

Probably dog.

Deer?

Sasquatch — I mean, human.

Crawdad.

Small crawdad pinchers. Finger is red from blackberries.

Corbicula fluminea or Asian clam, not zebra mussel.

Jelly blob, probably Pectinatella magnifica, a type of freshwater bryozoan.

Enlargement of the same photo. This is a colony, and each of the circular to star-shaped indentations or rosettes supposedly consist of several individual organisms.

Shaly beach sand. Hopefully we'll see the reason for the odd shape of this sand in a few days!

Varying Water Levels at a Few Reservoirs in California

When MOH and I drove to Butt Valley Reservoir a couple weeks ago, we were surprised by the lake low lake level: it looked lower than we remembered seeing it, although we haven't been frequenting the area routinely for several years.

Standing on a wider-than-usual beach near the boat ramp on the east shore, looking south. 

The boat ramp is the dark, shadowed line below the tall trees on the same shore I'm standing on. The dam is a ways around the corner to the southeast behind the tall trees.

This picnic table from the day use area was moved out onto the beach, presumably as a prank. Photo from August 22nd.

A few days later the same picnic table was at water's edge.
Photo from August 26th.

Although the angle of the photo is a bit different, you can see that the lake has risen by looking at the boat ramp and a couple logs in the background, not to mention the trees. In addition, the beach on the far shore is no longer visible.

It isn't really normal for water levels to be rising this year in California reservoirs, but the lake level in Butt Valley Reservoir (the lake is alternately called Butt's Lake, Butt Lake, and Butt Valley Lake) is notoriously variable. In fact, swimmers and boaters are warned to watch the lake level, as it can rise suddenly if water is released from the next lake up the ladder, which is Lake Almanor. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the warning sign.

Indeed, in case I didn't believe my eyes (or you don't believe my photos), Butt Valley Reservoir contained 35,117 acre feet on August 22nd (probably a permalink, or play around with the dates yourself) and 41,627 acre feet on August 26th (same chart). Total storage capacity of the reservoir is 49,800 AF. The chart of reservoir storage for the month of August can be seen here (a probable permalink).

Meanwhile, the lake upstream in the Feather River watershed so-called "Stairway of Power" was dropping (tabular data), especially after August 21st (graph).

We've all seen some of the recent pictures of the main reservoir at the downstream end of the Feather River system (Lake Oroville above Oroville Dam). I wouldn't mind posting some of these here, but surprisingly, CDWR describes these photos as public domain and copyrighted and not for redistribution at the same time (right click on this one, for example). Instead of photos, view the Lake Oroville storage chart for all of 2014 here (should be a permalink).

What we can discover through various CDEC links and calculation tools, is that the May 2014 peak at Lake Oroville of 1,877,682 AF was considerably below the average May peak of 3,042,972 AF. I've read in comments that the 1990, 1991, and 1992 years were worse California drought years than 2014 (perhaps based on statewide storage, rain, runoff, or wishful thinking?), but at Oroville, storage at the beginning of September was a little higher in all three of those years than it was this year: 1,188,782 AF in 1990, 1,392,300 AF in 1991, and 1,401,554 AF in 1992, compared to 1,100,873 AF on 9/1/2014.

A Where in the West Revisited: Rose Spit, B.C.

Flying back from Alaska on yet another recent trip, I was able to spot Rose Spit, which featured as a Where in the West challenge back in October of 2010. The shape of the northeastern tip of Graham Island — an island in the Haida Gwaii, or Queen Charlotte Islands, off of the coast of British Columbia up near Prince Rupert — always fascinates me.

The northern portion of Graham Island, with Rose Spit on the left below the wing, and Maset Sound in the upper right.

Maset Sound is a narrow, river-like entrance into the larger, saltwater body of water known as Maslet Inlet, which is somewhat visible beneath the clouds hovering over the central part of the island.

The waves around the spit were reflecting in a bright, yellowish glare from the mid-day sun.

A closer view of the convoluted shape of Rose Spit and its associated small islands.

A view of the spit, with a few of the small islands off its tip.

Related Posts:
Where in the West: October 2010
Where in the West: Rose Spit, B.C., Canada

Homer Spit: Birds and Boats and Coal and Things (AK2011 Day 8)

The Homer Spit, with Coal Point at the end of the spit and Coal Bay near the beginning. From MSRMaps

After leaving the little lunch spot, we passed this (faux) lighthouse indicating that we were progressing on to Homer Spit, where Alaska Route 1, the Sterling Highway, comes to an end.

View of the Kenai Mountains across Kachemak Bay.

It was still rainy as we entered the spit, and powerfully windy. Here and there, we could see signs of campers on the west beach, their tents and gear tied down and heavily weighted against the wind.
Homer Spit is a bustling tourist stop, with places to eat, places sign up for and go out on halibut charters, places to buy touristy things, along with motels, hotels, condos, and B&Bs, not to mention at least a couple scattered bars and saloons. Over the many years of visits to Homer Spit, I've stopped here or there a couple times, mostly for suitable Alaskan lunches of halibut or such, but I haven't usually spent much time on the oft crowded boardwalks.
What I like to do is go directly to the end of the road and park overlooking the beach that wraps around the tip of the spit. (Google Street View of wet, potholed parking area.)

My mom and I were the only ones venturesome enough this time to walk down to the wet and windy beach.
After a storm, or almost anytime the wind isn't blowing as hard as it was, the beach is a great place to find shells and other things. Here I've found lots of rocks, mostly graywacke, and not so many shells. There is one black lump of a rock just above my foot, which might be coal. I'll get to that after a bit.
The beach is a good place to watch the waves, and to look at boats and birds.

Birds...

...and boats...

...and lots of birds, mostly gulls.

Down near the piers, you can sometimes find starfish frolicking in the waves or hanging out on the piers themselves. I've never seen this, but have found tiny living ones washed up onshore.
After not finding any starfish, I notice the coal once again.
Coal washes up on Homer Spit from a variety of sources, including some nearby seams of sub-bituminous coal to lignite found in bluffs cut into Tertiary sediments along the north side of Kachemak Bay. In fact, the Homer area was known for its coal resources long before the town was named in 1896 for con man Homer Pennock, who unsuccessfully promoted gold mining in the area for about a year before hightailing it off to the Klondike. Homer residents still come to the beaches after storms to collect coal to burn.

I leave the coal on the beach, and my mom and I retreat hastily to a drier environment: the car. We head back up the spit.
Here's a famous saloon I've never managed to stop in!
And we say goodbye to Homer Spit, Coal Bay, and Kachemak Bay. I wonder if the low, dark bluffs on the left expose low-grade coal beds.