18 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
July events at Circle Creek
Conservation Center
SEASIDE – Regis-
tration is open for July
events at Circle Creek
Conservation Center. This
year marks the 15th anni-
versary of its acquisition
and stewardship by North
Coast Land Conservancy.
The center is a nature pre-
serve open to the public at
the south end of Seaside.
Neal Maine, the con-
servancy’s founding exec-
utive director, will lead a
slow walk on the Legacy
Loop Trail from 10 a.m.
to noon on Sunday, July
7. “Seeing the Unseen”
offers an opportunity to
observe what you might
not otherwise notice and
to unspool the stories
behind what you stumble
upon.
On Saturday, July 13,
at 2 p.m., join supporters
The
Illahee
Apartments
of North Coast Land Con-
servancy at the Center for
the fourth annual Summer
Picnic at the Barn. Bring
a picnic, a blanket or
chairs and a pie to share
and help celebrate Cir-
cle Creek’s 15th anniver-
sary. The event is free and
includes a silent auction
in the barn. There will be
live music and picnicking
on the lawn at 2:30 p.m.
The ever-popular pie pot-
luck starts at 3:30 p.m.
This year, guided hikes on
the trails will follow the
picnic from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
On Thursday, July 18,
from 1 to 3:30 p.m., geol-
ogist Tom Horning will
explore how habitat is
infl uenced by geology on
a walk through the fl ood-
plain and forest.
Then on Wednesday,
July 31, from 10 a.m. to
noon, NCLC staff mem-
ber and certifi ed yoga
teacher Lorraine Ortiz
will lead the second
annual Yoga at the Barn.
Beginners are welcome;
bring a mat if you have
one, otherwise one can be
provided. Space is lim-
ited at some events. For
more information and to
register, NCLCtrust.org/
on-the-land-summer-out-
ings.
Circle Creek Conser-
vation Center is at the
end of Rippet Road at
the south end of Sea-
side. From U.S. 101, 0.7
mile north of the junction
with U.S. 26, turn west
onto Rippet Road and fol-
low it to the two barns at
the end of the road. It is
open to the public daily,
dawn to dusk, conditions
permitting.
Trail’s End arT associaTion
KIDZ ART CAMP
See puffi ns at Haystack Rock July 1-4
CANNON BEACH –
Catch a glimpse of puffi ns
from 8-11 a.m. Monday,
July 1-Thursday, July 4 in
front of Haystack Rock.
This seabird watch-
ing event is sponsored
by Friends of Haystack
Rock and is part of a fi re-
works-free weekend in
Cannon Beach. Spotting
scopes and binoculars will
be available to view the
birds up close.
Haystack Rock is home
to the largest Tufted Puffi n
breeding colony in Oregon.
In early April, puffi ns show
up at Haystack Rock. Most
of the puffi ns have already
found their lifelong part-
ners and are returning to the
same protected burrow they
used last year to raise their
young.
The Tufted Puffi ns will
spend about 16 weeks at
the rock. For the fi rst cou-
ple weeks the puffi ns stake
out their territory and clean
up their burrow. Once their
burrow is ready, the female
puffi n will lay a single,
chicken-sized egg, which
both the male and female
incubate.
Incubation usually lasts
41-54 days. Though usually
tucked back inside the bur-
row, newly hatched puffi ns
appear at the ‘Rock’ begin-
ning in late June through
mid to late August. 38 to
59 days after hatching the
puffl ings will leave their
burrows.
Under the protec-
tion of dark (to escape the
ever-watchful, hungry eyes
of bald eagles), all the puf-
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fl ings will leave the safety
of the rock and return to the
open ocean, where they will
spend the winter.
Tufted Puffi ns struggle
with inadvertently ingest-
ing ocean plastic, getting
caught and drowning in
gill-nets, and protecting
their burrows from intro-
duced mammalian pred-
ators such as foxes and
rats. Since the mid-1990s,
Tufted Puffi n populations
in Oregon and Washington
have plummeted more than
95 percent.
Friends of Haystack
Rock promotes the pres-
ervation and protection of
the intertidal life and birds
that inhabit the Marine Gar-
den and Oregon Islands
National Wildlife Refuge at
Haystack Rock.