Atlantic Coast Beaches by William J. Neal

Winter winds and powerful waves also combine to expose a wonderful surprise for the cold-weather walker - patches of dark or black sand on a beach. Winds have a direct influence on tiny sand particles, they are often windborne and collect in clam shells, behind driftwood, beach fences, or any place that allows relief from forceful streams of air. Motion is a constant for a single grain of sand, just as change is constant for a beach. Hammering waves and relentless strong northerly winds help to redistributes grains of sand, from the dunes to the water. The beach is narrower than the summer beach due to high-energy waves during the winter, especially after a powerful nor’easter.

During the winter, winds and waves combine to reshape the topography. While a beach during both the summer and winter is technically a parallel ecosystem, the same beach can look and feel quite different depending on the season. I get to experience everything that comes with being along the coast, but even more intimately than during the summer. No crowds, and with fewer people and distractions, it’s easier to focus and enjoy the natural world: a sunrise or sunset, the movement of clouds and water, and flocks of sandpipers foraging along the water’s edge. I adore the time I spend walking along a beach during the winter. Trust me, layering clothes before a winter beach walk is truly an art form, from long underwear to a long coat. He interprets the winter beach landscape as a place of energy and a “sense of timelessness induced by the procession of waves plunging upon the strand with elemental power from an inexhaustible store the astringency of the clean, spume-edged winds the emptiness and the vastness of the solitude it connoted.” There is much to behold and beauty to be found on a winter beach.Įven though the temperatures and winds can be a brutal and biting, a walk on a winter beach has the potential to be among the most satisfying of all natural events during the year, especially if you have mastered the art of layering clothes. “Winter beach, the very words seem to be powerfully evocative,” declared journalist and author, Charlton Ogburn, Jr in his classic book: The Winter Beach: A Naturalist and Man of Rare Wisdom Shares With You His Journeys Along the Atlantic Coast, first published in 1966.

Atlantic Coast Beaches by William J. Neal