FIELD NOTES Doug Bell DATE: JUNE 3, 1985 LOCATION: EAST SAND ISLAND, Mouth of Columbia River (Baker Bay), Oregon. Approachable from Chinook, WA. HABITAT: Island ca. 44 ha. in size, about 1800 m long, 260m wide at narrowest point. East & West ends broadened, middle narrow. East end has dredgings spread over it but grasses have taken over cover. Soil here muddy. Elsewhere the island consists of sand hillocks covered in dense, but low grasses, herbs. Much driftwood about. North side intertidal marsh. other sides sandy beaches Arrived in Chinook, WA @ 15:00. Asked for boat rides. Arranged to meet LES CLARK @ docks at 16:30. He said he could take me out in his Gill-netter to the downriver Sand I. - turns out, this was the wrong I. So we tried landing on the upriver (East Sand) Island. The northern shore first, then the eastern. Each time we got within a few yards of the shore - it was too shallow to go further (<1m deep). We could have landed directly on the north shore had we had 2 more feet of tide (this is the area of marsh embankments and old pier. We had to go back to Chinook and get a skiff & hip-boots. Returned to east beach. Les dropped anchor, let the boat drift in. I hopped out into water, loaded skiff, and pushed it in. 3 trips with skiff we necessary to get the skiff in. Caspian tern colony (~1000 birds) was very upset, whirled around as I landed. Much rain the whole time. Soaking wet. I lugged my camping gear ~½ mile to the middle portion of the island. Set up tent near group of small pines.