Manchester Beach is a coast treasure with five miles of sandy beach. Anne Mary Schaefer recently photographed a sunset there with a flock of shorebirds in the foreground.
To learn more about Manchester State Park, here is their website: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=437
Thanks to Anne Mary for allowing me to share her photo with you here. To see Anne Mary's Pawpawrazzi Pet Photography website, here is the link: http://www.pawpawrazzipetphotography.com/
Peter wrote, “I have a quirky and very uncommon shore sighting for you. My visiting son, Isaac, and I walked down the storm-eroded beach and found five of these massive objects that look like a cross between a blubbery carcass and a giant, juicy, gnarly sea-turnip.
“It took me a while to recognize what they were and where they came from. They are a couple of feet across and were a strain to lift! They are the massive taproots of Marah, also called Man-root or Wild Cucumber. They erode from coastal bluffs when there is major erosion. During the drought, shorelines were stable or grew, and no roots eroded.”
You can see from the photo of Isaac how huge this taproot is. Here's a photo of one still embedded in the bluffs.
We have had a lot of erosion due to our big winter. And more rain is on the way.
Thanks to Peter for allowing me to share his photos with you here.
Jackie Sones spotted this sand dollar washed up on the beach, with unusual Barnacles on it.
Jackie has been finding a few sand dollars on beaches in Bodega Bay with red and white barnacles on them. With the help of barnacle experts Bill Newman and Bob Van Syoc, the barnacles were identified as Paraconcavus pacificus, a rare sighting of barnacles usually seen south of Monterey. Jackie thinks Manchester Beach has potential as a possible place to see them.
Jackie has a wonderful blog post showing how these barnacles were identified and you can read it at this link: http://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2016/09/unexpected-plate-appearance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNaturalHistoryOfBodegaHead+%28The+Natural+History+of+Bodega+Head%29
Thanks to Jackie for allowing me to share her photo with you here. Doug Forsell found a sand dollar with barnacles this past week at Manchester Beach and we are waiting for Bob Van Syoc to take a look at it. I will report back!
Absolutely stunning day here on the Mendonoma coast. It feels like a gift.
Dave Shpak photographed a great example of sea foam, created during the last big storm. He found it at Manchester Beach.
It's caused by the wave action. If you took a jar and filled it with ocean water and then shook it, you would make sea foam. It's made up of organic matter, such as dead kelp. It's quite startling to see!
Thanks to Dave for allowing me to share his photo with you here.
When storms are headed our way, the Pacific Ocean becomes more active and big waves crash against sandy beaches and rocky bluffs. Sometimes the ocean mist will travel all the way up the bluffs and over Highway One. Gary Levenson-Palmer photographed the mist at Manchester Beach.
Thanks to Gary for allowing me to share his beautiful photo with you here.