Tag Archives: Point Arena

•

Eric Zetterholm spotted this Osprey taking a bath in the Gualala River. It's good to see Ospreys returning to our coast where they choose to nest.

Another returning bird was seen on St. Patrick's Day, Friday the 17th. Mel Smith spotted a Violet-green Swallow at his place in Point Arena. Surely spring is close! What? Tomorrow, you say?!? Nice!

It's raining here today. It started during the night, raining hard. When I read my gauge in the morning, there was a half inch. That brings my season to date total to 57.40 inches. I consider 50 inches a "normal" rain year at Rick's and my place in Anchor Bay.

•

It's startling when you see an anomaly like this leucistic American Robin. Asa B. Spade noticed this unusual-colored bird just north of Point Arena, on Riverside Road.

You can see that this robin has dark eyes and some of its red-breast, so it's not albino. Here is the definition for leucistic: "An animal condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes." It's pretty rare so it's a treat to see this bird.

Thanks to Asa for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

We had a quarter inch of rain yesterday. Today has been sunny, breezy and beautiful!

•

The proliferation of trail cameras gives us insight into our natural world. Carl Romick wrote, “Our trail cam picked up this photo last Thursday at 9:50 am. The path is above Galloway Creek off Schooner Gulch Road, about three quarters of a mile from the coast.”

It’s striking that this Cougar was seen mid-morning. They are supposed to be nocturnal, but we have had several recent sightings in the daylight hours.

Joni Goshorn's trail cam captured a video of a Mountain Lion near Point Arena. It's quite misty and you can see the time is 12:25 am on June 23.

6-23-22 1225am Mountain lion in the mist

Thanks to Carl and Joni for allowing me to share their photo/video with you here.

It's a foggy day here today with temps in the low 60s. It's always nice when Mother Nature helps to water our gardens with nice, moist fog!

•

Michael Reinhart spotted this Red-shouldered Hawk in Point Arena recently.

Isn't this a beautiful hawk? Red-shouldered Hawks live in areas of tall trees and water. Sounds suspiciously like the Mendonoma Coast! They have loud calls which can be listened to at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at this link: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-shouldered_Hawk/sounds

Thanks to Mike for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

Today started off with fog but it cleared in most places by mid-morning. A sunny, windless day was our reward for being on the beautiful Mendonoma Coast today. Lots of Gray Whales are migrating southward now. I saw multiple spouts off the Mendocino Headlands today.

•

Let's face it, 2021 was a tough year for us humans. But the beauty of Mother Earth continued unabated. Carl Shapiro photographed this rainbow last Monday, from The Sea Ranch. Such beauty!

Look how green and lush the coast looks after all the wonderful rain we've had!

Michael Beattie also photographed a magnificent rainbow, this one appeared near Point Arena about ten days ago.

Thanks to Carl and Michael for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Breezy and very chilly on the Mendonoma Coast today. Several dozen Gray Whales were spotted yesterday, Thursday, headed south. Looks like the southward migration has begun in earnest. Many thousand of Grays still to swim by, headed for the birthing lagoons off Baja California. You can see some photos of the whales seen yesterday on Shari Goforth-Eby's blog at this link: https://mendonomagraywhale.com/migraytions-blog-home/f/the-southbound-migration-is-in-full-swing

Happy New Year! May 2022 be a better year for us all.