Tag Archives: Sonoma County

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Will Ericson had a rare sighting of a California Dogface Butterfly near Annapolis.

He wrote, “They had been hilltopping on the mountain and pollinating almost exclusively purple-colored flowers. I almost never see them.” Hilltopping, also spelled hill-topping, is a mate location behavior where the males fly up to the top of a hill to try an attract a female.

Thanks to Will for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

It's a lovely day today on the Mendonoma Coast.

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Jeff Ward and the Jerrold Baker family were driving down Highway One south of The Sea Ranch. They could hardly believe their eyes. It was a big Roosevelt Elk.

Here's what Jeff had to saw about their extremely rare sighting:

“We were heading south on Highway One from Gualala. All of a sudden Jerrold yells, ‘What is that?!’ It was a Roosevelt Elk! The Elk was in a full sprint at about 35 mph running on the west side of the highway. It leaped over two barbed wire fences dividing the pastures, completely clearing the fences by four feet on each side, incredible to see.”
As Jeff and the Bakers watched in awe, the Elk jumped another fence and was then running south in the northbound lane of the highway. Fortunately there was no traffic and the Elk veered east and disappeared into the forest.
Jeff continued, “My guess is the Elk’s weight was approximately 650+ pounds. The rack was level to my windshield on a Dodge 2500 3/4 ton 4x4 truck and the spread of the points was about 3 ½ feet.”

These huge elk are normally found to our far north, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. What it was doing on the Mendonoma Coast is a mystery. The much smaller Tule Elk can be seen at Point Reyes to our south.

Thanks to Jeff for allowing me to share his photo and sighting with you here.

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It sure looks like Hunter, Bettye Winter's dog, is watching this beautiful sunset.

And here is the sky after the sun went down as photographed by Bettye in Irish Beach.

Thanks to Bettye for allowing me to share her beautiful photos with you here.

Yes, there was a  Great White Shark seen off of The Sea Ranch, near Del Mar Point. It was Thanksgiving Day. The Shark took a Sea Lion or a "seal." Many people call Sea Lions "seals." No photos were sent in but I'm told the Shark was at least fifteen feet long.

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Up river from the town of Jenner in Sonoma County is an Osprey nest. This year only one chick was born. Paul Brewer watched the nest for some hours several times of the past couple of weeks. Here's a photo of the newborn chick with its mother.

Paul had to wait quite a while last week to get some photos of the Dad bringing home the "bacon." Below the mother and chick are waiting...and waiting.

 Below you will see the Dad arriving with dinner.

And here the young Osprey is about to be fed.

And Paul titled the photo below, "Open wide!" 

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his great photos with you here. To see much more of Paul's photography, here's his website: http://www.capturingnatureswonders.com/

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Peter Baye hikes the reaches of the Gualala River. He found Dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum, in bud.

Peter wrote, “It’s a rare occurrence for Sonoma County. It’s also called Indian-hemp, a Pomo textile plant. It has fibers like hemp, not the ‘medical’ properties. It’s the only colony I’ve even seen in the Gualala River watershed.”

Apocynum means Away dog! The plant is toxic for our canine friends.

Would you like to learn more about the Gualala River? Visit the Friends of the Gualala River website at http://gualalariver.org/

Thanks to Peter for allowing me to share his photo with you here.