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Clear weather then moved in and two weeks ago Sunday looked to perfect for a pelagic trip out of Noyo harbor on the Kraken to look for seabirds and gray whales. Shari Goforth was ready her camera. She wrote, “With the break in the rain, sun and calm seas prevailed. Noyo Pelagics, on short notice, came up with enough people to take a half-day trip offshore to the Noyo Canyon. The water was perfect for the trip; the seas were calm, the air was cool with almost no wind, and the skies overcast.

“We were in the middle of the gray whale migration and were hoping to photo document gray whales for identification database. Within the first half hour, we spotted a breaching whale several miles toward the horizon. From then on, we began to see gray whale blows (forceful exhales creating a mist) and stayed the permitted legal distance of 100 yards away from them. We were surprised by humpbacks! It’s not the usual time of year to see humpbacks.

“The captain put the boat in idle (stopped the propeller) to avoid any potential propeller injuries in case we were approached by a curious whale, and we had several curious humpbacks surface near the boat. They don’t have to be very close to know that they have been feeding; their exhales smell strongly like fermented Brussel sprouts! Throughout the day, we photographed many humpback whales breaching, slapping their 15 foot-long front flippers on the water, and thrashing their tails, however, we were only able to get a few views of the underside of the humpbacks’ flukes, the view needed for ID. We had more success with the gray whales and have eight photos of individuals to submit for ID.” Shari and others submit their photos to http://Happywhale.com.

Noyo Pelagics is a collaboration between Mendocino Coast Audubon, The Noyo Center for Marine Science, and Anchor Charter Boats (the Kraken), based at Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg. The trips are open to the public, check the website: http://www.noyopelagics.com for all day and half-day trips, or call for shorter whale watching trips.

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

Toasty warm here today with no wind - unbelievable weather for March.

 

 

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Last week Paul Brewer saw this Osprey with a cabezon in its talons. It's always thrilling when the Ospreys return.

The nest Rick and I have watched through our spotting scope for more than 20 years is once again occupied. This Osprey is flying north so maybe it is one of the mated pair we are fortunate to see - Paul lives in Gualala and our place is north a few miles, in Anchor Bay.

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photo with  you here. To see much more of Paul's nature photography, here is the link: https://paulbrewer.smugmug.com/

It's a beautiful sunny day here, with some breezes. High in the low 70's. There is a fog bank over the ocean, so some areas could be in fog...like Point Arena, perhaps.

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We are having an irruption of CA Tortoise Shell Butterflies. They do have similar colors of Monarchs, but they are much smaller. Shari Goforth got this photo of one of the dozens in my courtyard yesterday.

They were being seen in vast numbers yesterday, Saturday, down in Bodega Bay and in Jenner. Cynthia Schreiner wrote to me last night: "Many people in Bodega Bay saw thousands of butterflies  today, colored/looked like Monarchs, flying south? For an hour maybe two they were everywhere,  not milling around  but quite intent on going south.  So cool, they just didn't alight to get a Pic."

Mating for these butterflies, Nymphalis californica, takes place from March to May, when they emerge from their winter hibernation once the weather warms up.

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

And warm up it has! Another toasty day with no wind here on the beautiful Mendonoma Coast.

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Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila menziesii,  are one of my favorite wildflowers. They grow on sunny bluffs. Seeta Chaganti had her friend, Mary Heibel, take her to Manchester State Park to show her the bloom.

Baby blue eyes are native to California, Oregon and Baja California. They are excellent for pollinators!
Thanks to Seeta for allowing me to share her photos with you here.
It was unbelievably warm here today, 81 degrees. Isn't it March? The warmth has encouraged California Tortoiseshell butterflies to appear in large numbers. Maybe an irruption year? I will report back!

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Rozanne Rapozo is an excellent photographer and I feel privileged to be able to share her work with you. Around 3 a.m. Tuesday, March 3, a total lunar eclipse was seen from the Mendonoma coast.

A lunar eclipse occurs when a full Moon moves into the Earth's shadow and the Moon turns a deep reddish-orange or “blood red". This happens because Earth's atmosphere filters out all the blue light and refracts the longer red wavelengths into the shadow. This effectively projects all the world's sunrises and sunsets onto the Moon, giving us a blood red Moon.

What a sight!

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

Today is breezy and sunny!