Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Bill Mabie and Denise Mendoza were up at Noyo Harbor several weeks ago. Bill wrote, “We were having lunch at Sea Pal Cove and we saw something that surprised us. A Harbor Seal was swimming by, but then a Sea Lion showed up. At first we thought it was just playing, but then it disappeared for a short period and burst upwards breaching. Looking at the photos it appears that Sea Lion was attacking Gulls. Is that normal?”

No, something else was going on here. Bill’s photos show the Sea Lion caught some type of Skate, also called Rays. The Gulls were actually trying to steal all or part of the Sea Lion’s catch. Ryan Berger, a Marine Scientist at the Marine Mammal Center took a look at Bill’s photos. He wrote, “Most certainly you will see Gulls flying overhead when a CA Sea Lion has prey at the surface that they are breaking into smaller pieces to consume. The Gulls often fly down to pick up scraps or try and steal the fish away.”

I asked birder Tim Bray if he could identify the types of Gulls in Bill’s photos. He wrote, “All I can make out for sure is one immature Herring Gull with a yellow iris. I think there's at least one more immature Herring and one California Gull as well. Of more interest to me is the fish! It looks like a Skate, which I did not know we had in the Noyo. It makes sense though, they are often found in estuaries.”

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

Clear and very cold this Saturday morning, with clouds coming in this afternoon. Rain is in our forecast, beginning sometime Sunday and continuing through next week. Bring it, Mother Nature! Let's break this drought!

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Jon Shiu saw this Fogbow and said it only lasted a few minutes. It's a treat to see one, as they don't happen very often.

Here's some information from EarthSky.org regarding this phenomenon:

"Fogbows are sometimes called white rainbows, or cloudbows or ghost rainbows. They’re made much as rainbows are, from the same configuration of sunlight and moisture. Rainbows happen when the air is filled with raindrops. You always see a rainbow in the direction opposite the sun. Fogbows are much the same, always opposite the sun, but fogbows are caused by the small droplets inside a fog or cloud rather than larger raindrops.

Look for fogbows in a thin fog when the sun is bright. You might see one when the sun breaks through a fog. Or watch for fogbows over the ocean.

Because the water droplets in fog are so small, fogbows have only weak colors or are colorless."

Look for a fogbow in the morning! I saw one once when Rick and I were traveling down Highway One. After Rick pulled over, I tried to take a photo but my camera wouldn't focus on it! Rick, being more experienced, took over and manually focused to get the photograph. And in a minute or two, the fogbow was a memory.

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

Rain and more rain today! I'll report on the totals tomorrow. But we are fast approaching the total of all last season, which is great news.

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It seemed like everyone was finding this delicious, edible mushroom, The Prince, Agaricus augustus. Jon Handel and Ling-yen Jones found a BIG one!

And Adrian Fehr and Marian Sandoval found a large cache of The Prince.

These mushrooms smell of almond, and they are considered dry weather mushrooms. They usually fruit in spring or summer. But we had a nice dry spell with warm temps between big storms. With the opening of the storm door recently, I don't think we'll be seeing these mushrooms for quite a while.

Thanks to Ling-yen and Susan Sandoval for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Saturday night's storm brought 3 inches of rain, and Monday's storm brought 1.25 inches. Another storm comes in tomorrow morning. Bring it, Mother Nature!

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The Bald Eagles seemingly went their own ways after successfully raising a chick earlier this year. But in recent weeks, they have paired up again. Mike Reinhart recently photographed the Gualala Bald Eagles.

We're not sure why the one Bald Eagle, the female, has her wings extended. Maybe she was just stretching. Then they jointly preened themselves.

It's a lot of fun watching for these eagles! The best place to spot them is behind Trinks Cafe in Gualala and at the north end of the Gualala Bluff Trail. There is a dead tree, a snag, to the north that they like to perch in.

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

We are waiting for another "river of rain" event that comes late afternoon/early evening today, Saturday. Our stretch of warm, dry weather is over...for now. Bring it, Mother Nature!