Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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A few weeks ago Craig Tooley photographed this sight of Cliff Swallows working on their new nests.

They fly several thousand miles to get here and then they immediately get to work building or rebuilding their nests of mud. By now the nests are complete and nesting is taking place. Soon hungry mouths will appear at the nest opening!

Cliff Swallows like to build nests together in a colony. They eat many insects every day!

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's photography, here is his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Today has been lovely. Warm on the ridge, breezy near the ocean, fog in some places - a beautiful late spring day on the Mendonoma Coast.

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Two weeks ago was a great time for seeing Humpback Whales off the Mendonoma Coast.

Scott and Tree Mercer didn't have any sightings of mother/calf gray whales that week, but they were compensated with humpback sightings. Tree wrote, “Despite some challenging wind and fog conditions, humpback whales continue to be seen along our coast. This week, Scott and I documented 40 sightings  of humpbacks seen at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, Saunders Reef, and at Gerstle Cove. Seven additional humpbacks were seen by Shari Goforth at Ollie’s Straight, Gualala Point Island and off the beach at Gualala Point Regional Park. Many of these humpbacks displayed full and half breaching, tail lobbing, and taking long dives most likely to feed on anchovies.

We have also observed two foraging gray whales swimming both north and south along the peninsula at the Lighthouse. We continue to search for gray whale mothers with their calves which typically can be seen throughout the month of May and even into early June.”

Sara Bogard got a nice photo of a humpback whale tail lobbing while doing her weekly survey of harbor seals off the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula and surrounding areas.

She spotted 128 harbor seals of which 38 were pups.

Thanks to Sara for allowing me to share her photo with you here and thanks to the Mercers for their report.

Sunny and warm today, but there's a storm coming in tonight - hard to believe!

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Terry Pfardresher found something we don’t see very often in her garden in Gualala. She wrote, “Any idea who this character is? Wings are too large for a bumblebee.” It’s a Snowberry Clearwing, Hemaris diffinis, a member of the Sphinx family.

Naturalist Laura Baker identified the diurnal moth. She wrote, “When the adults emerge (eclose), they have scales on their wings, but with a few shudders, the scales fall off, leaving the wings transparent and the moth resembling a bumblebee. Caterpillars feed mainly on snowberry and honeysuckle while adults nectar on a variety of plants.”

Mother Nature is simply amazing!

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

It's cool and windy, with clouds scudding by. It actually looks like we could get some sprinkles!

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Kate Bloch has been able to watch and photograph several Harbor Seal births on beaches off The Sea Ranch. She also got this cute photo of a pup taking her first swim.

The little pup was sticking close to mom!

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

It's foggy and cool on the Mendonoma Coast today!

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There was a feeling of magic in this night sky. On the night of May 18, the Moon and Venus had a celestial meetup, a conjunction. Jupiter seemed to be watching from higher up in the sky. The Moon and Venus in the sky made them appear close together, despite being millions of miles apart in space.

Mel Smith photographed this beautiful sight from his  home in Point Arena.

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

Yesterday it was very warm. Today temps are in the low 70's with just a little breeze. Heaven!