Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Spring wildflowers are in glorious bloom. The bluffs at The Sea Ranch are a great place to see them. Allen Vinson recently took these beautiful photos.

Here is a field of Goldfields.

 You can see that we've been having lovely weather.

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

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The Osprey nest that we can see with the help of our spotting scope is officially occupied. The female is sitting on the nest, presumably on eggs. Her mate will be hunting for the both of them.

Paul Brewer recently photographed this Osprey on the hunt.

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see more of Paul's photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.capturingnatureswonders.com/

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Local divers, Jack Likins and Eric Anderson, recently dove for Abalone. Here's what Jack had to say about the dive:

“Eric and I went for a dive last Wednesday at a secret spot off of The Sea Ranch coast. The wind was calm, the waves were calm and the water visibility was about 15 to 20 feet. It was a good first dive.

"Eric is 71 and I am 68 so we didn’t want to do anything too strenuous, especially on our first dive of the season.

“We were diving relatively deep for a low tide, from about 20 to 35 feet. Eric got a nice 9 ¾ inch abalone and I got two that were over 10 inches. Both Eric and I dive a lot, so we save our annual limits [24/season and three/day] for the larger abalones. We usually see hundreds of abalone on each dive, we seldom take one unless it is large or we need one for dinner.”

Here is the photo of Jack's two ten inchers:

Several abalone divers paid the ultimate price this past weekend. Eric Anderson has this poem on his website. He has kindly allowed me to share it here.
    ODE to ABALONE DIVERS 
       by Abaloneten 
       
When I’m dead and in my grave
No more abalone will I crave
At the top of my tombstone will be seen
“Here lies the body of an abalone diving fiend”
A little bit lower will be inscribed
“He nearly got the big one before he died”
At my funeral the preacher will say
“If it hadn’t been for abalone, he’d be alive today”
My family will be sad, and, they’ll wonder why,
So will my buddies when they come to say good bye
All I can figure, is, God wanted my soul
Cuz I think I  located God’s favorite ab hole…
To learn much more about abalone, here is Eric's website: https://sites.google.com/site/abaloneten/
Thanks to Eric and Jack for sharing their photo and experience with us here.

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Jerry Rudy had a Ceanothus Silkmoth pay a visit to his Timber Cove home. And she was pregnant. Here's what Jerry wrote,  “This mother moth showed up on our doorstep last week. We set her on a native azalea and she promptly laid about 50 eggs. I believe they hatch in about 10 days and I am considering moving them onto our local Ceanothus.”

You can see the eggs on the azalea stalk. Amazing photo!

And here is a photo Wendy Bailey took a few weeks ago of this beautiful, big moth.

Thanks to Jerry and Wendy for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

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Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila menziesii, are blooming in sunny spots on the Coast. A great place to see them is in the meadows at the Stornetta Public Lands. Ron LeValley recently photographed a lovely group of them near Fort Bragg at MacKerricher State Park, obviously another great place to see them.

 And here is a close-up of this wildflower. In Reny Parker's book, Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges, she writes, "Baby Blue Eyes...the spring sky smiling up at itself."

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's beautiful photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/