Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Young Hannah Bonfils was hiking a trail at The Sea Ranch with her parents. She photographed several wild mushrooms. The first is the distinctive Fly Amanita, Amanita muscaria.

And the second photo, I believe, shows young Turkey Tails.

Here's what Hannah wrote: “I’m thirteen years old. My family and I were walking through a trail in Sea Ranch and noticed some magnificent-looking mushrooms. I took some great pictures of them.  After seeing these pictures, I think many people will be interested in looking at the mushrooms in their area.”

Thanks to Hannah for allowing me to share her photos with you here. She shows a lot of talent with a camera and I hope she will share more of her nature photos with us.

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Jodi C. Smith is the Executive Director of Naked Whale Research. She has relocated to the Irish Beach area to study the endangered Southern Resident pods of Killer Whales - known as J, K and L pods. These Orcas are on the move. They have spent the summer months south of Vancouver Island and in Puget Sound. Now they are passing by the Mendonoma Coast. On Jan. 10th K pod was spotted a mile off of Little River. Jodi went out in a boat to get these photos. As you can probably tell, the seas were rough.

This last photo shows the very tall dorsal fin. According to Jodi these Orcas are specialized fish eaters, with Chinook salmon being their favorite.

Today the weather is clear  with few whitecaps on the ocean - perfect weather for spotting Gray Whales and hopefully K pod! Thanks to Jodi for allowing me to share her photos with you. To learn more about her work, here's her website: http://www.nakedwhaleresearch.org/ You can also follow her blog on this website.

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The smaller Hedgehog, the Bellybutton Hedgehog, has begun to appear. Hydnum umbilicatum is a delicious, easy to identify mushroom. Rather than gills, or a sponge like boletes, it has tiny teeth. On our property it grows under Tan-oak trees. Rick and I were happy to find a nice bunch of them yesterday.

This morning I dry sauteed some of the hedgehogs to get the water out. Then I put them in scrambled eggs with a little cheddar cheese grated on top. Delicious!

There are lots more of these mushrooms to come. They don't seem to mind the very cold weather we've been having this past week.

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The past several nights the sunsets on the Mendonoma Coast have been exquisite. Here are three different nights.

I love it when the sun shines like a spotlight through the clouds. It reminds me of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

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One of the juvenile Gray Whales returned to the waters off the Point Arena Pier on Saturday, Jan. 5th. A surfer was just coming in when he saw the whale. Deborah Heatherstone was there once again and photographed the event.

 
A small pod of young Gray Whales has spent the summer, autumn, and now winter off the Mendonoma Coast. They are called subadults. It is a new phenomenon for us that Grays didn't migrate. The vast majority do migrate north in March and April and then south in December and January. But these whales decided to stay put. They have more white on them, I am told, because they swim slower and stay in less turbulent water. It must have been thrilling for that surfer to be so close to this whale.

Once again I thank Deborah for allowing me to share her photos. Another of her photos is featured in today's Independent Coast Observer. You can see Sightings photos on the ICO's website at www.mendonoma.com. There's an on-line subscription available if you'd like to read my weekly Mendonoma Sightings column and keep up to date on the goings of our beautiful Coast.