Sightings

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The last sunset of 2022 was so beautiful. The colors started out orange and yellow, and then morphed into pink and purple. Paul Brewer took this photo showing the Gualala River in the foreground, the sandbar, and the Pacific Ocean behind it.

Tricia Schuster took her photo from The Sea Ranch, perhaps a few minutes earlier than Paul's photo.

Pure loveliness! Thanks to Paul and Tricia for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

We had a short rainstorm today, but it dropped quite a bit of rain, over a half inch. A big storm is coming in Wednesday, a river of rain event. Wow!

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Marilyn Green photographed this cloud formation recently and she sees a Great Blue Heron on the top. I agree.

Here's a recent photo of an actual GBH, taken by Sara Bogard out near the Point Arena Lighthouse. Notice that the heron has a scar on his or her right wing. Sara said it looked healed up so it happened some time ago.

Great Blue Herons are year round residents of the Mendonoma Coast, and sometimes they are even seen in the clouds!

Thanks to Marilyn and Sara for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

We've had lots more rain overnight and it's raining this afternoon as I type this post. The seasonal creek that crosses Rick's and my land is doing its best imitation of a mighty river right now.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

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We've had a series of storms hit the Mendonoma Coast. Craig Tooley photographed one of the storm clouds as it approached.

There is a lot of motion in this photo of Craig's!

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

Thursday night/Friday early hours saw a good storm move through. At 7 am this morning, there was 3.40 inches in our rain gauge. More rain to come, but the weekend is looking dry for the New Year's festivities.

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Karen Wilkinson wrote, “I get excited over all shorebirds, but the Killdeer are such fun little birds with some rather peculiar behaviors.  The injured wing defense is the one most birders talk about, but their ‘dancing in the sand or ‘fishing with their feet’ are my official favorites.

I'm wondering what's really going on when they're doing this. I was 'belly in the sand' trying not to spook them after they flew in above me, as I was focused on watching a Spotted Sandpiper. It took a while, but I could hardly believe my luck as they started coming straight towards me.

I'm still going through the 1200 plus photos I took, but I thought you might enjoy seeing the video, just looking back on it cracks me up!” I too wonder what this Killdeer is doing with  his feet. Maybe you know?

Thanks to Karen for allowing me to share her photos and video with  you here.

brrr, it's cold and cloudy with rain due to arrive mid-afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be very stormy, another river-of-rain event. Bring it, Mother Nature!

 

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Several weeks ago, the weather was clear with just a few scattered clouds, giving photographer Rozanne Rapozo a perfect opportunity to photograph the full Moon setting over Galleons' Arch Rock off The Sea Ranch.

I love the stairway of light from the Moon. Some call this the stairway to heaven.

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

We had nearly three inches of rain from the last storm, and several more are moving in. I've had over 21 inches so far this season, a cause for celebration! More rain beginning around 8 pm tonight. Temps are in the low fifties.