Sightings

•

Rick and I often see a Spotted Towhee or two foraging for seeds under our bird feeder. They are very beautiful birds. Paul Brewer recently trained his camera onto one.

Their calls are rather quiet compared to other birds. You can hear their call at this link at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spotted_Towhee/sounds

Spotted Towhees used to be called Rufous-sided Towhees. They scratch for bugs and seeds on the ground with a two-footed backward-scratching hop. It's quite fun to watch.

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

Things are back to normal after the four day power outage. It's quite a beautiful day here on the Mendonoma coast.

•

We finally got power restored this afternoon. Four days is a long time to be out. But I'm glad to be back up and to share nature sightings with you today.

Jinx McCombs and Paul Nordstrand have a motion-detector camera set up at their Point Arena property. Look what they recently recorded. First, a Bobcat.

And a Coyote!

And a big Buck.

Thanks to Jinx for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

It's sunny and cool on the Mendonoma coast today, with some smoke from the Kincaid Fire in Sonoma County. The smoke is giving us eerie sunsets, just about perfect for Halloween tomorrow!

•

Last Saturday we received some blessed rain, a quarter of an inch. Of course it came during the nature walk at the Discover the Lands even on the Point Arena-Stornetta Lands.  Justine Rosenthal and Janine Johnson took the walk from Point Arena City Hall to the Mendocino College Field Station. It was near the Field Station in a group of Bishop Pines when they found this beauty, one of the choice edible mushroom here on the coast - a Boletus edulis, King Bolete. That yellow plate is a dinner plate!

It's what's for dinner!

Thanks to Justine and Janine for allowing me to share their photo with you here.

No more mushrooms until we receive some rain. It's too dry now. We are waiting for our power to be turned off in advance of the high wrong-way winds forecast for tonight. I may not be able to post for a while. I can tell you that today is absolutely lovely here. May that continue hold true.

•

Sometimes you look out your window and find someone looking back up at you! Rick Denniston photographed this young Gray Fox visiting his property in Gualala.

The wildlife we are privileged to see here on the Mendonoma Coast can bring wonder and joy into your life.

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

Hot, dry, scary weather is happening now. We have been notified that our power may be shut off beginning Saturday night. Want to join me in a rain dance?

•

Near the Mendocino Headlands Ron LeValley spotted this leucistic Black Oystercatcher. This bird survived his or her lack of camouflage to grow from a chick to this young bird.

It's not the first time a nearly white Black Oystercatcher has been born up there. Last year Roger Adamson photographed a leucistic chick.

These anomalies appear in nature, but they always seem to catch us by surprise and bring a little wonder into our lives.

Thanks to Ron and Roger for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, or to sign up for his daily nature blog post, here is his website: http://levalleyphoto.com/home/

Smoke from the fire in Geyserville flowed up over the coast this morning. Here's a photo I took from our deck in Anchor Bay around 8 am this morning. It kind of looks like fog, but it's smoke.

The smoke has dissipated somewhat this afternoon. I hope the fires can be brought under containment soon. It's so sad.