Sightings

•

Kathryn Arnold went tide pooling during a recent low tide. She wrote: “I had a couple of unique-to-me sightings at Shell Beach. The tide was an 0.7 and I spotted a healthy juvenile Bat Star about the size of my thumbnail resting on a seaweed-covered rock at the tideline."

“When I gently turned it over for a closer look, I discovered that is was dining on a wee Wentletrap!

"Don’t worry, I put the Bat Star and its prey back where I found them! A few moments later I came across a ten-inch long Gumboot Chiton tracing a beautiful serpentine design in the sand.”

I didn't know about Wentletraps. I learned a Wentletrap was a tiny sea snail with a beautiful white spiral shell. The word “wentletrap” is Dutch for spiral staircase. Wentletraps are also called Staircase Shells or Ladder Shells. How, I wondered, did a Sea Star dine one of these seemingly well-protected mollusks.

I learned that many Sea Stars eat Mussels and Clams, also well-protected by shells. Sea Stars surround the shell, as the little Bat Star did, and use the suckers on their feet to pull the shell apart, creating a tiny opening for them to reach their prey, using their stomach to do so. Mother Nature seems to have quite a creative streak.

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

•

Eric Zetterholm noticed the larger Great Egret and the much smaller Snowy Egret perched on the same snag in the Gualala River. It's a rare sighting to see these two egrets perched together.

Other than their size, the way to tell them apart is Great Egrets have yellow beaks and black feet. Snowy Egrets have black beaks with bright yellow feet!

Here's a close-up of a Great Egret taken by Rozann Grunig.

And here's a photo of a Snowy Egret in flight by Beth Petit, showing those yellow feet.

Thanks to Eric, Rozann and Beth for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Fog over the Pacific Ocean is keeping the Mendonoma coast nice and cool today!

• 2 Comments

•

Peggy Berryhill told me this young Brown Pelican recently posed for her.

I love these prehistoric-looking birds. We are privileged to watch their migrations every year. Young Brown Pelicans, with brown heads and white tummies, are still flying northward. Peggy saw them feeding in the mudflats of the Russian River, along with American White Pelicans and Great Egrets.

Thanks to Peggy for allowing me to share her photo with you here. Peggy is the Co-founder and General Manager of the radio station KGUA 88.3 FM. She hosts a weekly program called "Peggy's Place." I am one of her guests every month. I'm usually on the third Thursday of each month, 9 am to 10 am, but this week I will be on Wednesday, Sept. 26 from 9 am to 10 am. You can listen in live at: http://kgua.org/

•

After a hiatus of several years, Red Sea Urchins have once again been harvested and brought to the Point Arena Pier. Michael Alexander photographed the first ones destined for sushi chefs here and in Japan that feature uni, the gonads of Red Sea Urchins.

It's not easy to harvest them. A diver will work with a partner on a boat, and stay underwater for several hours at a time collecting them. It's hard work!

These are not to be confused with the Purple Sea Urchins that have proliferated in recent years due to the Sea Stars contracting a wasting disease - Sea Stars prey on Sea Urchins. The purples, unchecked, have eaten much of the kelp, causing some Abalones to starve. Here's what they look like, photographed by Jon Loveless.

Sea Stars have recovered this year and we hope balance will return to the inter-tidal zone.

Thanks to Michael and Jon for allowing me to share their photos with  you here. We are having another lovely, warm day on the Mendonoma coast.

•

Rusty Babcock was visiting her brother, Tom Reidenbach, in Irish Beach several weeks ago. Tom wrote, "[Here is] the feisty [Belted] Kingfisher that scolds every visitor to Pomo Lake in Irish Beach. He/she usually never sits still long enough to get a picture."Look at that fancy hair-do! Belted Kingfishers perch on a branch near water, such as Pomo Lake, and dives head first into the water for fish, frogs, and other aquatic prey. To hear their twittering call, here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/sounds

Thanks to Rusty for allowing me to share her photo with you here, and to Tom who forward it to me.

Rick and I took a walk with our golden retriever, Duffy, on the Point Arena/Stornetta Lands this morning. There was no wind and it was quite mild. Lots of happy visitors to the Lands, including us. On the road to the Lighthouse, and then on the Lands, we saw a Red-tailed Hawk perched on a telephone pole, a small group of Killdear, several whales, possibly Gray Whales, on the surface of the ocean, two groups of Brown Pelicans flying north, Cormorants and Gulls. What a great day for sightings of our natural world!