Sightings

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Since Rick and I found Trilliums blooming recently it shouldn't be surprising to also find the first Milkmaids, Cardamine californica. They belong to the mustard family. Cardamine means "strengthen the heart" from its reputed medicinal qualities. The flowers are said to be edible, with a peppery taste. But why pick these delicate beauties when we can enjoy them for weeks in the forest? These wildflowers are California natives, just like me.

 Huckleberry, our golden retriever, must have been checking out this wildflower as his paw is in the photo below. This plant is unusual in that it has two types of leaves - the oval one, which appears first and then the flower stalk with the slender long leaves. The oval leaf is a short distance from the flower stalk. You can see this in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo below. The flowers are just about ready to open.

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On February 2nd there was a beautiful green flash and Rich Kuehn was fortunate enough - and good enough - to photograph it from his The Sea Ranch home. Frequent readers of this blog will know that I've been trying, and failing, to photograph a green flash. Lucky for us all, Rich is willing to share his photo with us here.

Rich wrote, "GREEN FLASH - as captured from my dining room. It's the result of the prism-like bending of the last rays of sunbeam through the correct mixture of atmosphere as our planet revolves about the sun. I'm a lucky guy."

Thank you, Rich!

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The Gualala River has the perfect color for fishing (catch and release) of Steelhead. Just look at the green color!

 Steelhead was caught earlier this week. However Saturday the river was closed to the Pacific Ocean.

 And there were thousand of Gulls and a few Brown Pelicans enjoying the sunny weather. Those in the river are washing off - you can almost hear the sounds of their flapping!

We have a storm coming in for today. It should reopen the river so the Steelhead can once again make their way into the river.

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Yesterday Rick and I saw our first Trilliums of the year on our property in Anchor Bay. Western Trillium, Trillium ovatum, is always a treat to find. But never pick one! It can take years for the plant to recover.

 Below is a Trillium just unfolding.

The flowers are white when young and turn pink as they age. Ants distribute their seeds, as they do for many other plants. Everything is connected - we just need to learn of these connections and respect them. Mother Nature knows what she's doing!

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Great Egrets will eat many things, including small mammals. Mike Mee photographed this Egret on The Sea Ranch capturing a Western Skink, a type of lizard, for its dinner.

I thank Mike for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

 If you'd like to see what a Western Skink looks like, here's a prior post on this site: http://www.mendonomasightings.com/2011/08/17/western-skink-is-not-singing-the-blues/