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Eric Zetterholm was the first to photograph this Black-tailed buck near The Sea Ranch golf course.

The Buck looks healthy except for those twisted antlers. I queried CDFW. I heard back from Krysten Kellum, Information Officer. She wrote, “CDFW’s Statewide Deer Coordinator Brian Leo tells me: I believe this sometimes happens due to hormonal imbalance, sometimes due to testicular injury or disease. It could also result from damage to the pedicle. Since the antlers are deformed on both sides and the deer appears to be otherwise healthy, my guess would be testicular injury or some other cause of hormonal imbalance.” I learned testosterone is essential for the normal antler cycle of growth and shedding.

It will be interesting to see what happens to this buck's antlers next year.

Thanks to Eric for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

It's raining, it's pouring...

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A BIG sandbar has closed the Gualala River to the Pacific Ocean for months. Of course the river seeps through the sandbar, but much of the water backs up in the lagoon. Steelhead and other fish that were trapped in the river can now enter their next stage of life. I went by to check the river Thursday around noon and this is what I saw - a closed but very full river!

Others reported the river breached the sandbar at 4:45 p.m. and I went early on Friday to check it out. Here's what I saw.

A friend joined me, Vicki Robinson, and she asked, "Is that a Bald Eagle?" Sure enough, an adult Bald Eagle was on the sandbar to the left of the new opening - was she watching the newly opened river? ha, she was probably looking for a tasty fish.

Here's a video I took:

Open Gualala River 11.14.25 by Jeanne A Jackson

It was a gentle opening this year. Here's what Dave Jordan wrote on Friends of Gualala River's website: "The river mouth started to breach around at 5 pm Thursday, on a rising high tide, which equalizes tide and lagoon water levels quickly, minimizing the gradient and energy . . . quiet breach conditions. It’s the low tide breaches that are like dramatic dam bursts. Surely the fish were satisfied with the relatively low-turbulence but turbid breach."

To learn much more about the Gualala River, here is the website for FoGR: https://gualalariver.org/

On their website home page is an up-to-date weather report, a feature that might come in handy for some of you.

It's sunny and warm today - 74 degrees - but the barometer is low and falling. Another storm is headed our way for tomorrow.

 

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David Munson captured much of the beauty of last night's sunset.

I went on a mushroom hunt with friends in the late afternoon yesterday. As we returned to Rick's and my place, we could see the colors splashed across the sky behind the house. My friends left and I hurried inside to get a photo of the sunset. But...but...a cloud washed up and over our area and the colors of the sunset didn't penetrate it! What mushrooms did we find? Matsutakes!!! Way earlier than most years.

Thanks to David for allowing me to share his photo with you!

We have a wet storm bearing down on the Mendonoma Coast. I'll have rain totals for those interested tomorrow. Bring it, Mother Nature! And I think the Gualala River might be able to breach the sandbar with all the rain coming.

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Anna's Hummingbirds are very beautiful when the light hits their feathers. It was a foggy day when Michael Reinhart took this photo, but there was enough light to "light up" this hummer.

Anna's Hummingbirds are year round residents of the Mendonoma coast. I was recently asked about whether hummingbird feeders should be taken in for the winter. In many places you need to take them in, as the hummingbirds need to migrate. Here, as long as you keep them clean, you can leave them up for our local hummers. There are native plants like manzanitas that bloom in the winter to help feed them.

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

Today is a transition day. Warm this morning, cooling off this afternoon, rain predicted for tomorrow and much cooler!

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Rozanne Rapozo saw this driftwood art several weeks ago. She wrote, "We have some very creative beachcombers!  A friend spotted this on the beach a day or two earlier and then alerted us.  We saw it originally from the bluff at Gualala Point Regional Park and immediately had to go down on to the beach to  photograph it."

"Needless to say, I was taken aback by the creativity involved, from finding the ‘head’ and then carefully creating the skeleton by selecting appropriately sized ‘bones’ in varying lengths to build the dinosaur body.  Too bad this wasn’t done as part of a contest, because it clearly would have won first prize! Thanks go out to the person or persons who did it!”

And thanks to Rozanne for photographing it so we can see it too, and for allowing me to share her photograph with you here.

Warm, no wind, high wispy clouds, a beautiful sunrise...it's close to a perfect day here on the Mendonoma Coast!