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Esther Shain recently photographed a Wild Turkey mother with her three chicks.

I think the chicks are cute. Hope you agree!

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

After an absolutely scorching day yesterday, where it was near 80 right at the ocean, and 96 degrees at our place in Anchor Bay, the fog has developed over the ocean and cooled us off some. Thank goodness for our fog air conditioning, because it's the only air conditioning we have! Down 16 degrees today.

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Bill Oxford used his drone to photograph the estuary of the Gualala River. This is what he found - several wooden structures in the riverbed.

Bill wondered if these structures were part of the old mill at the site we call Mill Bend. Here is a photo of the old mill.

Harry Lindstrom knew what they were. He wrote, "These are remnants of old log cribs. If you are kayaking, you might mistake these old remnants for trees, or you may not even pay attention to them if the water is deep enough. Most of them are stuck in the mud, pointing out at an angle. The lumber mill at Mill Bend was not pushed into the river; it burned in 1906." Harry sent along these photos showing the remnants:

Wayne Harris, owner of Adventures Rents, the kayaking company on the Gualala River, also knew what they were. He wrote, "Bill's photo shows some of the cribs that were built to contain the floating logs. There are four or five areas in the estuary where one can still see them. They were logs pinned together with stakes to create a dock-like structure to hold back the floating timber."

So there you go - a little bit of history still evident in the Gualala River.

Thanks to Bill and Harry for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To learn more about kayaking on the Gualala River, here is the link to Adventure Rents: http://www.adventurerents.com/

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Bob Rutemoeller spotted this lovely butterfly which had landed on one his wife's native plants. The butterfly posed for Bob, showing top and bottom views. It is a Lorquin's Admiral Butterfly.

The host plant for these butterflies is willow. I purchased a wonderful waterproof booklet for butterfly identifications. It's titled Butterflies of Central and Northern California by Jim Brock. It shows the caterpillars of each butterfly too. I got mine at the Four-Eyed Frog Bookstore in Gualala. My favorite independent bookstore has a sale starting today...hint, hint! Here's a link to the Frog: http://www.foureyedfrog.com/

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

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It's called fledging when the chicks leave their nest, testing their wings for the first time. Sometimes the beginning flying lessons can go awry. But in the case of a group of young Pacific Wrens, according to John Batchelder, they were hopping around in several bushes, doing just fine.

John commented that this fledgling's beak looks too big for its head. I agree! But we know he or she will grow into that big break. Here's a photo of an adult singing, taken by Craig Tooley.

We loved this photo so much, we included it in our book, Mendonoma Sightings Throughout the Year. This bird used to be called a Winter Wren. They have the most lovely song, which echoes through the forest in the spring and early summer. You can hear it here: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pacific_Wren/sounds

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

 

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The young of our resident Gray Foxes are awfully cute. Once in a while they will make a den under a deck or wood shack. That's what happened for Michael Tilles at his place on The Sea Ranch. There are four kits in Michael's photo.

Then Janice O'Conner let me know she had a family of SIX kits at her place in Gualala. That's a large family, for sure.

  Gray Foxes live on the Mendonoma Coast year round. Thanks to Michael and Jan for allowing me to share their photos with you here.