Bettye Winters photographed these thunderclouds from the storm of last week. The storm was a very cold one and for a brief moment it snowed at our house in Anchor Bay - a very rare occurrence!
And the sunset the next night, Feb. 20th, was beautiful too.
Thanks to Bettye for allowing me to share her photos with you here.
We knew it was coming but the reality of it is something else. A disaster thousands of miles away swept multitudes of items into the ocean last March. The Japan Current, also called Kuroshio Current, is bringing evidence of this disaster to the Mendocino Coast.
Don Phillips walks at Manchester State Beach nearly every day. He collects debris swept up on the beach as his community service. But last Sunday the amount of debris on the beach increased dramatically. Yesterday and today he hauled out enough debris to fill his car.
Yes, the tsunami debris has reached the Coast. Now the question is how do we dispose of this? Plastic can be recycled but the styrofoam is problem to be solved.
NOAA has a website to track the tsunami debris. It is: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html
Bettye Winters heard and then saw a very noisy Black Oystercatcher on the rocks at the north end of Manchester State Beach. As she watched a wave washed over the rocks and the Oystercatcher disappeared. It then reappeared a short distance away on another rock. I wonder if this bird was surprised to be washed off the rocks like that. He/she needs to heed the warning we humans are taught - never turn your back on the ocean!
If you look closely you can see an orange Sea Star, aka Starfish, on the rocks to the left.
Friday the 13th is said to be an unlucky day. Well, I say phooey on that! Bettye Winters got a beautiful photograph of thunderclouds forming over Manchester Beach and the Point Arena Lighthouse. Look how the sun glints off of the newly restored white Lighthouse. Thanks to Bettye for allowing me to share her photo with you here.
Friday also brought a spectacular sunset and I was lucky enough to capture it with my camera from my deck in Anchor Bay.
As Bettye wrote me, "Love it here!"
A 12 inch long Ushio 110 volt, 500 watt light bulb washed up at Manchester State Beach recently and was found by Gary Humfeld. It has Asian characters on it.
I've been told it might have come from a ship. Again, any information you can give us to further our knowledge would be much appreciated! Isn't amazing the light bulb is intact?