Tag Archives: Shari Goforth

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A walk along the Gualala River is certain to bring you great sightings and joy. Ron Bolander had discovered a group of willow trees, we think Sitka willows, that red-breasted sapsuckers were drilling holes – called wells – in the bark to get the sap. Other creatures then use these wells to feed, so the sapsuckers are important for the ecosystem. Ron invited Shari Goforth and me to take a hike with him on Saturday to see the show.

While walking on the cobbles by the river, we saw a tiny Sierran treefrog, normally colored emerald green, which was colored tan to match the stones. It was so well camouflaged that we kept losing sight of it.

When we came to the willow trees, we watched from a distance as a red-breasted sapsucker appeared, the male. Some minutes later the female arrived. Ron told us there must be a nest nearby. When the sapsuckers were gone, other birds moved in to feast, including Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds. A Wilson’s warbler stopped by, perhaps eating insects in the sap. Then several beautiful butterflies appeared, a satyr comma and a mourning cloak, and fed. It was quite wonderful to see.

The next day, Sunday, Ron returned to the same place and found two red-breasted sapsuckers on the willow trees, but this time one was a fledgling, perhaps just out of the nest!

A bonus photo from Shari of one of the adults flying straight at her.

Thanks to Ron and Shari for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Quite foggy here today, but sunny up on the ridge. Temps in the 60's. With those heat domes in the eastern part of the US and in Europe, we're not going to complain about the cooling fog.

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Two weeks ago was a great time for seeing Humpback Whales off the Mendonoma Coast.

Scott and Tree Mercer didn't have any sightings of mother/calf gray whales that week, but they were compensated with humpback sightings. Tree wrote, “Despite some challenging wind and fog conditions, humpback whales continue to be seen along our coast. This week, Scott and I documented 40 sightings  of humpbacks seen at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, Saunders Reef, and at Gerstle Cove. Seven additional humpbacks were seen by Shari Goforth at Ollie’s Straight, Gualala Point Island and off the beach at Gualala Point Regional Park. Many of these humpbacks displayed full and half breaching, tail lobbing, and taking long dives most likely to feed on anchovies.

We have also observed two foraging gray whales swimming both north and south along the peninsula at the Lighthouse. We continue to search for gray whale mothers with their calves which typically can be seen throughout the month of May and even into early June.”

Sara Bogard got a nice photo of a humpback whale tail lobbing while doing her weekly survey of harbor seals off the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula and surrounding areas.

She spotted 128 harbor seals of which 38 were pups.

Thanks to Sara for allowing me to share her photo with you here and thanks to the Mercers for their report.

Sunny and warm today, but there's a storm coming in tonight - hard to believe!

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Bill Budge had his camera at the ready when one of the migrating gray whales breached. He wrote, “I got this photo of a gray whale breaching from our deck. He/she was probably just off Cooks Beach.”

We've seen the first mother/calf pairs. Yesterday, Tuesday, Shari Goforth found a pair just north of Gualala. In the first photo, the mother whale blows three times. In the second photo you can see a calf pressed up to its mom and giving a smaller, solo blow.

Thanks to Bill and Shari for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Another calm, beautiful day today.

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Flying over bluffs and the Pacific Ocean, Aleutian Cackling Geese have been streaming northward in very large flocks.  Eric Zetterholm photographed this sight on The Sea Ranch.

Michael Coustier got a closer look.

MCOUSTIER@PROTONMAIL.COM

Shari Goforth got this video as the geese passed Gualala Point Island.

Aleutian Cackling Geese headed north by Shari Goforth

To hear their "cackling" calls, here is the link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology"

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cackling_Goose/sounds

Thanks to Eric, Michael and Shari for allowing me to share their photos and video with you here.

It's sunny and warm here today with no wind.

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Clear weather then moved in and two weeks ago Sunday looked to perfect for a pelagic trip out of Noyo harbor on the Kraken to look for seabirds and gray whales. Shari Goforth was ready her camera. She wrote, “With the break in the rain, sun and calm seas prevailed. Noyo Pelagics, on short notice, came up with enough people to take a half-day trip offshore to the Noyo Canyon. The water was perfect for the trip; the seas were calm, the air was cool with almost no wind, and the skies overcast.

“We were in the middle of the gray whale migration and were hoping to photo document gray whales for identification database. Within the first half hour, we spotted a breaching whale several miles toward the horizon. From then on, we began to see gray whale blows (forceful exhales creating a mist) and stayed the permitted legal distance of 100 yards away from them. We were surprised by humpbacks! It’s not the usual time of year to see humpbacks.

“The captain put the boat in idle (stopped the propeller) to avoid any potential propeller injuries in case we were approached by a curious whale, and we had several curious humpbacks surface near the boat. They don’t have to be very close to know that they have been feeding; their exhales smell strongly like fermented Brussel sprouts! Throughout the day, we photographed many humpback whales breaching, slapping their 15 foot-long front flippers on the water, and thrashing their tails, however, we were only able to get a few views of the underside of the humpbacks’ flukes, the view needed for ID. We had more success with the gray whales and have eight photos of individuals to submit for ID.” Shari and others submit their photos to http://Happywhale.com.

Noyo Pelagics is a collaboration between Mendocino Coast Audubon, The Noyo Center for Marine Science, and Anchor Charter Boats (the Kraken), based at Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg. The trips are open to the public, check the website: http://www.noyopelagics.com for all day and half-day trips, or call for shorter whale watching trips.

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

Toasty warm here today with no wind - unbelievable weather for March.