Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Remember the Ochre Star missing two arms that Roxanne Holmes photographed? She's been keeping a watch on the Star and it has begun growing two new arms.

Those two purple-ish stubs are the new arms beginning to grow. I believe they will be the same orange color of the Star when they are grown. I'll have to ask Roxanne to continue to photograph this Star so we can find out!

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

wowza, it's warm here on the Mendonoma Coast today, in the 70's with no wind. The Pacific Ocean is like a lake. It's a magnificent day on the coast!

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California Quail might be pairing up now. Paul Brewer had this male and female quail visit his garden in Gualala. The more showy male is on the left.

CA Quail are mainly seed eaters, preferring to eat on the ground. So if a Jay knocks seed out of your bird feeder, the positive might be that these beautiful birds might arrive to eat the seeds.

I've seen CA Quail take dirt baths, a fun thing to watch!

Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Paul's nature photography, here is the link to his website: https://paulbrewer.smugmug.com/

Today was clear but windy, temps in the low 60s.

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A large, healthy-looking Mountain Lion has been seen twice at Pat Whelan’s home at The Sea Ranch. Pat wrote, “ Our critter cam spotted this big Mountain Lion walking through our yard this morning at 12:50 am, Feb. 22. Elegant, confident and handsome!  We live on the north end of Sea Ranch.” The Cougar paid the Whelans another visit a week or so later. Pat wrote, “Cougar sighting again in our yard on critter cam at 5:30 am.”

As I watched the videos, it sure looked like the Mountain Lion was comfortable in his or her surroundings. It’s hard to tell if it’s a male or female. This is the time of year most Mountain Lions mate. This could be a male here to mate with one or several females over the next few weeks.

Thanks to Pat for allowing me to share this screen shot with you here.

It's raining this afternoon! Good weather for watching the Academy Awards.

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I never get tired of rainbows and I hope you don't either! Cooks Beach is a beautiful pocket beach north of Gualala. Steve Bennett recently got this photo of the beach and a lovely rainbow.

Thanks to Steve for allowing me to share his photo with you here. You can learn about Cooks Beach at the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy's website at this link: https://www.rclc.org/

Wow, we had an early morning downpour, 0.50 inches, and 48.52 season to date. More rain coming starting Sunday afternoon. But when you look at next week, after Monday it looks like spring is arriving early on the Mendonoma Coast!

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Here is Eric Zetterholm's story from Feb. 26.

“I saw Chris Beach pointing his camera at the river as I came into Gualala for work in the morning. I turned around and pulled in next to him to see the two adult Bald Eagles on the logging structure in the river. We said hello and he said that the eagles had been just sitting there and he was waiting for one to take off and fly. I walked up the highway a bit to get a different angle and took a few pictures of the adult eagles together. I zoomed in for some close up shots and then out again to watch for one taking flight. It was then I spotted the young Eagle sitting just below the parents.”

Eric walked back to his car and found several people now watching the Bald Eagles from the riverside.  Eric wrote further, “I mentioned the little one being so hard to see hidden in plain sight, its color blending in with the logs and shadows. No one had seen the young one there, just focusing on the two white-headed adults. I went back up the road and was surprised again to see the adults start mating with the youth having a front row seat."

"Soon after, the male adult gathered up some nesting materials and flew off up river."

"I missed seeing the female adult fly away and left for work with the juvenile still sitting there perplexed. Parents can be so embarrassing.”