Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Perry Hoffman was photographing this Black Oystercatcher when a big wave crashed behind him or her!

And Mike Reinhart got this interesting photo of two walking down the rocks, along with one sitting/resting in the sun.

This is what the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has to say about their calls:

"High-pitched, piping or whistling notes, given singly or in rolling, stuttering, or trilling series, often sounding like an excitable wheee as if given by a kid on a roller coaster." Listen and see what you think: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Oystercatcher/sounds

Thanks to Perry and Mike for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Perry's photography and art, here is the link to his website: https://magentaraven.com/

Looks like our three plus weeks of dry, sunny weather is about to come to a close in a couple of days. Today was clear and nippy!

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Adrian Adams noticed this live Great Blue Heron standing on a roof at The Sea Ranch. But a metal GBH weather vane would be pretty nice!

Great Blue Herons will occasionally get on a roof to search for prey and/or for protection from predators.

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

It was quite cold (for us here on the coast - I know it's very, very cold in other parts) this morning, 37 degrees. But it's sunny and calm this afternoon. We've gone three weeks without any rain as of today. Rain is in the forecast for later next week. Hope so!

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This member of the Lily family began its bloom a little before Christmas, and Slinkpods are still putting up their short-lived blooms. Craig Tooley found a nice group of them. Look at the emerging leaves, two for each plant. When they are fully grown, the blooms are long gone. The flowers are quite small and hard to find in the forest duff, but what a treat when you do find them!

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Another beautiful, calm, sunny day today. Clouds moved in this afternoon making for a beautiful sunset.

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I originally presented these photos, more than 140 of them, in late October of last year. It was thrilling to show them on the huge screen at the Gualala Arts Center. So many people told me they couldn't make the October event that I was asked to do a repeat performance. Something new this time: there will be a segment of drone photography showing the beauty of the coastline from a bird's eye perspective.

The Four-eyed Frog will also be there with an array of books on nature and photography.

To learn more, here is the link to the Gualala Arts Center: https://gualalaarts.org/2025/01/mendonoma-sightings-redux/

Hope you can come and by doing so you will be supporting local journalism. We're trying so very hard to save our beloved newspaper, the Independent Coast Observer Community News!

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Eileen Kallaway found a special frog near her Sea Ranch home. She wrote, “This Red-legged Frog lives under our porch at the north end of Sea Ranch, by the 9th hole golf course and not far from Salal trail. I have seen him twice out at night in the pouring rain! A person on Sea Ranch Facebook said it is an endangered species!!

I read that the California Red-legged Frog has disappeared from an estimated 70% of its original range. It is now listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and has been identified as a California species of special concern. One cause of this decline is habitat loss, however introduced and invasive species like the American bullfrog have also contributed. It is illegal to harm or harass them. Here's another look at this frog only found in California. This photo was taken by Roberta Chan and the rare frog was alongside the Gualala River.

Thanks to Eileen and to Roberta for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Clouds, fog, sunshine and cool temps - a little bit of a mix today!