Sightings

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The light on the Mendonoma Coast is always changing and often mesmerizing. Tom Marble took a photo of sunbeams amidst the fog, and a Buck in the yard. There's a person standing to the left, looking at the Pacific Ocean and perhaps a reflection of someone else in the blind-covered window.

Tom tells me this house was designed by San Francisco architect Hans Baldauf. It's located on the beautiful Sea Ranch and it's called the Sea Pine House.

Thanks to Tom for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To learn more at the Sea Pine House, here's a link to a blog written by the architect: https://bcvarch.com/about-us/blog-all/blog-community/blog-sea-ranch-exhibition/

Our hot weather left us - don't let the door hit you on the way out, heat! - and it's a lovely sunny day here today, temps in the mid 70's. Perfect!

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Mother Nature must have a sense of humor. She created a caterpillar that looks just like a twig. Peggy Berryhill and Susan Ruschmeyer found one at their home in Anchor Bay. It's a twig-mimic caterpillar in the family Geometridae.

Its head with three legs on each side is to the right. Here's a video Susan took of the caterpillar's unique movements.

Twig-mimic Caterpillar video by Susan Ruschmeyer

This is a first for me! Perhaps for  you too.

Thanks to Peggy and Susan for allowing me to share their photo and video with you here.

Sunny and warm today with no wind. It's supposed to heat up tomorrow, Tuesday and on Wednesday. The Pacific Ocean was flat calm today.

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Autumn is a favorite time of year for many of us. A storm system with no rain moved across the Mendonoma Coast a week ago Saturday, blowing needles off trees and scattering them seemingly everywhere. The color of the sunlight has already changed to a warmer gold.

That windy weather brought a sighting of rare Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud waves, seen by Jane Simmonds. She wrote, “Looking west from our home in Annapolis on Sunday, September 15th, I saw what seems to be the fog rising in peaks and then curling a bit like a wave breaking. First time I've ever seen that.”

Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud waves form on windy days, when two different layers of air move at different speeds. The winds in the upper layer move at a higher speed and cause tops of the clouds to roll over, just like a breaking wave.clo

Jane’s sighting had me wondering about the difference between fog and clouds. I  learned there is no difference other than altitude. Fog is defined as a visible moisture that begins at a height lower than 50 feet. If the visible moisture begins at or above 50 feet, it is called a cloud.

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

Foggy at the coast today, sunny at Rick's and my place in Anchor Bay. Temps mild, in the mid-sixties.

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On Sunday Mel Smith found this Monarch nectaring on a butterfly bush in Point Arena.

And Chris Pechal found two Monarchs at The Sea Ranch. In the photo on the left, you can tell it's a male Monarch because of the two black dots on its lower wings. He is nectaring on thistle. In the other photo, the beautiful Monarch is nectaring on Coyote Bush.

These Monarchs come to the coast to feed before their journey to their overwintering sites. They live approximately seven months, and are called the Methuselah generation. We hope to see many more Monarchs in the days ahead.

Thanks to Mel and Chris for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Warm today - no fog at all. It's a spectacular autumn day!

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Suzy Worsham’s critter camera showed a big Black Bear checking out items at her place on Iversen Road several weeks ago. She wrote, “We had a visitor at our back door last night! The last time this happened was when it was also a low producing Huckleberry season back in 2022. We had so many Huckleberries last year and this year there are none.”

 

Here's is the video: Black Bear visit by Suzy Worsham

There are very few Huckleberries, and they are smaller than usual, and quite sparse. You can lift a branch where last year there might have been 50 or 60 fat berries. This year you are lucky to find one berry. There was an early heatwave that may have affected the berries, and/or the plants are taking a year off after one of the most fabulous huckleberry years ever – 2023.

Thanks to Suzy for allowing me to share her video with you here. Lions, and tigers, and...

Very foggy at the coast. Gualala was socked in for most of the day, but Anchor Bay was living up to its banana belt designation and was in sun. Sunny on the ridge, and quite mild.