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Just look at this beauty - a six-legged, small, nearly translucent Sea Star. Marilyn Green photographed it at the most recent low tide at Pebble Beach off The Sea Ranch.

Here's what intertidal zone expert, Robert Van Syoc, had to say about this Star.

"This is a very interesting star, and a rare find on our part of the coast. According to Prof. Sarah Cohen at San Francisco State University, who is an expert on this group of stars, it's a member of a ‘species complex’ of three species distinguished by differences in their DNA, but not yet easily identifiable to species-level by obvious morphological characteristics.

“Formerly, all three species were known as Leptasterias hexactis, a smallsix-armed star. Currently, Prof. Cohen considers true Leptasterias hexactis to be the most northern of the three species, ranging from Alaska south to Washington State.  The remaining two species of Leptasterias are most common further south in California, uncommonly found this far north.  So, it would appear that Marilyn has photographed a currently undescribed species of Leptasterias!  Keep your eyes open for more, please!”

As Amy Ruegg often photographs in the intertidal zone, I sent her Marilyn's photo and it turns out Amy photographed this type of Star last year, off Pebble Beach. One of its legs is mostly underneath the center of the Star. Bob agrees it's probably the same species as Marilyn's find.

Bob sent in some fascinating information about these Stars. He wrote, “Another important aspect of Leptasterias biology is that they are ‘brooders,’ that is they do not have planktonic larvae, but keep their developing offspring on ‘Mom’ until they ‘walk away’ as tiny versions of the adults.  This limits their ability to re-colonize distant areas after the Sea Star wasting disease of 2015 in our area.  Hence, the slow re-establishment of Leptasterias on our part of the coast…and our excitement at seeing them again.”

How great is this? At the next low tide, perhaps you will find one of these rare Stars.

Thanks to Marilyn and Amy for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

It's a stunning day - warm with no wind. But the forecast has it cooling off, big time! For today, I'm enjoying the sunshine and the 70 degree temps. It's not really winter today!

 

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Earlier this month Sarah Woods photographed a rainbow in a most unique and unusual way, rainbow haloed sunbeams streaming through the Redwoods.

She wrote, “I took these photos right outside our home on Redwood Way in Gualala. I was changing out of wet clothes from a walk with my husband and saw the sunbeams. Little did I know I would see a rainbow halo surrounding them. It was truly a miraculous sighting.”

I've never seen anything quite like this! Thanks to Sarah for allowing me to share her photos with  you here.

It's cool and cloudy today, but there is no wind. This weekend could be just about perfect, weather-wise.

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Mike Reinhart wondered if this Osprey was diving for a fish.

But it turns out the water was very shallow there, so perhaps the Osprey just wanted to wade, according to Mike.

And that started the neighbors, a pair of Western Gulls, to talking!

Thanks to Mike for a fun series of photos.

It's a mixed weather bag today. Sunny early, then rain showers, then sun. And it's cool here! I know, I know...cool for the Mendonoma Coast.

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It's startling when you see an anomaly like this leucistic American Robin. Asa B. Spade noticed this unusual-colored bird just north of Point Arena, on Riverside Road.

You can see that this robin has dark eyes and some of its red-breast, so it's not albino. Here is the definition for leucistic: "An animal condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes." It's pretty rare so it's a treat to see this bird.

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

We had a quarter inch of rain yesterday. Today has been sunny, breezy and beautiful!

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We don't see them very often but Shari Goforth-Eby managed to photograph a Sundog recently.

Folklore says that it's good luck to see one!

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

Today the clouds moved in and the temperature fell to 47 degrees. It was near 70 degrees yesterday, talk about whiplash. There was a brief but heavy downpour in the noon hour with more rain due in soon.