Tag Archives: Bob Van Syoc

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Bob Van Syoc noticed this small Star in a tide pool off of The Sea Ranch, a Rainbow Star.

Marilyn Green reported on the sighting. She wrote, "Amy and Bob counted hundreds of Abalones at low tide, including some small ones. All were very close to shore. We also saw many types of Sea Stars. There was one that Bob had never seen at Pebble Beach before!” Bob photographed a Rainbow Sea Star, which measures about four inches across. This is the first sighting of this Star that I've had in the 15 years I've been writing my nature column!

Thanks to Bob for allowing me to share his photo with you here and to Marilyn for sending in the sightings.

Our warm, dry weather is in the rear view window. Rain - actual wet stuff! - is predicted to later tonight into tomorrow. Hooray!

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A young, male Mountain Lion with a tracking collar was caught on camera walking along a path on The Sea Ranch on March 7th. Bob Van Syoc wrote, “I saw this young lion strolling by our garage. It was very relaxed with some sort of collar.”

This particular Mountain Lion, P14 or "Paul", was collared by Dr. Quinton Martins and the Living with Lions team in early January. Martins and his team are part of Audubon Canyon Ranch, a non-profit environmental organization. When the news of Bob’s sighting reached Dr. Martins, he rushed up the coast on Friday, as he had lost contact on Jan. 21 with P14’s tracking collar.

A cadre of coast residents helped him over the next three days finally track Paul. Dr. Martins was able to get a GPS download of this cougar’s movements, which showed he had traveled nearly 200 miles since January 7th. You can follow this story at www.egret.org.

Then on March 21st, Mitch Sugarman's motion detection camera videoed Paul at the top of Sunset Drive in Anchor Bay. You can watch the two videos below. Thanks to Bob and Mitch for allowing me to share the photo and videos with you here.

Paul is seen March 21, the collared mountain lion by Mitch Sugarman

Paul, the collared mountain lion by Mitch Sugarman

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Marilyn Green noticed Jellyfish washed up on the beach on Saturday. She wrote, “There were at least 50 on Pebble Beach on The Sea Ranch. Some were in the water and looked healthy to me!” I sent Marilyn’s photo to Robert Van Syoc and he identified it as a Moon Jelly, Aurelia aurita. Marilyn’s photo shows the four pink reproductive glands.

These Jellyfish are capable of very little motion and are dependent on where the tides take them. For the 50 or so on the beach, the tides took them the wrong way.

This third photo shows a Moon Jellyfish safe in the water.

Thanks to Marilyn for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

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Jackie Sones spotted this sand dollar washed up on the beach, with unusual Barnacles on it.

sand-dollar-with-rare-barnacles-paraconcavus-pacificus-by-jackie-sonesJackie has been finding a few sand dollars on beaches in Bodega Bay with red and white barnacles on them. With the help of barnacle experts Bill Newman and Bob Van Syoc, the barnacles were identified as Paraconcavus pacificus, a rare sighting of barnacles usually seen south of Monterey. Jackie thinks Manchester Beach has potential as a possible place to see them.

Jackie has a wonderful blog post showing how these barnacles were identified and you can read it at this link: http://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2016/09/unexpected-plate-appearance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNaturalHistoryOfBodegaHead+%28The+Natural+History+of+Bodega+Head%29

Thanks to Jackie for allowing me to share her photo with you here. Doug Forsell found a sand dollar with barnacles this past week at Manchester Beach and we are waiting for Bob Van Syoc to take a look at it. I will report back!

Absolutely stunning day here on the Mendonoma coast. It feels like a gift.