Tag Archives: Gualala Point Regional Park

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Rozanne Rapozo went to Gualala Point Regional Park on Saturday and photographed one of the big waves coming in.

Thanks to Rozanne for allowing me to share her photo with you here. Tomorrow I will end the year with some beautiful rainbow photos. I did see a rainbow this morning, always a gift.

The Pacific Ocean is roaring today. The storm has moved on and we have several days of dry weather. This week's storms brought 4.15 inches of rain at Rick's and my place in Anchor Bay. Season to date is 18.43 inches!

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Rozanne Rapozo was at Gualala Point Regional Park with several other coast photographers when they heard the angry calls of two Common Ravens. The ravens chased a Red-tailed Hawk off its roost and into the air. Rozanne was ready with her camera and captured some of the action as the ravens continued to try and bully the raven out of "their" area.

The hawk flew off, leaving the ravens victorious, at least this time.

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

Lots of rain blew in, more than predicted. 2.16 inches in my gauge from last night/this morning's drenching rain. A bit of a break this afternoon!

 

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From the storms that began Sunday morning through today, Wednesday, there is 6.35 inches in my rain gauge. Sometime during the night on Monday or early Tuesday, the Gualala River breached the big sandbar and the yearly ritual occurred. Today, Wednesday, I went to the river to check it out. It's runny muddy and strong!

Steelhead, who were trapped in luxury by the sandbar, were swept out to sea to begin their life in the saltwater. Now other steelhead will enter the river to spawn. It's wonderful to be able to watch this river. The first photo was taken from the Gualala Bluff Trail - there are Harbor Seal on the right side sandbar.  The second was taken from Gualala Point Regional Park. The town of Gualala is on the right.

What a series of storms - it just poured. We are lucky that this particular river doesn't have development in its floodplain. I was told the river was very high Monday morning.

Now we have clear weather predicted through Christmas. I'm looking forward to checking the seasonal creek that crosses Rick's and my land and looking for edible mushrooms!

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The last evening of August brought a beautiful full moon. It was the second full moon in the month, and thus called a Blue Moon. And it was also a Supermoon. Some of the coast’s best photographers were out to get their photos of this event. Rozanne Rapozo wrote, “ We relocated from Breakers Reach to Gualala Point Regional Park this time to photograph the last Supermoon until September of next year! The weather has been so uncooperative this year that this is the first time I’ve been out photographing at night in ages. Amazing to watch the moon rise above the ridge.” And shine through the Serge at the park!

Bill Oxford also got some great photos. He photographed the large moon framed by trees, and from the bluffs. He wrote, “I shot the Blue Moon at Shell Beach and my backyard in TSR on Wednesday. Had a great time on the bluff finding compositions until 2:00 a.m. I accidentally flushed out some sleeping Deer to their distain and my startled surprise. All good!”

You can see Bill’s series at his website, http://billoxfordphoto.com/bluemoonatthesearanch

Thanks to Rozanne and Bill for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

It was cool and foggy this morning, but the sun is breaking through. It doesn't seem to be as smoky today. So far, I haven't smelled smoke. We actually have rain in the forecast for Monday. Wouldn't it be terrific if it rained to our north and helped put out the fires?!

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The most common bumblebee seen here is the hard-working Yellow-faced Bumblebee, Bombus vosnesenskii. Judith Fisher saw one of these important pollinators gathering pollen on Lupine at Gualala Point Regional Park.

Judith’s photo shows that the Yellow-faced Bumblebee has a nice packet of orange pollen in one of her corbiculae,  aka pollen basket, which are grooves in her hind legs. Inside the corbiculae are specialized branched hairs called scopae.

I wondered which flowers provided her with orange pollen. The most likely suspects are the Lupine Judith observed the bumblebee feeding on, an obvious clue. Also California Poppies, which are blooming in abundance, offer orange pollen to our native pollinators.

It’s interesting and fun to know that the color of the pollen varies from flower to flower. Black pollen is rare, but I read Beekeepers always know when Oriental poppies are in flower, because homecoming bees are dusted with black pollen.

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

It's sunny and warm here today. Lots of visitors here, escaping the inland heat!