Tag Archives: Manchester State Park

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Peter Baye was at Manchester State Park when he saw this plant, Dodder, Cuscuta.

Dodder, a parasitic plant, growing on Gumplant by Peter Baye

Dodder is the orange and beige string-like plant. It is parasitic and it has attached itself to a Gumplant, the green leaves in the photo. In the next photo you can see the little pegs on its bright-orange leafless thread-like stems. Peter tells me it inserts these into its host's leaves to obtain water and nutrients.

A stem of Dodder inserting itself into Gumplant by Peter Baye

It's blooming very early this year. Dodder has vanilla-scented flowers and is in the morning glory family.

Peter also found a half-parasite plant, a rare dune variety of Purple Owl's clover, Castilleja exerta subsp. latifolia.

Rare dune variety of Purple Owl's-clover, Castilleja exserta latifolia, by Peter Baye

Peter says it taps into dune sage's roots. There was obviously enough rain in early winter for it to grow.

Thanks to Peter for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

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Bettye Winters photographs sunset near Manchester State Park. One she took recently looks like a hot air balloon.

 Below is a recent October sunset. The sky sometimes glows orange for over a half hour.

Sunset watching - and photographing - is a Coast tradition. Thanks to Bettye for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

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There is always something to see when you explore Manchester State Park. You will find five miles of a huge crescent beach, which ends to the south at the Point Arena Lighthouse. Bettye Winters explores the north end, which is just south of Irish Beach. She shared some recent sightings.

Plovers and Sandpipers feed and rest in Bettye's photo below. You'll also see the white caps on the Pacific Ocean. Yes, it can be very windy here on the Coast in the spring.

Below is Hunter with his stick of the day. You can see the beach is deserted. You can often have the entire beach to yourself here. There is a section of this beach that has nesting Snowy Plovers. Dogs, even on leash, are not allowed in that area.

 Can you spot the hiding Sierran Treefrog in this piece of driftwood? Just its head is peeking out the crack.

And here is a "mushroom" sunset. Just beautiful...

Thanks to Bettye for allowing me to share her photographs with you here. To learn more about Manchester State Park, here is the link: http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=437

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Bettye Winters was walking with her dog, Hunter, when she came across this large group of Whimbrels feeding and resting on the beach at Manchester State Park.

Whimbrels have incredibly long migrations. Some actually migrate 2,500 miles, from southern Canada to South America.

To hear their call, here's a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whimbrel/sounds

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

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On a recent visit to the northern portion of Manchester State Park, Rick and I found quite a few Yellow Sand Verbenas blooming. But near a lagoon we found a small colony of Pink Sand Verbenas, a rare plant. Its Latin name is Abronia umbellata, subspecies breviflora.

Peter Baye identified this sand-loving plant for me. He also took the close-up photo above.