Tag Archives: Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula

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Sara Bogard was out at the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula when she saw this Ferruginous Hawk looking at her. She quickly got this photo.

A few of these hawks will overwinter here on the Mendonoma Coast and it's always a treat to see them. They will be leaving soon as their breeding season will be commencing soon. Here's a map by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that shows where they will be headed.

Thanks to Sara for allowing me to share her photo with you here. And thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for being so awesome. Their website is http://allaboutbirds.org They also created the Merlin Bird ID that lets you use a smartphone to listen to a bird's call. It then will ID it for you. I've been waiting for this app all my life! You can learn about it here: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ It's a free app, but you just might be inclined to hit the donate button on their website as a thank you.

oh boy, we had a lot of rain the past five days, five inches of the wet stuff. I'm at 48.10 inches season to date, a nice wet winter. Today is sunny and breezy.

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Sara Bogard saw this rare visitor to our coast off the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula. It's a Harlequin Duck.

When talking to each other, Harlequin Ducks make un-duck-like squeaks, which gives them another common name, Sea Mouse.

A week or so earlier, in the same area, Sara had watched while two Common Ravens attempted to chase off a Red-tailed Hawk.

Can't we all just get along?

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

Saturday's storm was suppose to be the smaller of the storms but it's really pouring here. 1.60 inches so far. Yikes!

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Shari Goforth-Eby was at the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula when she spotted some rippling on the ocean. It was the first clue Gray Whales were approaching. As she watched, the calf breached and then breached ten more times. Yes! Ten. More. Times!

I wish I had seen that. But fortunately for us, Shari got this great photo of one of the breaches. Thanks to Shari for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

This is the time to see Gray Whales mothers and calves, but we've had a lot of fog. Today was no different but the fog did recede in the afternoon.

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Sara Bogard was near the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula when she saw this Bald Eagle come in for a landing. Some kind of duck is in the water behind the big eagle.

Eric Zetterholm recently photographed a Bald Eagle at the Gualala River.

It's so wonderful that Bald Eagles have returned to the Mendonoma Coast!

Thanks to Sara and Eric for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Sunny and cool today, with more rain coming in overnight.

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I have two x-rated sightings for you. After all, it is Spring and love is in the air. Chris Pechal wrote, "Birds do it, bees do it, and apparently if you are lucky, you might see butterflies doing it. I ran across these Margined White Butterflies mating." Chris found these butterflies at The Sea Ranch, perched on a Foget-Me-Not blossom.

Sara Bogard photographed a pair of Black Oystercatchers mating on the bluffs of the Point Arena Lighthouse Peninsula.

While not actual mating, I did see a mating dance. Just after dawn on Tuesday, I saw a male Anna’s Hummingbird rise high in the sky, then plummet down, pulling up before he crash landed, then hovering in front of a tree, giving out a chirp that I’ve learned comes from his tail feathers. He was performing his mating dance to a female perched in the tree. As I watched, he performed his dance several more times. I hope she was as impressed as I was.

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

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy beautiful day on the Mendonoma Coast. More rain coming in tomorrow afternoon, Monday, according to the predictors!