Gary Prochazka found an Ochre sea star in an unusual position. He wrote, “[Here’s a sea star playing] peekaboo from Walk On Beach at a recent low tide.” I’ve never seen a star in this position. Then it struck me – this star only has four arms.

I sent Gary’s photo to intertidal expert Bob Van Syoc. He wrote, “Very cool photo. Yes looks like a healthy four armed star!  Unusual and I would guess that it did lose an arm and healed but has not yet regenerated the lost arm. Love the infinity symbol!”

I also sent Gary's photo to Jennnifer Stock NOAA. She's the Education and Outreach Coordinator at Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. She forwarded Gary's photos to several experts there. I heard back from Julieta Gomez. She looked at Gary’s photo and wrote, “Sometimes they lose an arm and it just doesn't regrow or sometimes two grow instead. I've noticed it more in bat stars than ochre stars though, so this is a unique find!”

Here's what an ochre star usually looks like. This photo was taken by Allen Vinson. Ochre stars come in various colors!

Gary went back a week or so later and the unusual star was gone. It could well reappear so check your spots at low tide events.

Thanks to Gary and Allen for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

There's a big fog bank over the ocean and it's keeping it nice and cool here in Anchor Bay!

Ospreys are also busy catching fish for their offspring. Ron Bolander wrote, “I went to Walk On Beach [on Sea Ranch] to see if there were any shorebirds.  Aside from a few gulls, I saw this osprey actively searching and diving. His dives were interesting as, a few times,  he would pull up only a few feet from the surf. Twice, he dove into the water, but, missed his catch. Then, success!"

"He caught a beautiful striped surfperch. As the osprey flew away with its meal, the sun brought out the beautiful colors of the fish.”

Ospreys dive talons first into the water, attempting to snatch a fish. When successful, they maneuver the fish head first to give them an aerodynamic position.

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's excellent photography, here is the link to his flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27154511@N04/

Drippy fog this morning has given way to blue skies. It's breezy this afternoon too.

Peter Baye found several beautiful native wildflowers in bloom along the Gualala River recently. He wrote, “The tiny flowers of wild heliotrope are appearing on gray-green mounds of plants that regenerate from eroded roots in cobble-gravel bars each year. Some have beautiful contrasting darker purple centers. They also grow on the coast around some sandy lagoon shores and bluff seeps, but completely prostrate."

And one of the more uncommon riparian plants on the Gualala River is in bloom: wild licorice, Glycyrrhiza. It also follows stream orchids along bedrock and boulder banks upstream, in a few places. It has a sweet root, but no anise ‘licorice’ candy scent.”

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

It was foggy this morning but the sun broke through this afternoon. Temps in the low 60's. Lots of visitors to the coast this holiday weekend!

Happy Independence Day to those of us in the United States!

A walk along the Gualala River is certain to bring you great sightings and joy. Ron Bolander had discovered a group of willow trees, we think Sitka willows, that red-breasted sapsuckers were drilling holes – called wells – in the bark to get the sap. Other creatures then use these wells to feed, so the sapsuckers are important for the ecosystem. Ron invited Shari Goforth and me to take a hike with him on Saturday to see the show.

While walking on the cobbles by the river, we saw a tiny Sierran treefrog, normally colored emerald green, which was colored tan to match the stones. It was so well camouflaged that we kept losing sight of it.

When we came to the willow trees, we watched from a distance as a red-breasted sapsucker appeared, the male. Some minutes later the female arrived. Ron told us there must be a nest nearby. When the sapsuckers were gone, other birds moved in to feast, including Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds. A Wilson’s warbler stopped by, perhaps eating insects in the sap. Then several beautiful butterflies appeared, a satyr comma and a mourning cloak, and fed. It was quite wonderful to see.

The next day, Sunday, Ron returned to the same place and found two red-breasted sapsuckers on the willow trees, but this time one was a fledgling, perhaps just out of the nest!

A bonus photo from Shari of one of the adults flying straight at her.

Thanks to Ron and Shari for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Quite foggy here today, but sunny up on the ridge. Temps in the 60's. With those heat domes in the eastern part of the US and in Europe, we're not going to complain about the cooling fog.

Ben wrote, “I saw at least two Humpback Whales a ways out. They were feeding, swimming in circles, possibly bubble netting a bait ball. I was able to catch them by following the birds.”

There’s a good clue here – follow the birds. Brown Pelicans, Gulls and other birds will often be at the seafood buffet where the whales are feeding.

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

It's sunny today but very windy! No spotting whales this afternoon - the ocean is full of white caps!

Michael Reinhart recently got this great photo of a Spotted Towhee singing.

Can you hear it? Maybe this will help. Here's a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spotted_Towhee/sounds

Here's what Cornell says about this bird's call: "It lasts about 1.5 seconds. The song starts with one or two (up to eight) short introductory notes and then a fast trill that can sound like a taut rubber band being plucked, or a piece of paper stuck into a fan. Some Spotted Towhee songs have just the trill phrase only."

Thanks to Mike for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

It's warm and breezy today, with a big fog bank lurking over the ocean. Yes, we did have an earthquake on Wednesday morning. It was fairly mild here - two seconds of shaking. No damage except to our nerves!

Can you hear it?

Last Saturday, young Oly Perket saw fire in the blue sky. She wrote, “This was taken when Mom [Madeline Percet] and I were driving to Sebastopol.”

Oly photographed a beautiful atmospheric phenomenon called a circumhorizontal arc. They are often called fire rainbows, except they aren’t actual rainbows.  They are ice halos created when sunlight passes through high-altitude cirrus clouds.

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

Foggy morning, sunny afternoon with temps in the 60's. It's the last day of spring!

Kelly McLaughlin wrote, “I was heading south to Anchor Bay when I caught a glimpse of what I thought might be an eagle. So I turned the car around to go back and look…hoping I wouldn’t scare it off. I was impressed that it stuck around and then I realized it was eating!  This regal bird was dining on the west side of Highway One, about midway between Iverson and Signal Port Creek Rd.”

I think this might be the female Bald Eagle from the Gualala River area, and it looks like she caught a Cormorant for her meal.

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

We're having a foggy day here on the Mendonoma Coast.

There is an old Bottle Brush Tree at one of the houses at Mill Bend and hummingbirds love to feed on its nectar. Recently Rozanne Rapozo photographed one.

And here's another photo taken by Rozanne, where the Allen's is checking out a possible blossom.

To hear the calls of this hummingbird, here is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Allens_Hummingbird/sounds

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

It's downright hot this afternoon - well, hot for the Mendonoma Coast! It's reached into the 80's at Rick's and my place in Anchor Bay.

Michael Coustier wrote, "I recently did an impromptu bird walk with Karen Wilkinson and others around Sea Ranch looking for some nesting birds. We managed to find a nesting Western Gull, Black Oystercatcher, Cliff Swallows and Pelagic Cormorants.  We even had a special visitor from a Bald Eagle."

Thanks to Michael for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

It's been cloudy today, after a beautiful and sunny day on Sunday. There is a chance of rain tonight. June rain would be a blessing.

This is the time of year we usually see the first cute Gray Fox kits. Michael Tilles has a wood storage box that foxes have use before. Once again, he and his wife Janelle Streich are blessed with a Gray Fox family at their Sea Ranch place. Michael got this photo of the two kits that had been nursing.

There will be a photo of one of the kits in the Independent Coast Observer Community News this coming Friday. What? You do have a subscription? You could rectify that at the ICO's website: https://www.mendonoma.com/memberships.html

Thanks to Michael for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Foggy at the coastline, sunny on the ridge - a mild spring day on the Mendonoma Coast!

Artemis Robison has a good eye, as he spotted this small Anna's Hummingbird nest. The mother makes her nest out of lichen and spiderwebs, among other things, which allows the nest to expand as the chicks grow. Artemis got this photo of the three chicks.

I checked back with Artemis to see if they had fledged and he confirmed it. From the hatch of their eggs, it takes an average of 20 days until they fledge.

Anna's Hummingbirds are year round residents of the Mendonoma Coast!

Thanks to Artemis for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Very little wind today and lots of blue sky. Temps in the mid-70's at Rick's and my place in Anchor Bay.

Chas Higgins found a hummingbird that rarely is seen here. Could it have veered from its migratory path? He wrote, “I caught this hummingbird making a quick visit to my garden on the meadow at the north end of Sea Ranch"

"It wasn’t until this morning when I uploaded it to my laptop that I realized it wasn’t one of the Anna’s that usually visit us. I sent it to Diane who shared it with Tim Bray and they agree that it’s a Black-chinned hummingbird, not often seen on our coast. I hope the paper can reproduce the purple in the gorget that marks it as a Black-chinned.”

I meant to share this earlier but better late...well, you know!

Thanks to Chas for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Sunny and windy and cool here on the coast today!

A few weeks ago Craig Tooley photographed this sight of Cliff Swallows working on their new nests.

They fly several thousand miles to get here and then they immediately get to work building or rebuilding their nests of mud. By now the nests are complete and nesting is taking place. Soon hungry mouths will appear at the nest opening!

Cliff Swallows like to build nests together in a colony. They eat many insects every day!

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's photography, here is his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Today has been lovely. Warm on the ridge, breezy near the ocean, fog in some places - a beautiful late spring day on the Mendonoma Coast.

Two weeks ago was a great time for seeing Humpback Whales off the Mendonoma Coast.

Scott and Tree Mercer didn't have any sightings of mother/calf gray whales that week, but they were compensated with humpback sightings. Tree wrote, “Despite some challenging wind and fog conditions, humpback whales continue to be seen along our coast. This week, Scott and I documented 40 sightings  of humpbacks seen at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, Saunders Reef, and at Gerstle Cove. Seven additional humpbacks were seen by Shari Goforth at Ollie’s Straight, Gualala Point Island and off the beach at Gualala Point Regional Park. Many of these humpbacks displayed full and half breaching, tail lobbing, and taking long dives most likely to feed on anchovies.

We have also observed two foraging gray whales swimming both north and south along the peninsula at the Lighthouse. We continue to search for gray whale mothers with their calves which typically can be seen throughout the month of May and even into early June.”

Sara Bogard got a nice photo of a humpback whale tail lobbing while doing her weekly survey of harbor seals off the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula and surrounding areas.

She spotted 128 harbor seals of which 38 were pups.

Thanks to Sara for allowing me to share her photo with you here and thanks to the Mercers for their report.

Sunny and warm today, but there's a storm coming in tonight - hard to believe!

Terry Pfardresher found something we don’t see very often in her garden in Gualala. She wrote, “Any idea who this character is? Wings are too large for a bumblebee.” It’s a Snowberry Clearwing, Hemaris diffinis, a member of the Sphinx family.

Naturalist Laura Baker identified the diurnal moth. She wrote, “When the adults emerge (eclose), they have scales on their wings, but with a few shudders, the scales fall off, leaving the wings transparent and the moth resembling a bumblebee. Caterpillars feed mainly on snowberry and honeysuckle while adults nectar on a variety of plants.”

Mother Nature is simply amazing!

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

It's cool and windy, with clouds scudding by. It actually looks like we could get some sprinkles!

Kate Bloch has been able to watch and photograph several Harbor Seal births on beaches off The Sea Ranch. She also got this cute photo of a pup taking her first swim.

The little pup was sticking close to mom!

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

It's foggy and cool on the Mendonoma Coast today!

There was a feeling of magic in this night sky. On the night of May 18, the Moon and Venus had a celestial meetup, a conjunction. Jupiter seemed to be watching from higher up in the sky. The Moon and Venus in the sky made them appear close together, despite being millions of miles apart in space.

Mel Smith photographed this beautiful sight from his  home in Point Arena.

Thanks to Mel for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Yesterday it was very warm. Today temps are in the low 70's with just a little breeze. Heaven!

Marla Skibbins watched as a mated pair of Common Ravens preened each other near her home on The Sea Ranch. Then, one Raven took the other Raven's beak in his/her mouth!

I learned this is called a raven’s kiss or beak-fencing. It is a display of affection, pair bonding, and social bonding. This gentle behavior happens between life-long partners.

Marla was watching Raven love...sweet!

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

Wind, wind and more wind. It's sunny but the wind is pretty unrelenting. The ocean looks like a boiling pot of water with all the white caps. It would be nearly impossible to spot whales with this wind.

Harbor seals continue to be born off the Mendonoma Coast. Sara Bogard watched as this Harbor Seal mother encouraged her pup to climb a pretty steep rock.

I can almost hear the mom saying, "You can do it!"

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

It was foggy this morning, but the afternoon was sunny and breezy. Temps in the low 70's, really a beautiful day!