Such a long tail

  

Quick shot of a River Otter (Lontra canadensis) from 9 January 2023.  I especially like how you can see the length of the tail relative to the body.

Through the clouds

  

Bands of light at the horizon, 27 January 2023

Opening up

  

Footsteps-of-spring (Sanicula arctopoides) opening up on 25 January 2023.

Hanging out with Jupiter

 

 

Hanging out with Jupiter tonight.

 

 

 

Photographed from Cotati on 25 January 2023.

Crescent moon, Venus, and Saturn

 

 

Crescent moon, Venus, and Saturn at sunset on 23 January 2023.  [Venus is down and to the right of the moon, and Saturn is down and to the right of, but fairly close to, Venus.  Saturn is likely too faint to see in this photo, but see below for orientation.]

Sheared off

 

 

It's been a couple of weeks since the significant wave event during the early January storms, but I've been working on a small side project to document some of the storm impacts on Bodega Head.  

 

At the offshore buoy maximum recorded swell heights reached ~31 feet during the early morning of 5 January 2023.  Impressively, there were sustained swell heights of over 25 feet for at least 5 hours that day (coincident with a high tide), and swells over 20 feet continued for at least 24 hours.  These powerful waves sheared off many pieces of rock from the bluffs on Bodega Head.  Here's one example from a site that is ~30-40 feet above sea level.  The smoother, somewhat orange-colored rock is the new rock surface exposed after the storms.

Mid-morning flight

 

 

 

A couple of views of a Northern Harrier from 16 January 2023.