Hazy skies

 

The Moon through smoke-filled skies on 30 August 2020.  Here's hoping for a clearer view of the full moon on September 1st!

Mint condition

 

Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus)

nectaring on mint flowers in our backyard, 30 August 2020

 

At the creek

Adrian posted some nice shorebird sightings from Salmon Creek last night, so I went for a short walk there this morning (29 August 2020).

A few examples:

 

 Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii) trying to land in a patch of Ditch-grass (Ruppia maritima)

 

Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) on the opposite shoreline

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) preening in the creek

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) feeding near shore

Falcon express

 

Dim light, but nice views of a young Peregrine Falcon tonight (28 August 2020) when leaving work.

 

Heading north

We took a quick look offshore before leaving the coast tonight (27 August 2020) and Eric spotted large flocks of Sooty Shearwaters (Ardenna grisea) close to shore and heading north.  

There were thousands of birds streaming by.  Here's a series moving closer with each view.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]
 

 

 

 

 

 

The things she carries

Check it out!  When sorting through some low intertidal samples looking for ribbon worms, Maddy spotted this tiny polychaete worm.  It was only ~2 mm long, and it was brooding embryos along its back!

For orientation, look for the red eyes at the anterior end.

Before this, we hadn't known that some marine worms use this life history strategy.  (It reminded me of the frogs that brood embryos on their backs.)  The embryos undergo direct development, i.e., they'll continue to develop on their mother's back until they're tiny juvenile worms.

Meet Salvatoria sp.!

 

Many thanks to Maddy for spotting this fascinating worm, to Eric for taking photos, and to Leslie for help with the identification.

Ruff around the edges

Last night I heard that Dea found a Ruff (Calidris pugnax) near the entrance pond at Doran Beach.  Ruffs are rare migrants in Sonoma County.  They typically breed in northern Eurasia and winter mainly in Africa.  So when I went to the post office today (25 August 2020), I swung by to see if it was still around.  Luckily, it was!

Here's a series of photos.  This juvenile Ruff spent most of its time feeding in shallow salt marsh pools, but it paused a few times to preen and rest.

Check out the beautiful buffy edges to the feathers:

 

 

Sometimes Ruffs walk in a very upright position:

 

 

Although it was feeding in the pools a lot (probing in the water), it also spent some time in the pickleweed along the edges of the pools:

 

 

I didn't get a great photo of the Ruff in flight, but when it was preening you could see hints of the white U-shaped band on the rump (at the base of the tail feathers):

 

There were quite a few Red-necked Phalaropes (Phalaropus lobatus) feeding in the same pools, so here's one shot with the Ruff and a phalarope in the background:

 

 

I think I first wrote about Ruffs in 2012, so to learn more about them check out the post called "Ruff day at the beach" from 30 April 2012.

Many thanks to Dea for spotting this bird and spreading the word!

 

Another tiger

Back on 15 August 2020, I posted some photos of Hairy-necked Tiger Beetles (Cicindela hirticollis) from Point Reyes.  Here's another picture from that day:

 

Recently, I was sorting through some photos taken a week earlier (8 August 2020) from the same beach, but the beetles I photographed that day looked different.

Below is an example from 8 August 2020.  Compare the patterning on the wing covers between the beetle above and the beetle below:

 

Did you notice how the first beetle has much more extensive markings?  Each of the areas — the shoulder (closer to the neck), the middle (the marking that looks a bit like a musical eighth note), and the tail end are more robust in the first beetle.  Note especially that along the edge of the wing cover, the middle marking extends both forward and backward creating a line along the margin.

I'm guessing the second beetle is a Western Tiger Beetle (Cicindela oregona).  I don't encounter tiger beetles as often in the Bodega Head area, so I hadn't realized these two species could co-occur.  It's always informative to look closely!

P.S.  Thank you, firefighters, for working so tirelessly in our behalf!

Two nights

Last night (21 August 2020), a crescent moon in a smoky sky:

 

Tonight (22 August 2020), terns on the tidal flats in Bodega Harbor: 

 

 

 

In turn, a group of five Elegant Terns (Thalasseus elegans); next, two Elegant Terns and two Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia); last, close-up of a Caspian Tern with fish (can you help with the fish i.d.?) caught near the Spud Point Marina.

Light levels

 

Ocean and sky off Bodega Head on 21 August 2020

 

For a moment

One of the reasons I'm maintaining this blog is to serve as an archive, to leave a record of local species and natural events that other people can refer to in the future.  But I'll admit, during the last few days I haven't felt like taking photos of the smoky scenes surrounding us.  And I feel awful for everyone who's having a hard time right now.  So here's a photo to try to bring you to a different place, if even for a moment.  [You can click on it for a larger version.]

 

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), Drakes Estero, 8 August 2020

 

Rolling along

There was some really interesting weather and cloud formations at the coast today (17 August 2020).  I'm running out of time tonight, but I can't help sharing a few images before heading for bed.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

Who knew there was a volcano offshore of Bodega Head?  ;)

 

And some amazing curves (same formation as previous image, just a little later as it moved closer to us):

 

I'm wondering if we saw a couple of roll clouds today?  This cloud extended for miles along the coast!

 

These clouds were moving quickly to the north, but also east.  Here's one approaching us just before it passed over our heads (and we felt the winds along with it!):

 

Pretty wild.

Morning light show

I'm guessing that many of you woke up this morning (16 August 2020) to the intense thunder and lightning storm across the Bay Area.  It was one of the most amazing lightning storms I've ever experienced.  It was so incredible that it was hard to do anything other than watch and listen, but Eric and I managed a couple of rough recordings.  

Eric captured these video clips with a point-and-shoot camera just outside our front door in Cotati.  The video is ~30 seconds long, so be sure to watch through the dark sections (there are lightning flashes at 1 second, 10 seconds, 18 seconds, and 28 seconds).  [If you can't see the video player in your e-mail, click on the title of the post above to go to the NHBH website.]

 

I recorded some audio examples of the thunder.  The lightning was really the show-stopper during this storm, and I realized later that I sometimes exclaimed during some of the recording.  Oh, well!  Perhaps it reveals the intensity of the storm.  

Three audio examples below.  Listen with headphones if you can.  You might need to turn up the volume of your speakers.  [If you can't see the audio files below, click on the title of this post to go to the NHBH website.]

Audio example 1 (includes two episodes of thunder):

nhbh · thunder1 sones 16aug2020

Audio example 2:

nhbh · thunder2 sones 16aug2020

Audio example 3:

nhbh · thunder3 sones 16aug2020

Across the hot sand

It was so hot today that we made our way to the coast for a swim.  On our walk along the beach, there were an impressive number of tiger beetles.  

Some of the beetles were hot, too, as you can see by their behavior — standing on tiptoes to avoid the hot sand:

 

Identifying different tiger beetles means getting a look at the markings on their backs (wing covers).  Note that this species is very well marked — at the shoulder (close to the neck), along the margin, in the middle, and at the tail end.  Here's a beetle on the open sand, and a second feeding along the wrack line:

 

 

We also saw quite a few mated pairs:

 

I haven't been lucky enough to see too many species of tiger beetles in California yet, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I think these are Hairy-necked Tiger Beetles (Cicindela hirticollis).  [If you think otherwise, feel free to let me know!]  Photographed near Drake's Estero on 15 August 2020.

Resting on the fence

 

A juvenile Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) spent some time resting and preening on our fence yesterday.  

Note the pale edges to feathers, giving it a scaly appearance. (It's also less colorful around the face than an adult would be.)

 

Taking notice

Eric noticed this small jumping spider on his T-shirt, so we went out in the backyard for a photo:

 

It was an excellent jumper, so before we knew it, the spider ended up on my jacket and started looking around: 

 

This juvenile Red-backed Jumping Spider (Phidippus johnsoni) seemed to be taking notice of everything:

 

What eyes!  What a face!  What a "hair-do"!  

Expert craftsmanship

I was sitting in my office, the phone rang, and I heard Eric say, "You have to come see this."  So off I went to where Eric was looking through a microscope.  This was my first view:

 

Huh?  What is going on?  I knew these animals had been collected from an intertidal area with surfgrass, but they looked like caddisflies from streams! 

Maddy had spotted these tiny crustaceans walking around in the most beautiful, perfectly cylindrical tubes.  For scale, this tube was only ~5 mm long and ~1 mm in diameter. 

Below are two more views.  You can see the wonderful antennae, bright orange with clear tips.  I eventually figured out that these are tube-dwelling amphipods. 

 

 

The amphipods would sometimes start to emerge from the tube, revealing a little more of their elongated bodies, but they never left the tubes completely.  The amphipods could reverse direction and emerge from the opposite end of their tube, and Eric noticed that they could attach the tube to an object (like a seagrass blade) with a strand of silk.

 

I was fascinated by the expertly crafted tubes.  What were they made of?  (Could it be material from surfgrass roots?)  How did the amphipods make the tubes?  The stripes on the tubes seemed so regular that it didn't seem like they were unprocessed bits of debris stuck together, but could they have been "woven" by the amphipod?  And what happens when the amphipods need to molt to grow?  How do males and females mate?  

Here's a close-up of one of the tubes:

 

It's been a little bit of a windy road trying to identify which species of amphipod this is.  Spending some time with the Light & Smith Manual, I wondered if they could be a species of Cerapus.  However, I found a newer document online that makes it seem like there has been some taxonomic confusion in this group and they now might be considered an undescribed species of Notopoma.  I'll need to consult with some experts, and we are eager to figure out more about the identity and biology of these amphipods, so stay tuned.  

All these years looking at intertidal marine invertebrates, and I had no idea there were these amazing little tube-dwelling amphipods wandering around in surfgrass beds.  I suppose that shouldn't be surprising, but it's so awesome when you realize that there's an endless amount to discover in our own backyards!

This amphipod is brought to you thanks to Maddy's sharp eyes and to Eric's skill with the microscope camera.  I'm so thankful to have been introduced to such a cool critter!