Silver lining

 

 

Light near the western horizon, 28 March 2021

Near full

 

 

Near full moon photographed from Cotati on 27 March 2021.

Cup of gold

  

I've been working on some indoor projects recently, so here's a photo from the archives.  Since the spring flowers are starting to bloom, enjoy this golden California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica).  (This one was photographed in May 2011.)

The lily and the fly

 

 

Eric and I came across a nice patch of Death Camas or Fremont's Star Lily (Toxicoscordion fremontii, formerly Zigadenus fremontii) recently.  Eric wondered what might pollinate them.  I wasn't sure, but I had seen flies pollinating other lilies, so we started to look around.  

As we kneeled down for a closer view, we started noticing some small flies nestled among the petals of the lilies, and sometimes they'd rest out towards the tips:

 

  

With a zoomed in view, you could really see the pollen grains on the flies, especially on the thorax and the eyes:

 

 

Eric did a little research and narrowed down the identification to a group of hoverflies, perhaps in the genus Cheilosia.  These flies are sometimes referred to as "blacklets."  [If anyone knows more about these flies and can confirm the i.d., we'd appreciate any assistance.]

Here's another view, this time from the side.  It's fun to think about what a nice spot these flies have for feeding and resting as well as the assistance they provide to the lilies!

 

Chocolate bells

  

 

 Chocolate Lilies (Fritillaria affinis) photographed in Marin County on 21 March 2021

 

 

 

 

Cast ashore

Spring winds pushed some gelatinous animals on shore yesterday.  Here are some examples, shown in order from the animals we encountered most frequently to those that were less common during a walk on Salmon Creek Beach on 19 March 2021:

 

 

Giant Bell Jelly (Scrippsia pacifica)

 

 

 

By-the-wind Sailor (Velella velella) — most of these were small, only ~5-6 mm long

 

 

 

 

Nectophore of the siphonophore, Hippopodius hippopus

 

 

 

 

Comb jelly, or sea gooseberry (Pleurobrachia bachei)

 

 

 

 

Moon jelly (Aurelia sp.)

 

Soon to be spring

 

 

Soon to be spring along the Sonoma Coast, 19 March 2021

Flowers and fruit

  

On 15 March 2021, I was introducing a student to a few different wetland habitats.  When we walked by a salt marsh, I was a little surprised to see Seaside Arrow-grass (Triglochin maritima) in bloom already.  In fact, we were admiring some of the purple flowers when I noticed others that looked paler (see below) and realized that some plants were already past flowering and producing fruit!   

 

 

Many of the plants in local salt marshes flower later in the season, so we often botanize in salt marshes in June.  I haven't spent much time looking for flowering plants in this habitat during the late winter/early spring, so it's good to know that this species starts its season much earlier.

Some berries!

While eating breakfast this morning (16 March 2021), we noticed a lot of bird activity in the backyard.  A large flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) was flying back and forth between a tall tree and a short shrub in our neighbor's yard.  (I'm not sure what kind of shrub it is, but it's packed with large red berries right now.)

The angle of the sun in the backyard was wrong for a photo, so I went out into the front yard to see if there were any waxwings there.  I noticed a small flock at the top of an oak.  These birds were hidden among the leaves, but I tried to get a few shots.  One of them was preening its tail feathers by arching its tail over its back, a position I don't recall noticing before:

 

 

And then I heard the very loud whooshing sound of a large flock of birds taking off.  All of the waxwings in the backyard flew by me headed west.

 

I was impressed with how loud the sound was and knew that it might be a large flock of waxwings.  I took one quick photo of the flock.  If you'd like to try to estimate the numbers, here's an image without any markings.  [You can click on it for a larger version.]

 

 

 

To count the number of birds, I opened the photo in PowerPoint and put a colored dot on each bird.  I used a different color for each group of 20 birds.  So most of the colors below are an entire group of 20, but one color has fewer — the palest green at the bottom of the photo, which also includes the two outliers, one at the top and one at the right side of the photo.  This makes it easier to add up the total number of waxwings in the flock:

 

 

 

What is the total number of Cedar Waxwings in this flock?  I came up with 414!  And perhaps you noticed, but there's also a small flock of waxwings perched in the tree to the right of the palm, so an addition of eight birds = a total of 422 waxwings in this photo.  Amazing!  I can't recall seeing a flock of waxwings this large before.

 

Those must be some berries!  :)

 

Raven series

  

Wow, was it windy in Bodega Bay today!  Northwest winds at something like 20-30 knots with gusts to 35 knots (~25-35 mph with gusts to ~40 mph).  I stepped out to take a quick photo to document the conditions and came across this Common Raven (Corvus corvax) with its feathers being ruffled by the wind. 

The raven flew to a more sheltered location and seemed to express a little weariness, as people often do, too, in these blustery conditions:

 

 

And then a second raven approached.  The first raven bowed its head, a position usually taken for allopreening (when one raven preens the other during pair bonding):

 

 

The preening continued for several minutes, with work on feathers around the head, neck, and bill:

 

 

 

I can't resist including two more.  Lots of interesting reflections highlighting their beautiful feathers:

 

 

Springing ahead

  

 Footsteps-of-spring (Sanicula arctopoides), 7 March 2021

Surprise cephalopod

  

Yesterday (8 March 2021), Eric and I had to make a brief stop in Bodega Harbor (to look for a ribbon worm).  A family was nearby exploring the shoreline not too far away from us.  We could hear them talking about finding different animals like clams, snails, and sea squirts.  And then we heard one of them exclaim, "Octopus!"  

We paused our ribbon worm search and said a brief hello to the octopus that was walking across the mudflats and eelgrass towards the water.  We didn't expect to see an octopus that day, but were lucky when some fellow coastal adventurers spotted this wonderful cephalopod!

Shower curtains?

  

Rain showers falling to the horizon over the Pacific Ocean, 8 March 2021.

Rare reptile sighting

  

Last weekend, Jane kindly let us know that she had encountered a dead sea turtle on Salmon Creek Beach.  From the photo it appeared to be a Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta), and this identification was confirmed by staff at the California Academy of Sciences.  Sea turtles are rare this far north, so it was valuable to document the occurrence of this species in Bodega Bay.

Many thanks to Jane for the photos and to Moe at Cal Academy for the confirmation.

P.S. For more information about Loggerhead Turtles, check out this helpful web page put together by NOAA.

P.P.S.  Although sea turtle sightings in this area are rare, if you come across one you can report it to The Marine Mammal Center.

Before the rain

  

The ocean was a bit churned up today (5 March 2021) ahead of cold front that will bring some rain tonight.

Sand and surf

  

 Sanderlings (Calidris alba) over the surf zone at Salmon Creek Beach, 1 March 2021

Tiers of tentacles

And two more to wrap up this series illustrating color variation in the tentacles of the tubeworm, Spirobranchus spinosus:

 

 

 

 

Photographed in the Carmel area on 26 February 2021.

 

Golden spirals

  

Another in the tubeworm series — this one with beautiful golden stripes and blue tips!  Spirobranchus spinosus photographed in the Carmel area on 26 February 2021.

P.S.  Refer to first post called "Magic blue spiral" on 27 February 2021.