A song for you

  

 A song for you: The Lost Words Blessing

P.S.  And if you like that one, listen to: Thrift (Dig In, Dig In)

P.P.S.  With many thanks to the Spell Songs ensemble, Robert Macfarlane, Jackie Morris, and everyone else who made these recordings possible!

In the shadows?

 

 

Black-tipped Spiny Dorid nudibranch (Acanthodoris rhodoceras), Bodega Harbor, 28 January 2022.  (I like how the shadow emphasizes the "spiny" part of the name.)

Liquid and light

  

Still sorting through some wave photos.  Here's one that caught my eye...

Disappearing act?

Back in December, I was trying to photograph this fish in the low intertidal zone:

 

 

I turned my head for a second and when I looked back I couldn't find the fish again.  I started scanning the pool, and then I noticed a silvery green-blue color out of the corner of my eye:

 

 

 

Whoops!  The first fish had been caught by a second fish!

 

I could use some help with the identifications.  Any ideas?  I'm wondering if the first fish is a Topsmelt (Atherinops affinis).  The second fish appears to be a sculpin, but I'm not sure which species.  If you have any thoughts about either one, I'd be interested.

Colors in the drift

  

This one is from earlier in January.  I like the way the rainbow colors appear along the different sections of the wave.

Western horizon

Sometimes it's hard to choose...three views of the western horizon after sunset on 21 January 2022:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which one is your favorite?

 

At home

  

Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani) and California Mussels (Mytilus californianus).  Photographed at sunset on 17 January 2022.

Two of the same

  

Two different views of the same sunset, 17 January 2022

 

 

 

Tsunami surges

To document evidence of the tsunami yesterday, I took a few photos from the shoreline of Bodega Harbor.  Below I'll share a short time series, but before I do that I wanted to explain what you'll be seeing.  

I learned a lot from seeing the Tohoku tsunami in 2011.  It's easier to think about these effects not as one larger wave, but instead as a series of water level changes.  The water surges above the predicted tide height and then recedes below the predicted tide height, and this happens over and over and over again.  (In 2011 the effects were visible for at least 7 days.)  These changes in water level happen relatively quickly – e.g., rather than taking 6 hours to go from high tide to low tide, during the tsunami events we've experienced in 2011 and 2022 some of the water levels changed from the equivalent of high tide to low tide within 30 minutes!

So if the estimate for the Bodega Bay area was for the water level to change by 1.5 feet, then the water level would surge 1.5 feet above the predicted tide height and then recede 1.5 feet below the predicted tide height, and then the flow direction would change and the water would come in again and then go out again.  (In general, the water level deviations are greatest within the first day and then get smaller during the following days.)

Because waves in this area are large (often in the 5-8 foot range), it's actually harder to see the effects of a 1.5 foot water level change on the outer coast.  (Although there can be dangerous surges on sandy beaches.)  But the effects of the tsunami are much easier to see in Bodega Harbor during low tides because you can see the water flooding over the tidal flats and then receding and then flooding in again.  I'll admit, after spending most of my life around tides, it has felt somewhat surreal to me to see this happening!

So here's a time series of photos taken from the same site along Westshore Road.  There is a pink arrow pointing to a clump of algae for a visual landmark to judge the height of the water.  (Note that in these images the water flows in from the left and then recedes to the left.)

The first image was taken at 1:02 p.m. when the water level was relatively high:

 

Then the water receded and was very low within 15 minutes, the time of the second image at 1:17 p.m.:

 

Then suddenly the water started surging back in and it returned to the relatively high level within 7 minutes, by 1:24 p.m.:

After that the water receded again and stayed out for while (but it eventually came back in ~2:30 p.m. after I had left):

 

 

To make this a little easier to visualize, I've also annotated the water level graph from the tide gauge at Point Reyes.  The red line shows all of the water level changes above and below the predicted tide height associated with the tsunami.  I've put in pink arrows at the times that match the photos shown above:

 

 

Amazing to see the effects of the Tonga tsunami reaching Bodega Bay, ~5200 miles (8500 km) away.

P.S.  You can click on the images above and then move through the images faster to see the water level receding, flooding, and receding again.

Thinking about Tonga

 

 

Thinking about the people in Tonga today (15 January 2022).  There were tsunami pulses in Bodega Harbor throughout the day and higher than predicted waves along the outer coast.

 

P.S.  You can see the effects of the tsunami on local water levels on this NOAA web page showing data from the Point Reyes tide gauge.

 

Drift

 

 

Now that's spindrift!  

 

Photographed off the southern end of Bodega Head on 12 January 2022.

 

[You can click on the image for a larger version.]

 

One fin at a time

 

 

Well, they're not great photos, but it still seems worthwhile to share this Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) sighting from Bodega Head today (12 January 2022).  A few individuals swam by heading south at ~10 a.m. this morning.  

 

Larry mentioned others have been seen in the area recently, and Bill reported that a group was observed at Sea Ranch today, so it's worth keeping an eye out for them.

 

 

January sky

 

 

There have been some spectacular sunsets in Bodega Bay recently.  This one is from tonight, 11 January 2022.

 

Windswept

  

8 January 2022

Ringing in the new year

  

So cool to zoom in on these beautiful colors in a shelf fungus in our backyard!  (And what an amazing sweater pattern this would make!)

Here's a close-up:

 Photographed in Cotati on 9 January 2022.

Watchful

 

 

Watchful Surfbird (Calidris virgata), 8 January 2022 

 

[You can click on the image for a larger version.]

Just getting started

  

 Juvenile Winged Kelp (Alaria marginata), photographed on 2 Jannuary 2022.

Orange of my eye?

  

This sculpin's orange coloration was a perfect match with the nearby sponge (visible in the foreground)!  Photographed in the low intertidal zone on 3 January 2022.

Down jacket

  

Early morning light on a Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius).  I helped out with the Western Sonoma County Christmas Bird Count today (2 January 2022).  It was a chilly start to the day (patches of frost on Bodega Head) and this harrier's feathers were puffed up a bit.  A down jacket was a good idea this morning!

Blending in

  

A nice Cabezon (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) photographed by Eric back in early December.