Passing rainbow

 

 

No photos today, but here's one from yesterday.  A very bright rainbow in a passing shower to the east at the end of the day (27 February 2023).  The weather has certainly been dynamic lately!

Hail on the way

  

Dark clouds to the west, headed our way.  A couple of these passing squalls brought hail to Bodega Head today (27 February 2023).   Here's a short video clip.  [If you're reading this in an e-mail and can't see the video player, click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH web page.]

 

A sea of color

  

The skies turned quite dark yesterday morning (24 February 2023), so I stepped outside to see what was happening.  When a rainbow appeared over the ocean to the north, I was glad I had a camera with me!

Snow Day

This morning (24 February 2023) we decided to take a look at Sonoma Mountain from a distance...if there was snow up there, then we'd drive up for a brief visit with the snow before work. 

Snow is rare in western Sonoma County, so this morning was pretty exciting.  I think you'll be able to tell from my voice!  

Here's a quick video showing the snowy scene.  Sonoma Mountain is ~2400 feet high, and we were a bit below the peak, so probably at ~2000 feet.

Enjoy!

[P.S.  The sounds starts about 20 seconds in.  Also, if you can't see the video player in an e-mail message, click on the title of the post to see the video on the NHBH web page.]

Winter white

  

When we first moved here ~19 years ago, there was a brief but beautiful snowfall.  At the time we didn't know the area very well yet, but we drove around and ended up on Joy Road where there was snow on the redwoods.  I've always wanted to see it again, so this morning I drove Joy Road on my way to work.  There wasn't a lot of snow, but there was a little here and there.  (I'm not totally sure whether it was snow or graupel, but the visual effect was similar.)  Will there be more tomorrow?

A little further down the road, I noticed a Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum) in flower.  A different kind of white!

 

 

Southbound

  

 

Sheets of rain at the horizon on 22 February 2023 

 

 

 

Silver sliver

  

 Crescent moon from Cotati on 21 February 2023.

Golden-fronted and golden-bellied

 

 

I encountered a small flock of Bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus) in a willow thicket in the late afternoon today (20 February 2023).  They were so covered in pollen that at first glance I thought they might be warblers!

 

Here's another individual:

 

 

 

 

And the Bushtits weren't the only ones — here's a Chestnut-backed Chickadee (Poecile rufescens) dusted with so much pollen that its belly is golden:

 

 

 

Little pearl

 

 

Pear Marginella (Granulina margaritula), a very small marine snail —  the shell is only ~2-3 mm long.  Photographed in the low intertidal zone on 18 February 2023.

 

I posted a short video clip of this species several years ago, so if you'd like to see this snail in action, see "Shield up" from 6 December 2015.

 

Birdie or...

...an eagle...or both?

 

 

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in Bodega Bay on 16 February 2023.

P.S.  Okay, so I was playing off golf terms with the title and intro to this post, and I don't play golf myself, so I thought I'd double-check the definitions of a birdie vs. an eagle, and I was surprised to learn that there are two other golf scores with bird names!  Sounds like they're quite rare, so if you ever score an albatross or a condor, you'll be in the history books!  https://www.pga.com/story/odds-of-a-hole-in-one-albatross-condor-and-golfs-unlikely-shots

Currently in flower

  

Red-flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum) photographed on 11 February 2023.

P.S.  Other Ribes species are sometimes called gooseberries. There's a fun resemblance between their fruit and the "sea gooseberry" (a ctenophore, or comb jelly).  See for yourself in one of my earliest NHBH posts back in 2012 -- "A two gooseberry day".

In the lee

  

Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) at sunset in Bodega Harbor, 13 February 2023.

At the top of the pine

 

 

A bit in the shadows, but a nice adult Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) across the street from our house in Cotati on 12 February 2023.  I heard the hawk calling, but this is a large pine, so it took me a while before I located it near the very top of the tree.

In the willows

  

A distant shot, but nice to see an Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) in the willows in the Bodega Dunes today (11 February 2023).  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

The little builder

  

In between appointments in Santa Rosa today, I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird flying towards a tree and then disappearing.  At first I wasn't sure where it went, but then I realized something was going on.  The hummingbird wasn't sitting on an exposed branch, but it was hunkered down in a small fork, where it was building a nest!

She kept flying away and returning with different nest materials.  Above, perhaps some fluff from a willow?  Below, a piece of moss:

 

 

And then she would spend quite a bit of time tucking in the materials:

 

 

Sometimes she would use her belly and wiggle around to smooth and shape the base of the nest:

 

 

 

Other times she would pause and sit very still:

 

 

 

I was very thankful for a visit with this little Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna).  Watching her make her nest made my day!

 

Listening

  

Longer story, but I haven't been able to take many photos lately.  So tonight I went back into the archives and came across this photo from 4 February 2013.  The distinctive silhouette of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), along with some views of its beautiful feathers.  This is a good time of year to hear Great Horned Owls, so listen carefully for their deep hoots during these cold, clear nights and mornings.

Drift like this

  

Hard to resist spindrift like this.  Photographed on 1 February 2023.

Ferocious

 

 

Whoa, now that's an impressive set of teeth!

 

Stephanie photographed this Longnose Lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox) washed ashore at Dillon Beach today (2 February 2023).   

 

And here's the entire fish:

 

 

 

This is a deep water species that occasionally washes ashore.

I like this description from Deep-water Fishes of California (Fitch and Lavenberg 1968):

 

"Although the barracuda-like body topped with a sailfish-like fin distinguishes the lancetfish from all other denizens of the deep, the longnose lancetfish received its common name from its lancetlike fangs."

 

[In case you're wondering, the dorsal fin is folded down in the photo, so it is not visible.]

 

Also:

 

"One of the most interesting features of the lancetfish is its voracious appetite.  In spite of their impressive dentures, lancetfish seldom mutilate their prey, the fishes and other creatures found in their stomachs are usually in near-perfect condition.  Many descriptions of new (to science) fish, octopus, and squid species have been based upon items found in lancetfish stomachs."

P.S.  The scientific name is informative — "Alepisaurus" means scale-less and lizard-like, while "ferox" means ferocious.  Watch out!

Irresistible

  

Ahh...such nice clean waves...not even the sea lions could resist dropping in!