From an offshore storm

  

The offshore buoy was reporting wave heights of ~22 feet earlier today (23 December 2024).  These were big waves, so I took a few photos for the record.  

Each photo has at least one gull in front of the wave for scale.  The gulls seem to love surfing the winds off these waves, which is fun to watch.  You can click on the images for larger versions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stormy conditions are going to continue for a while, so stay a safe distance away from these waves.

Frog weather

 

 

I'm running out of time tonight, but here's a couple of quick photos of a beautiful Red-legged Frog (Rana draytonii) that we came across in the road tonight.  It's certainly been good weather for frogs!

 

 

 

I hope everyone is staying safe during these storms!

Foam flurries

  

Recent weather forecasts have included a lot of different things  — scattered showers, gusty winds, elevated seas, flood advisories, thunderstorms, water spouts — but I don't think anyone mentioned foam flurries!  Strong winds and large waves conspired to launch pieces of foam skyward today (19 February 2024).

Here are a few wave photos, too.  Swell heights reached almost 20 feet:

 

Weathering the storm

  

A short story about a hummingbird and her nest.  Before the storm on 4 February 2024, I had photographed this Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) on a nest.  During the storm, I wondered how she was faring and if the nest would survive the storm.  I hadn't had a chance to go back until this past weekend, but here she is on 10 February 2024:

 

 

The nest made it just fine, and it looks like she might be incubating now.  [Anna's Hummingbirds generally lay two eggs, each ~12 mm (~0.5") long.]

Somewhat surprisingly, while I was walking towards this area I was listening for hummingbirds in case she had moved to a different location when I heard a hummingbird calling and followed it to a different nest location.  Then I checked the original site and found that nest intact, too.  So here's a second Anna's at a nest:

 

 

I love how the greens of the hummingbird feathers match the greens of the moss in the nest.

Storm waves

  

Swell heights at the offshore buoy reached 28 feet this morning.  

In photos, it's often hard to tell how large the waves are, but having birds in the photo can help.  

For scale, most of the gulls in these photos have wingspans in the 4-foot range (some a little less, some a little more).  Each photo has at least one gull.  [You can click on the images for larger and sharper versions.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although there have been storms with similar wave heights in this area in the past, the two storms this year (5 January 2023 and today) have felt different, with much more intensity.  Best to use extra caution!

Outer bands?

 

 

Interesting clouds to the east of Cotati last night (21 August 2023) at sunset.  I think these might have been some of the outer bands of tropical storm Hilary (or at least storm-influenced).

Rock fall

  

We've been busy with field surveys recently, but I wanted to share one photo illustrating the impacts of the intense storms in January this year.  We're currently visiting sites that we survey once per year, so we're just now gaining additional insight into the impacts from the winter storms.

This is one example of wave impacts to a rock wall causing it to fracture resulting in giant sharp-edged rocks filling a surge channel.  The clean gray angular rocks towards the middle of the photo are newly fallen off the wall to the left side of the channel.  (We estimate those rocks are ~5 feet tall.) 

Another reminder to be careful near bluff edges and coastal outcrops!

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.

The phalarope and the squall

  

The recent storms have blown some Red Phalaropes (Phalaropus fulicarius) close to shore.  I noticed a least a handful along the Bodega Harbor shoreline today (10 January 2023).

Here's another shot from the outer coast.  I was trying to photograph the waves and the sky, but it looks like there are two phalaropes in the photo, flying across the wave splash.  [You can click on the image for a sharper version.]

 

 

 

ADDENDUM (11 January 2023): Just for fun, I followed up on Peter's comment re: black-and-white photography and converted the phalarope image above to black and white:

 

Wind and waves

  

Another photo of the stormy conditions on 7 January 2023.  

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

Storm bird

 

 

I was doing some work on the coast today when some movement out my window caught my eye.  It was quite stormy and the light was dim, but I thought I could see a dark-winged bird with white flashes in the wings.  I haven't seen a jaeger so close to shore off Bodega Head, but sure enough, a jaeger was struggling in the wind and landed on the bluff!

Here's another quick shot for the record -- my first Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) on shore in Bodega Bay:

 

 

In this area jaegers are mostly found pretty far offshore, but with recent storm conditions, I can see why this one was sheltering on land:

 

 

Waves were in the 18-20 foot range this afternoon with winds at 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph.

 

Break in the storm

 

 

There were 20-30 foot swells at the coast today.  It's always hard to judge scale when looking at wave photos.  Can you find the two gulls in the photo above?  [You can click on the image for a larger version.]

 

And here's a different view:

 

 

 

 

Those are large waves!  While documenting some storm impacts, I came across a group of Black Oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) huddled together on the upper beach.  It looked like they were just trying to get some rest:

 

 

 

Although there's more rain on the way, when I returned to Cotati there was a break in the clouds and a rainbow spreading across the sky to the east:

 

 

 

Take care during these stormy conditions.  💗

Storm clouds on the horizon

 

 

 

There were incredibly dark clouds to the west as we drove home from work tonight, but the sun broke through here and there, highlighting the hills.  

The lighting was dramatic, so here are two more views.  All photographs were taken from Roblar Road on 10 May 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

Storm-driven

  

The buoy offshore of Point Reyes reported wave heights between 20-30 feet for most of the last 24 hours.  These photos were taken from Bodega Head this morning (25 October 2021).

As always, it's hard to judge the wave heights in photos without anything for scale.  Below, the Brown Pelicans help provide some perspective.  [Brown Pelicans have a wingspan of ~6.5 feet.]

 

 

 

Sometimes it's nice to see the backs of the waves as they roll by:

 

 

 

Storm swell

  

Pretty serious west swell today (22 October 2021) — the Point Reyes offshore buoy was reporting wave heights between 12-15 feet.

 

 

 

If you're at the coast this weekend, it's a good time to be aware of waves running far up the beach.  Be safe!

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.

Storm clouds at sunset

I was driving home from work and looked west at the lingering storm clouds when a flock of birds caught my eye.  I wasn't sure what they were at first, so I pulled over to look more closely.

Eventually I figured out that they were kites — a group of at least eight birds flying over the dunes.  Perhaps they were headed to a roost site somewhere? 

Kites in silhouette are attractive enough on their own, but with the stormy lighting, it was a dramatic scene:

 

 

P.S.  Looks like we received ~1 inch of rain in Bodega Bay today.

Enjoying the storm

 

It always seems like the gulls enjoy a good storm.  You'll often see them riding the updrafts along the bluffs.  Photographed on Bodega Head on 7 December 2019.  (We've received ~1.2" of rain on Bodega Head during the past 48 hours. The rainfall total since October 1st is ~5.1", but ~3.6" of that has fallen during the past week.)

Stormwatcher

At around 10:30 a.m. this morning (28 March 2019), we could see some serious dark clouds to the northwest:

 

Later, I checked the radar and this is what the NWS Bay Area radar showed at ~10:50 a.m.:

 

What did that look like on the ground?

I had walked out to take a photo of some of the weather instruments with the squall in the background.  This photo is from ~10:53 a.m.:

 

And here's a close-up of those dramatic clouds soon after:

 

There were a few lightning strikes in the distance and some thunder.  I didn't get a great photo, but since lightning is rare in Bodega Bay, here's one still shot pulled from a video clip:

 

I didn't know it at the time, but Alex took a picture of me taking a picture of the approaching storm.  Fun!

 

It started raining soon after this.  We received ~0.8 inches of rain during the day, bringing the rainfall year total in Bodega Bay to ~40 inches (103 cm).