Wind and water

  

A windy day along the Sonoma Coast, 2 May 2021

A windy start to May

  

Classic upwelling conditions along the Sonoma Coast today.  Winds blowing from the northwest at ~25 knots (30 mph).  This view is from up near Fort Ross on 1 May 2021.

Spring winds

  

Spring winds off Bodega Head, 7 April 2021

To the horizon

 

25-30 mph northwest winds and whitecaps as far as you can see.  Off Bodega Head on 5 June 2020.

 

Classic

 

We had some pretty classic spring upwelling conditions yesterday, with strong winds from the northwest.  Strong = 30 knots, with gusts to 40 knots (or 35 mph, with gusts to 45 mph).  

These are shots of the wind patterns on the waves off Bodega Head during the afternoon of 29 February 2020.

 

Blustery Day

Wow, was it windy today (20 April 2019)!  Northwest winds were blowing about 25-30 mph (20-25 knots) with gusts up to 40-45 mph (35-40 knots).  Spring conditions in Blow-dega Bay!

 

When it's "breezy" like this, sometimes birds will find shelter in Bodega Harbor.  Here are a couple of quick photos from when we were leaving work late in the day:

 

A distant flock of Bonaparte's Gulls (Chroicocephalus philadelphia) — mostly adults in breeding plumage — resting on the tidal flats.  We counted about 50 birds in the flock.

 

At least one Surfbird (Calidris virgata) feeding with Marbled Godwits along the mudflats at the north end of the harbor.  

Spring things

You know it's spring in Bodega Bay when — 

Large numbers of By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella) wash ashore:

 

At 7 a.m., the wind is already blowing 20-25 mph with higher gusts:

 

You're trying to do field work in the foam!

 

Hold on to your hat!

Red flag day

 

It might not look like it from the photo, but the wind has been howling during the past couple of days.  When this photo was taken, the wind was blowing ~25 knots with gusts to ~30 knots.  Whitecaps to the horizon tell the story.

A red flag day!

 

Springtime bubbles

I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at these colorful bubbles!  They seem to be at their best when there's a lot of foam during spring upwelling (=windy) conditions.  A few self-portaits below.  Same bubble, over a span of ~3 minutes.  Photographed 24 March 2018.

In gold:

 

In green:

 

In blue:

 

 

In purple:

 

 

Happy Spring!

 

Wind-sculpted

I love the wind-sculpted waves of late winter.  

The northwest winds are blowing hard enough in these conditions (~25 knots, with gusts to ~35 knots) that it's difficult to hold a camera steady. 

 

It's also very cold when it's this windy.  I did something funny yesterday.  I hardly ever need to wear gloves in Bodega Bay.  When I was taking these pictures, I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to put on my (fingerless) gloves."  But then I realized I already had them on!

 

 

 

Small craft advisory

 

Northwest winds were blowing ~30 mph (~25 knots) with gusts to ~40 mph (~35 knots) in Bodega Bay this afternoon.  Hold on!

Cool

 

Looking offshore from Bodega Head on 5 May 2017, when the wind was blowing from the northwest at ~25-30 knots.  

 

After several days of strong winds, the seawater temperature dropped to nearly 9°C (48.5°F) this morning.

Water views

 

Looking east across Bodega Harbor. The lighting this afternoon highlighted the different zones — mudflats (brown), eelgrass beds (dark blue), and the boat channel (light blue).

 

Looking northwest from Salmon Creek Beach.  Winds were blowing ~25 knots (~30 mph) in the early evening.  [Water temperatures reached ~10°C (~50°F) this morning.]

Leaning in

Whew!  It's been a windy week!  

That's not necessarily unusual at this time of year in Bodega Bay (sometimes known as "Blow-dega Bay").  

Yesterday northwest winds were blowing over 25 knots (30 mph) with higher gusts.

 

The wind was so strong that it made us wonder how far you could lean into it?  

Eric decided to give it a try:

 

I know it's hard to gauge the wind speed in this picture, but — Wow!   Although the wind only supported Eric at that angle for around 15 seconds, it was impressively strong wind, and I had trouble believing what I was seeing.

Okay, it was very windy, but it wasn't quite that windy.  We thought it would be funny to stage a photo like this.  Eric was actually leaning against a board that we later removed from the image using PhotoShop.  Did we fool anyone? 

Happy April Fools' Day!

 

Foamy photos

A few foamy photos from yesterday (18 February 2017).  It was windy enough that large pieces of foam were becoming airborne:

 

Can you find the "foam elephant" in the photo below?  :) 

 

As you can probably tell, many of these pieces were much larger than snowflakes:

 

Sometimes the foam was lifted high into the sky — who knows how far it traveled? 

 

P.S.  One of the dangers of trying to take pictures of flying foam is that sometimes your camera (or your face) is in the direct line of flight!  It's a funny experience because it's a bit scary to realize that a large flying object is headed towards you, but then you remember it's just foam, and you feel a gentle but noticeable "thwap"— and then the clump of bubbles breaks apart upon contact.

Northwest winds

 

If felt like spring today, with strong 20-25 knot northwest winds.

I'm guessing the swell was ~12-14 feet when I took this picture ~mid-day today (18 February 2017).

"Spiky Yoda"

While walking Salmon Creek Beach on two days earlier this month (2 April and 6 April 2016), we looked down to see a few of these distinctive gelatinous bits on the sand:

 

Although they looked somewhat similar to the nectophore (swimming bell) of a siphonophore that we found last year (see post about Hippopodius on 16 April 2015), they were also quite different in that they had prominent points (especially out to the sides) and abundant little "spines," making them look very spiky.

For scale, here's a photo with Eric's finger.  This nectophore was ~15 mm across.

 

To fully appreciate the gelatinous spines, here's a view under the microscope:

 

Meet Vogtia spinosa!  This is the first time we've found this species washed up on the beach.  Usually they live offshore and at depth (often 300-500 meters below the surface).

Unfortunately, I've had trouble finding pictures or diagrams of the entire animal.  I've read that Vogtia is arranged similarly to Hippopodius, so check out the diagram on my previous post to start visualizing what Vogtia might look like.  To clarify, what we found on the beach is a single nectophore — when the animal is whole, there might be up to 16 nectophores positioned next to each other along a central stem.   

I can't resist showing one more picture.  Below is the Vogtia nectophore on Eric's thumb.  For some reason, it's shape reminded me of Yoda, so before I identified this siphonophore to species, I casually called it the "Spiky Yoda" nectophore.  What do you think?  Do you see Yoda, too?  ;)

 

Gale warning

It's often windy in Bodega Bay, but today it was really windy.  I find it hard to capture such strong winds in a picture — it would be better if you could be here, trying to stand upright against 45 mph gusts.

 

Looking offshore from Bodega Head on 28 March 2016.  Northwest winds were blowing at 30 mph with 45 mph gusts.  West swell was ~10.5 feet.  Strong winds during the last week have dropped the water temperature down to ~10°C (50°F), but I wouldn't be surprised if it starts creeping up again once the winds let up later this week.

Foamy Friday

Strong winds and waves this week have created perfect conditions for foam:

 

I don't know why, but I'm fascinated by the conditions that create this thick foam, as well as the movement and structure of the foam. The foam is very dynamic as it interacts with the water surging through the channels.  And it's fun to look at the foam up-close — to see the details of the differently-sized bubbles and how the bubbles fit together, change position, and reflect light:

 

 

 

I haven't looked into this before, but it looks like there's quite a bit of research about the complicated behavior of bubble clusters (or the physics of foam).  See here for an example from UC Berkeley.

 

Silver seas

 

Mixed swell off Bodega Head on 30 March 2015.  Wave height ~11 feet, northwest winds ~18 knots (20 mph), with gusts to 25 knots (28 mph).