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.
Not sure about you, but I was a little surprised by the strength of the wind this morning. I think the prediction was for ~6 mph, but it was more like 18 mph with gusts to 28 mph. And it was from the east or east-northeast (blowing offshore), so it created some interesting foam line patterns perpendicular to the shore.
Conditions were also good for clean waves and spindrift:
Happy Earth Day!
Most of our recent photos our from Hawai'i, so here's one from the north shore of O'ahu to help celebrate our amazing planet.
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:
The waves were still sizable at the coast today, with swell in the 14-17 foot range. And I didn't expect it based on the forecast, but the sun was out for most of the day, leading to some beautiful colors in the water, especially in contrast to the breaking waves and spindrift. Enjoy! [You can click on the images for larger versions.]
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.]
Some nice waves off the outer beach of Point Reyes this morning (26 December 2023).
At times the sun angle was just right to light up the spindrift!
These waves weren't that big, but the angle of light and the wind direction combined to produce some nice colors in the spindrift. Photographed 27 November 2023.
A bit of wave splash today (19 October 2023). The offshore buoy was reporting ~11 foot swell late in the day.
For scale, that's a Brown Pelican perched on the bluff in the upper right corner of the photo. [You can click on the image for a larger version.]
This morning (24 April 2023) we were finishing some surveys at a site with lots of wave splash. In this case that means the intertidal zonation is clearly demarcated and the zones extend very high on the rocks.
For example, on the left, the brownish coloration is made up of seaweeds (primarily Pyropia and Pelvetiopsis), the dark blue areas are California Mussels (Mytilus californianus), and below that is a band of surfgrass (Phyllospadix scouleri) and coralline algae (some of it is bleached, likely by warm or desiccating conditions, so it's paler than usual).
In this view there was also a nice flock of Surfbirds (Calidris virgata) foraging in the zone above the mussels.
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.]
Another photo of the stormy conditions on 7 January 2023.
[You can click on the image for a larger version.]
Here's another quick shot for the record -- my first Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus) on shore in Bodega Bay:
