Spindrift and light

  

10-foot swell + 15-second wave period + an offshore breeze = a setup for spindrift! 

A few wave photos from this morning (12 January 2026).

 

 

 

 

 

A slow roll...

  

...into September!

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.

Blowing offshore

  

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!

  

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.

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:

 

Light in waves

  

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.]

 

 

 

 

 

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!

Wavelength?

  

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!

 

 

The swell today was ~12 feet, but wave heights will be increasing this week from an offshore storm near the California/Oregon border.  Stay safe out there!

 

Sea glass?

  

Waves like glass at Duxbury Beach, Massachusetts, on 12 December 2023

Nice combination

  

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.

Rain on the way

  

Rain on the way, 14 November 2023

A bit of swell

  

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.]

Waving in Lee

 

 

We enjoyed watching some of the wave energy from Hurricane Lee arriving today.  I think the nearby buoys were reporting wave heights of ~10 feet.  Waves of this size are common in Bodega Bay, CA, but it was fun to see them in Maine!  All photographs from Georgetown, Maine, on 15 September 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're in the Northeast, stay safe tomorrow!

 

In the zones

  

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.

Drift like this

  

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

Irresistible

  

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

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.

Towards shore

  

A wave shot from 12 January 2023.

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: