Duxbury Reef

 

Tiny Shag Rug Nudibranch at Duxbury Reef

When you see pictures of sea slugs like the one above, you can be forgiven for thinking they are fairly large animals. This one was probably no more than five-eighths of an inch long (~15mm). They do get bigger, but it seemed like the junior models were the main ones I saw in this and a couple other species.

The -1.7' low tide on Wednesday landed just a few minutes after sunrise. It's been a while since I've been to Duxbury Reef, so I put it in Google Maps, thinking I might need help finding it if it was still dark when I got there. Unfortunately, the directions took me to a useless overlook on a dirt road. I'd forgotten that the destination to the parking area needs to be entered as Agate Beach in Bolinas.

Tidepooling conditions were very good, with no fog and minimal wind. I was cold the entire time, though. I'd left my jacket in the car, thinking the sun would come up and the jacket would just be in the way. I was on the reef at sunrise, which was 6 a.m., but the sun didn't rise high enough over the mesa to warm the reef until two hours later.

On the way home I stopped for a while to watch the bird life at Bolinas Lagoon, then made a quick stop at Rock Spring on Mt. Tam to hike out to the trail cams. One of them is still not working, even though it does power up. Might need to buy replacements, and I'll probably go with an older name brand. The newcomers I've been using have been a disappointment.

Mossy Chiton (Mopalia muscosa) & Limpet

Wentletrap Sea Snail (Epitonium sp.)

Sunburst Anemone (Anthopleura sola)

Possibly a Shag Rug Nudibranch (Aeolidia loui)

Rising Shaggy

Northern Kelp Crab (Pugettia producta)

San Diego Dorid (Diaulula sandiegensis)

Showing off its gill bouquet.

Can't resist a clean sunburst anemone (especially since I didn't see a single sea star of any kind out there).

Striped Shore Crab & Friends

Opalescent Nudibranch (Hermissenda opalescens)

Opalescent on the Move

Striped Shore Crab (Pachygrapsus crassipes)

Olive's Aeolid (Anteaeolidiella oliviae)

Lined Chiton (Tonicella sp.)

Hilton's Aeolid (Phidiana hiltoni)

Hilton on the Move

Baby Opalescent Nudibranch

Baby Hilton's Nudibranch

Mossy Chiton

Plainfin Midshipman (Porichthys notatus)

A large flock of (elegant?) terns was gathered on the mudflats of Bolinas Lagoon during low tide. Something spooked them into the air a couple of times.

Most of the shorebirds were too far out to photograph, but this long-billed curlew was just close enough to observe for a while.

After preening and stretching, it eventually began to hunt. Here the curlew is trying to extricate a crab from the algae it's clinging to.

Success for the curlew; not so much for the crab.

A snowy egret winged past but landed kind of far away.

Wingbeats

I pulled over to check out a couple groups of napping harbor seals when this great egret waded into view and quickly made a stab.

Success

Harbor Seals on a Lazy Morning

Cormorants and gulls were hanging out near a second group of harbor seals that was farther from shore.

My trail cams on Mt. Tam recently caught a raccoon eating honeycomb, which I believe came from this wasp nest on a nearby log. It appears the wasps are rebuilding. The nearby pool of water where my cams are is no longer flowing at all. Not sure how long the pool will last.

Cool Clouds Over Mt. Shasta

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Monsoon Season

Sunset with Monsoon Clouds

San Francisco was right along the edge of a monsoon cloud-train yesterday. The train blew out the fog and put on an awe-inspiring show. My wife and I were in the middle of watching an excellent documentary, Georgia O'Keeffe: The Brightness of Light, as the time for sunset approached. We put the show on hold as I biked over to Grandview Park with my camera, feeling inspired by O'Keeffe's spirit of relating to light and landscape. 

[UPDATE: More from the next day's sunset at the bottom.]

We got home from dinner at Wildseed just in time to head over to Grandview Park for another gorgeous Monday sunset.

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Noise Makers

 

Red-masked Parakeet in Live Oak, Golden Gate Heights

I was out back enjoying some rare sunshine and contemplating my neighbor's oak tree when a flock of noisy parrots descended into its branches. My neighbor, Jake Sigg, planted the tree from an acorn nearly sixty years ago, when he was a young gardener in Golden Gate Park. Jake passed away last month, several days after celebrating his 99th birthday. Hopefully his oak will enjoy such a long life, and more.

In his brief autobiography, Notes on a Long Life, Jake wrote, "The principal focus of my life in retirement is the protection of natural ecosystems. When I was the gardener for the California native section of Strybing Arboretum I wasn't aware of the value of native plants.... I now rail at what I call our biologically illiterate society, which included me." Jake joined the California Native Plant Society, became president of the local chapter, and made righteous noise on behalf of natural ecosystems for the rest of his life.

Jake's oak towers above a yard filled with smaller native plants such as coffeeberry, sea spray, cow parsnip, red-flowering currant, wild cucumber, and pipevine, but also includes a couple of ornamentals.

Parakeets dig it, as do crows, squirrels, hummingbirds, juncos, chickadees, bushtits, Townsend's warblers, and the occasional red-shouldered and cooper's hawks.

One of the ornamentals is a fuchsia vine that attracts hummingbirds.

The parakeets can make a lot of noise as they keep in touch with far-flung members of the neighborhood flock. When near and far cohorts engage in call-and-response, I can only wonder what they are communicating.

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