Recent Sightings

Another glorious day with excellent visibility at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula.  The wind did increase in speed as the day progressed.

🌊 16 humpback whales – three groups of two and ten singles; many full breaches, a tail breach, backs and flukes visible; these  whales were spread out and feeding from north to south along the peninsula from 1/2 mile to 4 miles offshore

🌊 55 harbor seals – in coming tide

🌊 1 sea lion resting on the rocks near, but not with the harbor seals

🌊  thousands  of shearwaters flying just above the surface of the ocean and diving in to catch fish, most likely anchovies; we observed these large feeding groups for several hours

While doing her harbor seal survey on the Point Arena-Stornetta lands, Sara Bogard alerted us to the presence of several  bottlenose dolphins swimming southward at a quick pace.

We went to Saunders Reef and Shari Goforth was able to photograph these dolphins as they swam past us there. We were delighted to learn that the bottlenose dolphin known as Sakura and her calf were a part of this group.

♦️ 3 humpback whales- 2 at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula seen by Sara Bogard and 1 at Saunders Reef

♦️ 5 – 7 bottlenose dolphins swimming southward

♦️ 1 red-tailed hawk

♦️ several brown pelicans flying south

Here is a photo of Sakura and her calf by Shari Goforth:

We observed today from the beautiful Mendocino Headlands. Visibility was good but  limited to three miles out due to offshore fog and haze.

✳️ NO WHALES SEEN

✳️ 8-9 sea lions resting on the bell buoys

A beautiful day at the Point arena Lighthouse peninsula.

💠 NO WHALES SEEN

💠 14 harbor seals – in coming tide

💠 Dozens of feeding brown pelicans

Our first 3 1/2 hours at Gerstle Cove were spent in very dense fog. Small pockets of visibility would appear but even then visibility was limited by the gray sky and gray ocean.

🔷 4 humpback whales – one group of two and two singles; one single was slowly but steadily moving south and the other single was within 500 yards of shore

🔷 2 great blue herons

🔷 3 osprey

🔷 9 harbor seals