Author: tmercer

A bright and sunny day at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula. No wind, no fog, excellent visibility. ✅ 6 humpback whales – all singles; one breached once ✅ No harbor seals – high tide ✅ 1 sea lion swimming north ✅ 1 great blue heron ✅ 1 red-tailed hawk ✅ Approximately 100-125 brown pelicans flying…

Windy but no fog today at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula. The wind was blowing 24 mph with gusts of 36 mph from the north northwest.  This resulted in an ocean covered with large and frequent whitecaps. 💠 6 humpback whales; three sets of two; each set of two whales was within a feeding group…

Today was quite cloudy at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula. There was very little distinction between the sky, the ocean, and whale blows. ♦️ 1 humpback whale slowly swimming to the north ♦️ 6-8 harbor seals swimming around their haul out sites at high tide ♦️ 3 black oystercatchers ♦️ 4 black turnstones ♦️ 1…

Unfortunately, the dense fog at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula resulted in zero visibility. ❇️ NO WHALES SEEN ❇️ 11 harbor seals at high tide ❇️ 67 brown pelicans flying north

Upon our arrival at Gerstle Cove this morning, we were greeted by thick fog. We patiently waited for the fog to recede and our perseverance paid  off. By late morning, we could see all the way to the horizon and the sea was very calm. 🔆 12 humpbacks – two sets of two and eight…

The ocean was choppy and there were many small whitecaps  today at Gerstle Cove in Salt Point State Park. As the day progressed, the wind speed got significantly stronger.  Visibility was excellent most of the day. ✳️ 19 humpback whales – *three sets of two and thirteen singles ranging from about 600 yards offshore to…

At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula we had good visibility despite the windy conditions.  Blows could be seen but they were knocked down rather quickly by the wind. 💠 2 humpback whales – singles less than one mile offshore 💠 70 harbor seals – out going tide 💠 Approximately 54 brown pelicans flying north and…

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…

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…

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…