A day at Bodega Head

I took a mid-week day off from work yesterday, and drove out to Bodega Head to see if I could catch a glimpse of any of those whales that so many others have spotted this month in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Humpback and blue whales were seen cavorting around in the bay itself, but off Bodega Head gray whales are more usually visible.

I arrived early enough to catch a bit of the low tide: sea anemone and mussels were packed like sardines on rock formations still exposed even a couple hours after the lowest tide of the morning (-0.1 according to NOAA). (Packed like sardines. Hmmm. That would be a truly terrible simile, except that the sea anemone do look a bit like rolled anchovy fillets. Alas, no one says "packed like anchovies.")

Some of the larger anemone were beginning to open again as the surf came in. Click the photo to see its fluorescent tentacles, enlarged -- a little cool, a little creepy...

Alas, the closest I got to seeing a whale was spotting a crab boat you can (barely) make out offshore in this photo:

And there was this turkey vulture (among many other birds):

And the flowers! April showers paid their May dividends this year: poppies, paintbrush, lupine, yarrow, and more:

When I visit the coast north of the San Francisco Bay I most often go to Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, usually to the north end of the preserve, Tomales Point. Bodega Head (in Sonoma County) is at the north end of Bodega Bay, and Tomales Point is at Bodega Bay's south end. So from where I stood yesterday, I could look south and see the tip of Tomales Point and the opening to Tomales Bay on its inner (east) side.  In the photo below, the sharp end of the point is sticking out of the fog  across Bodega Bay.

Even with binoculars, though, I didn't spot any of the elk who live on Tomales Point. I guess it wasn't my day for big mammals ... but a fine day nonetheless.


Related posts on One Finger Typing:
Seasons blur as El Niño starts in on California
Never mind Election Day 2014, consider Fall in Northern California
Point Reyes National Seashore at the start of the year