Pretty steady rain and drizzle here throughout the day today (19 March 2023).  Nice to see a Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus) in our yard.  The buds are swelling on the trees — and the equinox is tomorrow (on March 20th)!  Happy Spring!

Lots of swallows returning recently.  While eating lunch today (16 March 2023) I heard a Northern Rough-winged Swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) and turned around to see it sitting on the volleyball net.

A quick snapshot of a juvenile Arboreal Salamander (Aneides lugubris) — only ~3 cm long, photographed in Cotati on 14 March 2023.

We've had quite a run of rain recently.  I'm rounding off a bit, but here are some numbers for rainfall amounts in Bodega Bay:

During the last 24 hours = ~1.5"
During the last week = ~4"
During the last month = ~7"
Since January 1st = ~20"
Since October 1st = ~30"

Which means we're very close to our average annual rainfall at this time (98%).

Passing showers this afternoon (6 March 2023) made for a nice gray-green combination.

Not much time for photos today, but here's a quick shot of Mount Saint Helena taken from Cotati in the early evening.  Still a little snow at ~4300 feet.  Sounds like there might be more snow up there this weekend!

Dark clouds to the west, headed our way.  A couple of these passing squalls brought hail to Bodega Head today (27 February 2023).   Here's a short video clip.  [If you're reading this in an e-mail and can't see the video player, click on the title of the post to go to the NHBH web page.]

The skies turned quite dark yesterday morning (24 February 2023), so I stepped outside to see what was happening.  When a rainbow appeared over the ocean to the north, I was glad I had a camera with me!

This morning (24 February 2023) we decided to take a look at Sonoma Mountain from a distance...if there was snow up there, then we'd drive up for a brief visit with the snow before work. 

Snow is rare in western Sonoma County, so this morning was pretty exciting.  I think you'll be able to tell from my voice!  

Here's a quick video showing the snowy scene.  Sonoma Mountain is ~2400 feet high, and we were a bit below the peak, so probably at ~2000 feet.

Enjoy!

[P.S.  The sounds starts about 20 seconds in.  Also, if you can't see the video player in an e-mail message, click on the title of the post to see the video on the NHBH web page.]

When we first moved here ~19 years ago, there was a brief but beautiful snowfall.  At the time we didn't know the area very well yet, but we drove around and ended up on Joy Road where there was snow on the redwoods.  I've always wanted to see it again, so this morning I drove Joy Road on my way to work.  There wasn't a lot of snow, but there was a little here and there.  (I'm not totally sure whether it was snow or graupel, but the visual effect was similar.)  Will there be more tomorrow?

A little further down the road, I noticed a Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum) in flower.  A different kind of white!

 

Sheets of rain at the horizon on 22 February 2023 

 

 Crescent moon from Cotati on 21 February 2023.

...an eagle...or both?

 

P.S.  Okay, so I was playing off golf terms with the title and intro to this post, and I don't play golf myself, so I thought I'd double-check the definitions of a birdie vs. an eagle, and I was surprised to learn that there are two other golf scores with bird names!  Sounds like they're quite rare, so if you ever score an albatross or a condor, you'll be in the history books!  https://www.pga.com/story/odds-of-a-hole-in-one-albatross-condor-and-golfs-unlikely-shots

Red-flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum) photographed on 11 February 2023.

P.S.  Other Ribes species are sometimes called gooseberries. There's a fun resemblance between their fruit and the "sea gooseberry" (a ctenophore, or comb jelly).  See for yourself in one of my earliest NHBH posts back in 2012 -- "A two gooseberry day".

Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) at sunset in Bodega Harbor, 13 February 2023.