Mother's Day Outing

 

Before we go back to the fascinating standing stones of Carnac, I want to share our little trip on Mother's Day. The Geek and I don't give presents to each other for birthdays etc., but instead opt for outings that we both enjoy. We used to go to Mendocino on Mother's Day, but this year I chose Gerstle Cove in Salt Point State Park instead. 

This is an extremely photo-heavy post.

This place is not unknown to you - I have written about it before (here and here) and I hope that you won't get bored reading about it again. It is certainly a place I don't get tired of. This was the first time that we experienced it in spring with all the coastal flowers in bloom.

When we had already reached the coast I decided that it would be better to get my big camera, so I trotted back to the parking lot to fetch my camera from the trunk of our car where I had stored it out of sight. On my way back to the coast I came upon this little guy - a Western fence lizard.

Fun fact about this lizard: if a tick infected with the Lyme disease bacteria bites a Western fence lizard, it is not able to further spread the disease to anybody else. I learned this from a local park ranger and it really surprised me (I had no idea about this). Here is what I found on the Internet (thanks to AI): "Western fence lizards play a significant role in reducing Lyme disease risk by acting as a host for ticks and possessing a protein in their blood that kills the Lyme disease bacteria within those ticks. This proteibn, discovered in 1998, effectively clears the infection from ticks that feed on them, preventing them from transmitting Lyme disease to humans and other animals." Pretty cool, huh?

I also noticed White-crowned Sparrows.

My husband, meanwhile, had made himself comfortable on the rocks and was taking a video upon my return. 

What was he filming?

After having watched the harbor seals for a while we walked along the trail which was lined with the beautiful yellow flowering Coastal Bush Lupine.

I was really taken with all the beautiful flowers. Such an abundance!

Clockwise from top left: Hare's Tail Grass, Creamcups, Coastal Bush Lupine, California Goldfields

Clockwise from top left: Varied Lupine, Douglas Iris, Dwarf Brodiaea, Johnnytuck

Clockwise from top left: Checkerbloom, Narrow-leaf Mule's Ear, Sea Thrift, Blue-eyed Grass

Of course there were California Poppies!

The slopes were golden with California Goldfields (such a fitting name) and California Poppies.

California Goldfields with Nuttall's Milk Vetch:

It was quite amazing how little some of these plants need, they were growing right out of the rocks.

Clockwise from left: Scarlet Pimpernel, Sea Thrift, Sea Plantain, Sea Thrift

And of course there was the incredible tafoni (the honey-comb like sandstone) which this location is known for.  These rocks always succeed to amaze and fascinate me.

There are so many of them! This is just a fraction of what we saw.

They are particularly picturesque with some Sea Thrift in front of them. You might have noticed that I'm posting quite a bit of Sea Thrift pictures here - I like them so much (and this is my favorite picture of that day).

The phone camera is excellent for getting into tight spaces and taking some fun photos.

The Geek and I definitely enjoyed this beautiful spot.

Of course there were birds! We saw a few gulls -

Seeing gulls always reminds me of my mom who used to say "Die Möwen sehen alle aus als ob sie Emma hießen" (The seagulls by their looks suggest that Emma is their name) which is actually directly quoted from a poem by German writer and poet Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914). But what excited me even more was the large number of Brown Pelicans that flew along the coast. They are so elegant and graceful.

 

White-crowned Sparrows were our constant companions. We could hear their cheerful song and see them on the rocks and in the bushes throughout the entire time we stayed there. What a delight!

We also saw Song Sparrows (at least I think that's what this little guy is - I hope that David will correct me if I'm wrong).

I puzzled about this shorebird. First I thought it might be an Oystercatcher, but "our" Oystercatchers are black. I consulted Seek and Merlin and both said Wandering Tattler. I admit I have never heard of this bird and again am waiting for David's judgement.

Back to the rocks - some of them were covered in lichen, and I'm not attempting to identify which lichen it is. These are only "might be"s.

Shrubby Sunburst Lichen (Polycauliona candelaria)

Protoparmeliopsis pinguis

Armored Sea-Fog Lichen (Niebla homalea)

I had run the lichens through the Seek app which was recommended to me by a park ranger. The app itself says that there is always the possibility that the results are not correct, so please take this with a grain of salt.

Something else was fascinating - sea salt left behind in the holes of the rocks. 

And did I mention that I love Sea Thrift?

Congratulations, you made it to the end! With all the faces in this post - human, animal, plant - I link to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Enjoy your weekend!

Exploring the Tafoni

 

Our daughter hadn't been here for even 24 hours when we took our first trip to the ocean, the place that she had missed the most. We decided to go to Gerstle Cove in Salt Point State Park, a place that the Geek and I had only discovered last year and we wanted to share it with Kaefer. It was much calmer this time.

First we saw the harbor seals hanging out on the rocks.

There was much more driftwood on the shore than the last time we had been here, a sure sign of a very high surf during our crazy weather in January.

 When we arrived, Kaefer enjoyed just sitting on the shore and looking out over the ocean while we were taking photos of her as the "solitary mermaid" and the reflections in the tide pools.

But then she started to explore the tafoni and was just as mesmerized as we were.

We also enjoyed watching the cormorants sitting on the rocks and not minding the surf at all. However, there were no black oystercatchers this time.

Of course we had to take those family photos.

But mostly we explored the tafoni. I saw a lot of tiny living things on the rocks and just admired the beautiful shapes and forms.

In between we stopped every now and then just to take a picture of our girl.

A few years ago, Kaefer had given me a lensball for Christmas because she knows how much I enjoy photography and thought I would like to play around with it which I have done often. I had brought it with me and wanted to take some pictures of the tafoni with it - and as you can see, I wasn't the only one who did this.

Eventually it got very chilly at the coast and we decided to go for lunch. Of course we wanted fish and chips (another thing she had really missed) and went up to the Seafood Shack in Gualala. This is one of the best places for very fresh and delicious  fish and chips along the Sonoma-Mendocino coast. We had clam chowder in a bread bowl and, of course, rock fish and chips. Lecker, as we say in German.

Fish needs water - we had it in the form of some good local beer, a Scrimshaw (from Fort Bragg further up the coast) and Kaefer opted for some local cider from Sebastopol. You guessed it, this is for Bleubeard and Elizabeth and their T Tuesday.