A Day at San Francisco Bay

March 29, 2024March 28, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 33 Comments

Last week I arrived by public ferry from across the bay and enjoyed four invigorating hours along The Embarcadero in San Francisco, met a dear friend there.

Having lived in the Bay Area for over three decades, I found myself thinking about all the layers of life that have buoyed this dynamic waterfront.

The ferry docked behind the Ferry Building, an iconic, historic landmark.

The waters were choppy that day, high wind advisories.

This photo (below) is a good overview of the Ferry Building. It is the long, low building, lower center, with more than 20 arched windows. The clock tower is part of the building. In the distance you can see the Marin Headlands and one orange tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Embarcadero is the waterfront roadway, it means “The Embarkment” in Spanish.

We walked about two miles south/southeast of the Ferry Building for this day’s adventure, and saw many new buildings as well as old, familiar sights. In the opposite direction is Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf.

It’s beautiful down at the bay–sparkling waters, open vistas, boats of all kinds. There are miles of palm-lined walkways with hundreds of businesses and condos, the baseball field, excellent restaurants, a Wharton college campus. There’s a small Google campus, too.

Heading south along the waterfront toward the Bay Bridge, we came upon the new Fire Department building. It is built entirely on a steel float.

Fire Station #35 built in February 2022, located at Pier 22-1/2, is home to the city’s fleet of fireboats and marine rescue watercraft. Photo below.

It is designed to rise and fall with the natural tides and projected sea-level rise and is also seismically resilient.

I saw one sea lion pop its head up near here, and throughout the day numerous gulls soared above us.

Many new buildings have been built around the Bay Bridge, including the Salesforce Tower, below, far left, the tallest building in San Francisco.

The bridge is a popular one, connecting San Francisco to the East Bay. More formally called the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, it is a complex of bridges carrying about 260,000 vehicles a day on its two decks.

We walked the length of Pier 14, jutting slightly over 600 feet (183 m) into the water. It was once a breakwater structure for the ferry terminal but after a major renovation it is more than that.

With maritime art and trendy chairs, it is a popular place for folks to breathe in fresh sea air, stretch, and enjoy stunning views of the city. Some come here to fish, too.

That day there were few people, undoubtedly due to severe gusting winds.

Below is the skyline view from Pier 14. On the far left is the comparatively short Hills Brothers building, with the flag on top…remember that for the subsequent photo.

In the early gold-rush days of San Francisco, there was no roadway here because there was no land. It was water and mud. That seems hard to believe because there are so many buildings now.

Eventually a sea wall was built, the mudflats were filled in, and a freight railway was created.

Take a look at this photo below of the Hills Brothers building and the same stretch of road, taken in 1949. Courtesy California Historical Society.

The Hills Brothers building, constructed in 1924, was originally a coffee roasting plant. In 1985 it was sold and has since been converted to offices, condos, a microbrewery, and more.

On our walk that day we found remnants of railroad tracks in a few obscure places.

There was also once a freeway along this stretch, from 1968 to 1991, forever controversial. It was a mammoth concrete structure that darkened the roadway, harbored a seedy neighborhood. It also obliterated all views of the bay. Traffic-wise, it was inefficient because it moved traffic around part of the city, but not most of it.

Then we had the 1989 earthquake and much of San Francisco’s waterfront was destroyed. The freeway was extensively damaged and thereafter demolished.

That’s when new life began at the waterfront…and it has never stopped.

In 1991 the city imported palm trees, upgraded almost everything, and the area was transformed from working wharves to high-rises with million-dollar views.

The Embarcadero is a busy thoroughfare with two lanes of traffic in each direction. There are above- and underground train cars, buses, autos, trucks, bicycles, skateboards and more.

The vehicles that stood out the most to me that day were the self-driving cars.

The two photos below of driverless cars were taken in different San Francisco neighborhoods on different days.

This first photo, taken last week, clearly demonstrates the driverless car is in traffic with no human at the wheel.

Also known as Waymo cars, I saw about 20 that day on The Embarcadero.

They are an experimental venture and an eye-opening blink into the future. They’re called driverless taxis or autonomous vehicles. Residents hail the taxi via phone app, instruct it where to take them, pay by credit card.

The car operates on sensors, a vision system, radar, and a light detection system called lidar. You can see the hardware on the roof. Little fans and motors are always spinning on them, even when they’re idle at a stoplight.

Still in its infant stages, there have been problems and plenty of critics.

So far we’ve had the past and present here on this walking adventure…then we came upon the past in the present.

Red’s Java House at Pier 30 was built in the 1930s and has been a favorite blast from the past all these years since.

There was a deadly longshoremen’s strike here in 1934.

Inside, vintage photos line the walls–World War II posters, San Francisco mayors, even Elvis.

Next door to Red’s, further back on Pier 30, we came upon an old clipper ship moored to the pier. It bobbed in the choppy water, an odd juxtaposition amidst luxury glass condos and driverless cars.

This turned out to be only the look of the past.

The gangplank was fenced and locked. The wind was wildly whipping the ship’s flags, and we could barely stand upright. A sign said it was a “modern clipper built on historic times.”

Built in 2000 in Amsterdam, the Stad Amsterdam is a historical reconstruction of a 19th Century clipper ship, now a luxury sailing yacht.

From that same pier, we could see Oracle Park where the San Francisco Giants play.

In the summer during baseball season, this section of The Embarcadero is loaded with happy baseball fans dressed in Giants gear, walking to the stadium. There is a special ferry for Giants fans, too.

While we walked that day, every quarter-hour we were treated to Westminster Quarters chimes from the Ferry Building clock, the same majestic sound Londoners hear from Big Ben.

And then it was time for me to catch the ferry.

We saw the past and present with forays into the future on this bright and blustery day at San Francisco Bay.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Jet Eliot, Terry Green, Athena Alexander, Calif. Historical Society.

Bodega Bay Sea Lions

March 22, 2024March 21, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 62 Comments

Our recent day at Bodega Bay was lively with birds and changing tides, highlighted by the sea lions. They are known for their intelligence and playfulness, and that day we watched a brief sea lion drama.

California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are native to the North American coast. Here in California they can be seen along sandy beaches, rocky coves as well as on docks, wharves and jetties.

People like to watch sea lions; they are active and clever, boisterous and entertaining, and superb swimmers.

The fastest swimmers of all pinnipeds (flipper-footed marine mammals), California sea lions can reach speeds of up to 30 mph.

In Bodega Bay there is a small dock behind The Tides Restaurant close to the water. Due to the commercial fishing boats and next-door commercial fishing dock, there is always something going on back here with sea lions and sea birds.

Sea lions feed on fish, the docks and boats deal in fish, so it’s a naturally good spot for this resourceful pinniped.

This is the commercial dock next door.

Here is The Tides restaurant…

…and the small dock below where we watched the drama unfold.

All sea lions are protected mammals, so observing is all we do. Of course, no feeding or harassing.

When we visited in the afternoon, around 3:00, there were four sea lions hauled out on the dock, contentedly sleeping. Three of the four are big males and, as you can see, they have scars from living active lives.

Everything was fine until a fifth sea lion came along, wanted to haul out onto the dock–a young male.

Adult and subadult males have a bony bump on their crest, and it’s usually crowned with tufts of lighter hair. The males get these starting at 4 years old, and the bump is fully developed by 7 years old. Underneath is a ridge of bone running along the top of the skull, called a sagittal crest.

Below you can see an older male with a pronounced sagittal crest.

You can also see his little ear. They are classified as eared seals in the Otariidae family, and have the skill of closing their ears (and nostrils) when under water.

The interloper (we’ll name him Cheeky One) wanted to come up on the dock, but the big guy, an older male, wasn’t having any of it. They have a hierarchal society and Big Guy was clearly the dominant male.

He barked and barked his disapproval. You can see Big Guy on the far right, barking.

For about ten minutes, Cheeky One would try to get on the dock, then swim away, then try again. He was always vigorously barked at by Big Guy.

Sea lion barks are really loud. We couldn’t hear ourselves talk.

Here’s an audio clip from Discovery of Sound in the Sea.

We watched attentively, and so did this harbor seal, below. It seemed to all of us that this aggressive young sea lion and the dominant male were going to come to loggerheads.

Then it happened. Cheeky One energetically leapt out of the water and onto the dock. He landed right on top of another one, who was so sleepy he just waited for it to be over.

But this was upsetting to Big Guy, made very clear with continual barking.

Sea lions can use their flippers to “walk” and Big Guy “walked” over to Cheeky One and put all of his weight into pushing him right off the dock.

By that time Big Guy was so riled that he didn’t want anyone else on the dock.

Big Guy shoved up against each of the other three quieter sleeping ones and pushed them ALL into the water.

Each one of these sea lions weighs over 500 pounds (227 kg), so there was a lot of splashing and kerplunking and barking.

This territorial dispute was probably part of a lead-up to the breeding season that is coming up in a few months.

As we all know, territoriality goes on with mammals all over the planet.

The next time we go to Bodega Bay we’ll go to this pier at the beginning and of the day, just like we did this time.

And another lovely scene of sea lions or boats or gulls will entertain us on that day, too.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Bodega Bay Sights

March 15, 2024March 13, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 49 Comments

We had a great time at Bodega Bay last week. It was a day filled with briny sea air, changing tides, high winds, squawking gulls and barking sea lions.

It’s a small fishing town located 50 miles northwest of San Francisco Bay, with a population of under 1,000.

When we arrived it was high tide. A large flock of marbled godwits (and willets) flew one way and then the other–that technique shorebirds have, staying in synchronicity. The godwits have a pink hue that make them recognizable from a distance.

The marbled godwits are large sandpipers and special to see because they’re only here for the winter months. In summer they breed on the northern Great Plains. Here is one up close.

Our first stop was at The Tides. It is a complex with a restaurant, gift shop, grocery shop and bathrooms. We tromped past all that and headed for the dock behind the building, to see if the sea lions were out.

Early mornings they are often out, and the commercial seafood place next door is busy cleaning fresh-caught fish and hosing down their dock. Fishing boats are out, the world of fishing is alive. So there’s often a lot going on around these back docks, especially if the fish cleaners are throwing discards into the water.

We were in luck that day, four sea lions had hauled out onto the small dock.

But it was a comparably quiet day. The sea lions were mellow that morning, enjoying the sunshine. We have had a lot of rainy days lately, so when the sun comes out, we all pause in the warmth and soak it up. Even the sea lions.

Gulls, grebes, loons and cormorants enlivened the scene.

Heading next to see what other birds we could find, it was obvious with the water so high that the mudflats were submerged and the shorebirds would not be as visible now from the road.

Instead, we watched an unusually large number of buffleheads bobbing in the water. They’re another winter migrant. They don’t congregate in flocks but there were many pairs scattered across the bay.

We came upon two other birders and we all agreed, happily, that it was “a bufflehead day.”

The winds were strong and some waves were white-capped.

This town changes on an hourly basis due to the tides, so we moved on to a pond adjacent to the beach. There’s no tidal activity in a pond.

Hole in the Head. It’s an area on the opposite side of the harbor with a pond, parking area and small ocean beach. That day there were numerous fishermen at the nearby shoreline, a school bus of teenagers had unloaded for a hike, and a few other birders and photographers were reveling in the wildlife.

This area is named for the years in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Pacific Gas & Electric began construction here on a nuclear power plant.

Back then there was about five years of intense fighting and controversy, lawsuits, when local residents and environmentalists were waging war against the local power company and the building of a nuclear power plant.

The project was eventually abandoned, due to all the grassroots disapproval and the unfolding discovery that they were building it on top of an active fault line. All construction was aborted.

The hole they had dug, however, had already been built and reinforced. Over the years it filled in with rainwater, producing this pond, below, that is 70 feet deep.

It is all difficult to imagine unless you’ve dug through the newspaper accounts as I have, because today, over a half-century later, it’s quiet and birdy.

I found this photo, below, from Sonoma Magazine. It’s the power plant construction in 1963 and that big, reinforced hole in the center beside the big crane, is what the pond is today.

We watched a perched belted kingfisher in the distance and many other species of birds–shorebirds, raptors, songbirds. Heard nothing but fog horns and birdsong.

After a hearty lunch at one of the local fish shacks, we returned to the water’s edge and by then the tide had receded and a whole other world had opened up.

The center of the bay had become shallow and the muddy shorelines were now exposed.

The sand was dappled with clam holes and various seashells, and clammers were walking in the soft, wet, muddy sand.

Like the clammers, the shorebirds were digging for food.

We went back to visit the sea lions at The Tides before heading home, and we found them in a riled mood. There was even a sea lion fight.

I’ll tell you more about that next week.

The dock area that had been abundant with water in the morning now had exposed dock posts where shorebirds, ducks, waders and gulls were busy catching their meals.

Since our morning arrival, the sun had burned off the fog and warmed up the day. The sea lions were arguing loudly, the water had receded and every living being in the harbor had moved according to the water depth.

It’s all part of living with the tides.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Point Reyes Mammals

March 8, 2024March 6, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 47 Comments

We have had a lot of rain lately here in northern California (snow, further north), but last week we managed to squeeze in a visit to Point Reyes on a rare sunny day.

We saw a menagerie of wildlife and were lucky to see a lot of mammals– let’s start first with the elephant seals.

As many of you know, we have had the honored pleasure of watching hundreds of elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) on Drakes Beach since December. But now their mating and breeding seasons are over and it is time for the adults to return to sea.

This cow and her pup were here last week (below), as well as others, yet many adult females have left.

The adults haven’t eaten in several months, camped out at the beach, and they are hungry.

By the end of March, only the young ones will remain on the beach while they figure out how to swim and survive.

The photo below shows a biologist on the beach taking notes on the elephant seals. She is counting the number of elephant seals and noting their conditions. You can see how big the male elephant seal (center) is in comparison to her.

The adult males are beginning their migration north to feed along the continental shelf in the Gulf of Alaska. They consume bottom-dwelling prey like rays, hagfish and small sharks.

The females, who have given birth and fasted for 2-3 months, are now pregnant. They will not swim as far north as the males, preferring to forage in the open ocean west of Canada. Their diet is squid.

There were many young ones on the beach voicing their discontent this week at being without their mothers.

We found a group of four young elephant seals laying around at the opposite end of the lagoon. The older young male let the “little” young ones hang out with him. It was a thoroughly entertaining scene to observe.

This photo shows two of them–the older seal in the water–and a great egret.

Elephant seals have incredible lung capacity for their deep-dive foraging. The more experienced young male has his head completely submerged…this went on for so long we wondered at first if he was alive.

Then his head slowly turned when he heard the little ones struggling.

The little ones were hot and trying to make their way to the water, but they couldn’t move well. They would roll a little, then rest, then roll a little more. Eventually the two younger ones made it to the lagoon.

They do not know yet how to swim, but they gingerly dipped body parts. One tried to scoop water on his back, like the adults do with sand, but his flipper is merely a stub.

Elsewhere in the park we found two different pairs of healthy, hunting coyotes. There are 20 subspecies of Canis latrans, this one is the California Valley Coyote, Canis latrans ochropus.

We came upon this active pair, below, on the sand dunes near North Beach.

Tule elk were visible numerous times that day–sometimes close to the road and sometimes not. Primarily females. Cervus canadensis nannodes.

Several large elk herds live year-round at Point Reyes. At this time of year, they are grazing the fresh grass…quiet and harmonious.

Their rutting season (i.e. mating and breeding) will be August through October, when the males compete for dominance. We’ll be back for that excitement–lots of bugling and sparring.

Another mammal we saw a lot that day were the black-tailed deer. Odocoileus hemionus. They are a subspecies of the mule deer.

They, too, are enjoying the lush, nutrient-filled green grass. This species is common at Point Reyes.

We saw all this in one day!

I’ve shared four Pt. Reyes mammal species with you today–one marine mammal and three land mammals.

Migratory birds will be leaving Pt. Reyes soon when the weather warms, and the whales will be migrating through soon.

But for now, we enjoy whatever beautiful creatures come before us.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Winter Thrushes Everywhere

March 1, 2024February 29, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 67 Comments

All the winter thrushes are here in Northern California for the winter and a beautiful sight to enjoy every day.

American Robins are a celebrated harbinger of spring for many Americans, but here in Northern California and other temperate states, we enjoy a flurry of robins throughout the winter.

Sometimes flocks of 50-100 can be seen high in the sky. In this photo below you can see a flock of approximately 40 before they landed to join several dozen robins already in the trees.

Much of the time we see them on front lawns…the classic robin sight.

There is something about robins and Americans that make the American Robin a much-loved bird.

I could go on about them here, but I want to show you three other thrush species who join us for the winter.

In winter, hermit thrushes can be seen in much of the U.S. south and the west coast. We have an individual who shows up in our garden every day, below.

Like other birds in the Turdidae family, these thrushes are often seen close to the ground. They hop, peck, hunt for insects and occasionally flick their tail while perched. When it is too cold for insects, they are in the bushes plucking berries.

This hermit thrush below was making its way across a toyon bush, one berry at a time.

Like the robin, hermit and varied thrushes migrate north to their breeding grounds in spring. Their melodious songs, therefore, are not heard here in the winter. We hear their calls, but not their songs.

Once in a while there’s a free-thinking robin who decides not to migrate, but most of their species, Turdus migratorius, migrate away when the weather warms.

The varied thrush is another special bird that joins us for the winter. Unlike the hermit thrushes and robins, varied thrushes are a western bird.

I have seen or heard varied thrushes almost every day this winter, something I think is so very fortunate. Ixoreus naevius.

Usually solitary and skittish, they can be seen along the creeks or in the woods.

Varied thrushes have a two-toned call that is so unique it stops me in my tracks. With two sets of membranes and muscles in the vocal organs, it enables the bird to sing two different notes at the same time.

Here is a recording of their two-toned call, below. I also hear a flock of robins in the background.

Audio Recording of Varied Thrush, from Xeno-Canto.org

They can often be overlooked as “just a robin” because they are the same size and similar colors as the American Robin, but there are distinctive markings that make this bird different.

Lastly, a fourth thrush we have here in Northern California, the western bluebird, stays with us year-round. Sialia mexicana. Many folks are surprised to know that bluebirds are in the thrush family.

By springtime they are building their nests and preparing for new broods, but for now they are seen in pairs or flocks of 6-10, fluttering and flashing their sky-blue colors.

To use the lyrics from “Rockin’ Robin,” our thrushes rock in the tree tops all day long, hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and a-singing their song.

Not only do they rock in the treetops all day long, but they also bathe with abandon in the puddles and scatter about chirping when the rains have stopped.

Rockin’ thrushes.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Lyrics by Leon Rene.

You Tube “Rockin’ Robin” by Bobby Day.

The Beauty of Leaping

February 23, 2024February 22, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 65 Comments

Next week we have the opportunity to celebrate leap day. Here are some jumping, hopping, leaping wildlife to remind us of this buoyant phenomenon.

Green-and-Black Poison Dart Frog, Costa Rica

The creature I have personally observed jumping the most is our local resident, the western fence lizard.

I love to watch leaping lizards.

They jump two and three times farther than their body size–skitter and hop and run and zip across the rocks with skill and ease. This one, below, liked the heat of our patio umbrella stand.

Frogs and toads are leapers too. They are sensitive to movement, and guarded, so you often have to stand still and wait for them to jump to reveal themselves.

This Pacific chorus frog, below, was beside a pond near our house. They are so small that two of them could fit in the palm of your hand. We didn’t see it in the murky debris until it hopped.

A frog’s leg muscles account for over 17% of the total mass of its body. This spring peeper photo below demonstrates that well.

On the other side of the world in Australia, the kangaroos and wallabies are some of Earth’s biggest hoppers.

They hop with the aid of large, stretchy tendons in their hind legs and their balancing tool: the tail.

You can see the long feet and tail on this Agile Wallaby, below…perfectly built for long hops.

Monkeys are leaping masters in treetops, running effortlessly along the limbs or swinging arm over arm through tree canopies. When a monkey reaches the end of a branch, it sails airborne to the next tree.

Vervet monkeys are especially agile with their long legs and semi-prehensile tails, like this one below.

Black-and-white colobus monkeys, below, are a marvelous sight to behold in the trees. When they’re moving, they are so fast that it’s just a blur of black and white.

Deer and antelopes are some of Earth’s most graceful leapers.

The long, endless expanses of African savannah offer an array of ferocious cats and therefore some of the best leaping antelopes we have on this planet.

They have legs and stamina built to outrun a wild cat and we see it often on the Serengeti.

Impalas, like this one below, can leap distances up to 33 feet (10 m).

We came across this mother oribi and her young one, below. You can see why the little one needs protecting–prime prey to a lion–and how important their sleek bodies and long running legs might someday be.

Another African antelope, klipspringers, leap across rocky cliffsides rather than grasslands. Their name translated in Afrikaans means rock (klip) leaper (springer).

We saw this pair from a distance deftly making their way across the cliff tops. Their unique ability to browse and habituate on rocky ridges is their protection.

There are so many leaping animals I can’t feature them all here, but I cannot leave out the hop-hop-hippity-hop rabbits.

Birds are hoppers too. Think of all the birds we see hopping on the ground in search of food. Robins, juncos, towhees, crows to name a few. Sure, they fly, but they do a lot of hopping too.

In countries of warm, equatorial temperatures where ants are a major source of food, many ant-eating bird species hop around the rainforest floor foraging ant armies.

This ruddy woodcreeper, below, uses its tail and feet for clinging to trees and creeping up the wood, following ant swarms.

Flightless birds also do a lot of hopping.

The flightless cormorant evolved in the Galapagos Islands without the need for wings. We saw several pair hopping along the shorelines using their half-wings and webbed feet.

Similarly, penguins are flightless birds. You can see the webbed feet on the front penguin, used for stabilizing on the rocks.

And lastly, of all the leaping animals that abound on this planet, marine mammals can take to the air from the sea in breathtaking ways.

Dolphins have some of the most graceful leaps of all animals. They majestically leap out of the water and propel themselves upward using their tail flukes to push against the water, arching through the air, sometimes flipping or spinning, then gliding head-first into the water.

Next week when we have that one day that only happens every four years, let’s give a salute or maybe a jump for joy to our leapers all over this lively planet.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

A Visit to the Seashore

February 16, 2024February 15, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 79 Comments

Our visit this week to Pt. Reyes National Seashore was, as it always is, a super day. The elephant seals are still offering a commanding performance at Drakes Beach, and we visited other beaches and sites throughout the park, too.

Although the season’s pup births are now over, there are still plenty of nursing pups, resting mothers and boisterous males spread across the beach.

This male, below, was resting but every few minutes he rolled over or scratched.

The cows and their pups were paired up all over the beach and endearing to watch. Most of the pups are still vulnerable, experiencing frustrations and difficulties–trying to get around logs, perplexed by gulls.

Other pups, called weanlings, had weaned from their mother and their mothers have now gone back to sea. They’re still learning the elephant seal lifestyle and barked their motherless displeasure.

The beach was a cacophony of baby barks and mother barks.

Many of the males have now left, but about a dozen bulls still remain. They were also entertaining.

Males make lots of noise–gurgling, roaring and more–and their territorial bravado is especially fun to witness at this time of year. Other times of year it can be frightening to watch, even bloody.

But right now they have been fasting for several months, not eating, so they don’t have a lot of energy to fight, nor is this the time.

Nevertheless, they often challenge one another so will rise up and announce their machismo, even chase one another, but never for longer than a minute until they exhaust themselves…flop down and collapse, go back to sleep.

It was a beautiful day and there was much more to see in this expansive park, so we made our way to other spots.

We saw many herds of elk in the distance. At this time of year, the tule elk graze and rest. We saw many herds scattered across the emerald hillsides throughout the day, about 75 heads.

This is a female tule elk who was having some alone time.

We’ve had a good winter of rainfall, the hills are gloriously green and lush. The abundance is not only reflected in the plant growth, but in the animal life as well.

The field rodents must be successfully reproducing because many raptors–more than usual–were hunting above the grassy acreage. We saw more kestrels than ever before, about two dozen.

Two pair of northern harrier hawks were riding the thermals above us, one pair shown below.

One of my favorite avian winter visitors here is the Say’s Phoebe.

North Beach was a dazzling place to stop and eat our lunch.

Pierce Point Road was a good place to see elk in the distance and observe numerous hunting birds.

We spotted a coyote on the roadside just before it disappeared into the field, then heard the California quail sounding off their alarm calls and scurrying in all directions.

The grounds of Pierce Point Ranch, an old defunct dairy farm open to the public, were peaceful to walk through. Located at a popular trailhead, it is often bustling with hikers and tourists, but on a weekday in February, the area was quiet.

In spring the old hay barn will be hosting dozens of barn swallow nests, but for now it is serene.

It wasn’t all serene that day, for Drakes Beach was lively with squawking pups and bellowing bulls, but there was plenty of serenity all over this wilderness.

Just the right amount of serenity and liveliness.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Elephant Seal Days

February 2, 2024February 2, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 74 Comments

Twelve days after we witnessed the birth of an elephant seal pup, we went back this week for more and were rewarded…immensely.

January at Drakes Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore is animated with elephant seal behavior, the second largest seal in the world. Mirounga angustirostris.

There are approximately 17 northern elephant seal rookeries on the U.S. west coast, most of them in California. The rookery at Pt. Reyes in Northern California is relatively new, the first breeding pair discovered here in 1981.

It is remarkable we have all these rookeries because by the end of the 1880s, elephant seals were thought to be extinct. Over-harvesting.

More information about elephant seals and California rookeries:

Northern Elephant Seal Wikipedia

Pt. Reyes National Seashore

Piedras Blancas Website including live cam

Ano Nuevo State Park

All rookeries in Northern California are at the elephant seal population peak in January, it is the birthing and mating season. At Pt. Reyes it is estimated there are approximately 2,500 seals right now.

At one point, Athena and I heard gulls start squawking, looked over to see them moving aggressively into the elephant seal circle. We recognized it as the signal that the gulls were on the scent of a placenta. Somewhere nearby there was an hours-old pup.

We found it. A brand-new pup is in the photo below, front center.

This big male, below, is resting. He weighs 3,300-5,100 pounds (1,500-2,300 kg).

Although the males will soon be leaving the beach, the females will continue giving birth and nursing.

In addition to spotting a newborn that day, we also saw an adult pair mating, below.

We were also able to identify the pup whose birth we witnessed 1.5 weeks ago. It’s speculative, but of the eight pups in this corner of the beach, this pup’s size indicates more than a week old and is the same gender we saw born.

Pups are not tagged here, it’s too dangerous for humans and disruptive to the seals.

The first photo, below, is the pup at the time of her birth on January 17. The second photo is the same pup on January 29.

She has grown bigger, can hold her head up now meaning her muscles are developing, and continues bonding with her mother, resting and nursing.

That day there were about 100-200 seals on Drakes Beach, and hundreds more on the beaches beyond the viewing site.

Here is the small group of onlookers, photo below, behind the fence that morning. The beach is off-limits to all humans during the birthing season.

This mother, below, had a scare. She was resting with her pup when the pup somehow rolled off the sandy platform and into a tidal channel.

This was okay for a little while, apparently, but the tide was coming in and the mother started to become concerned.

There was a small, sandy ridge about calf-high the pup had to climb over, but it proved too difficult.

At first the mother (SLV on hind quarter, below) instructed her pup what to do. She was barking and waving her flipper.

The pup kept trying but wasn’t able to manipulate her new and inexperienced body to get up out of the water to the resting area. This pup weighs about 250-330 pounds so there is a lot to learn about how to move all that weight on land.

With the tide coming in, the pup was getting a little panicky. SLV then came down off the ledge and put her big body into the channel, protecting her pup, nudging it to safety.

Mom almost got her pup back up until a different mother, who was protective of her newborn, objected.

“Take a hike” in elephant seal language: bark, bark, bark.

The two moms squabbled for a while as the tide continued to come in, the channel water getting deeper.

After about ten minutes, SLV got her pup situated to get up over the small ledge, but still the pup struggled, could not do it.

Then with the seawater coming in, Mom just gave her pup one big push on its rear-end with her front flipper, hoisting her pup back to safety.

Then they all plopped down, exhausted, both mothers and the pup.

Briny sea air, pups calling out in squeaky barks, gulls, shorebirds, ocean winds, crashing waves, squabbling adults jockeying for space, mating, nursing.

There was a lot going on that day on Drakes Beach, and it was all delightful.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

Constructing the Golden Gate Bridge

January 26, 2024January 26, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 66 Comments

Beyond the Art Deco elegance of this famous California bridge is an engineering feat that has endured for nearly a century. I was there this week, as I have been many times, and was once again moved by the impressive original construction.

Construction began on January 5, 1933 and lasted 1,604 days or a little over 4 years and 4.5 months to build.

It was the early 1930s and San Francisco had been growing markedly since the discovery of gold over 82 years earlier.

Until the bridge was built, ferries bustled with cars and people crossing the bay several times a day. There were many critics of this proposed bridge, for many reasons.

Numerous designs and engineers were considered before assigning the chief engineer to the job: Joseph B. Strauss. Many engineers, geologists, architects, designers and contractors were involved in the construction.

Links for more info: Golden Gate Bridge Wikipedia

and Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation

It was to be the longest suspension bridge ever attempted, providing a 60-foot wide, six-lane highway and two 11-foot sidewalks.

Foundation. The first and critical task was to create anchorage, foundations and two concrete piers, one for each tower. On the San Francisco side, where I stood comfortably this week 91 years later, construction began in churning water 100 feet (30m) deep and over a thousand feet (305m) from shore.

Divers and dynamite, tons of concrete and steel, and watertight chambers were all part of the early foundation construction.

This photo below demonstrates the size of the foundation of the south tower. In the foreground are two surfers for size perspective.

Towers. Once the foundation was firmly in place, the two towers were erected by first building a creeper derrick, a bridge-building device that can move, or creep, and is equipped with arms. It was used for lifting steel into place.

Steel for the towers was rolled and fabricated at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Pennsylvania and shipped by boat to San Francisco. The weight of each tower was calculated at 22,500 tons.

Erecting the towers and preparing for cable installation required steel pins, rivets, castings and more, many of which required workmen in the most precarious places. Both towers are 746 feet (227m) high.

Strauss was unrelenting about safety during the building of his bridge. He hired a man, Bullard, to create hard hats. They were considered the first hard hats and were modified from miner’s hats. Strauss required workers to wear hard hats, safety belts, and goggles.

Riveter workers wore respirator masks to prevent inhalation of lead-tainted fumes created when the hot rivets struck the lead paint of the towers. There are approximately 600,000 rivets in each tower.

Notice the rivets in place and not yet installed in this photo.

There was a moveable safety net that Strauss innovated to catch workmen if they fell. It was the most elaborate and expensive safety device ever conceived for a major construction job. It saved 19 men from falling to their deaths. Sadly, eleven men could not be saved, perished.

Cables. There are two massive suspension cables that evenly transfer the hefty bridge weight to the anchorages. They are made of galvanized carbon steel wire and are the lifeline of a suspension bridge.

Cable construction involved looping wire, 80,000 miles of it, over spinning wheels. The wires were spun together by the spinning wheels on moveable carriages, then bonded and machine-compacted, and precisely and methodically set into the two cables.

This photo, below, shows the spinning wheels. The middle construction worker is perched on top of one.

This link, below, is a 3-minute video clip by PBS. It shows 1936 footage of the cable spinning work.

Link: American Experience, Spinning the Cables

The 6,450-foot (1,966m) span was the longest cable-spinning distance attempted at that time.

John A. Roebling’s Sons Company, of Brooklyn Bridge engineering fame, were the cable contractors.

Suspension bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge are better able to withstand earthquake movements than heavier and more rigid bridges. The Golden Gate Bridge is designed to withstand a wind velocity of 90 miles per hour.

This display at the bridge today, photo below, is an interactive model for visitors to see how far the bridge can safely sway among the gusting winds of the Golden Gate Strait. The bridge can move sideways up to 27.7 feet (8m) and flex up and down 10.8 feet (3m).

I watched many people walk up to this display and shake it wildly without incident.

Roadway. Following cable construction, the final segment of major construction took place: erecting the bridge’s roadway. This involved installing large pieces of steel and riveting them together, performed 250 feet (76m) above the water. The two photos below are the underside of the roadway, photographed from a boat.

There was also tangential construction including building roads, viaducts, an administration building and maintenance depot, and the toll booth plaza. Lighting and painting were also big projects.

Toll booths were completed in time for the bridge’s opening on May 27, 1937. The adjacent round building, the Round House Cafe, was completed in 1938.

Today there are no toll booth collectors, payment is collected electronically, and visitors can view the bridge traffic via a live webcam. The cafe is now a coffee shop.

The toll to cross was 50 cents each way per car when the bridge first opened, and it now costs $9.75 per car. The fee is a bit less with the use of an electronic transponder or carpooling, and more for vehicles with over two axles.

For the 75th bridge anniversary in 2012, parts of the south end area (San Francisco side) were updated with new construction and renovation, and featured the Golden Gate Bridge Plaza, below.

Nearly a century has passed since the toil, worries and headaches of building this bridge began. Maintenance is never-ending and there have been extensive bridge updates including a lighter, stronger roadway to replace the original concrete deck.

Large and small earthquakes, corroding rebar, fragmented concrete and relentless weather have tested the construction over the past nine decades. The bridge remains sturdy and safe.

Each year about 39 million vehicles cruise effortlessly over this well-built structure.

A massive bridge of beauty and function, we celebrate the many people who designed, engineered, constructed, and continue to maintain this human marvel.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Color photos by Athena Alexander.

Vintage photos courtesy Terry Green.

Resources: The Golden Gate Bridge by Bethlehem Steel, 1937; websites.

Drakes Beach Miracle

January 19, 2024February 1, 2024 / Jet Eliot / 99 Comments

There are several great beaches at Point Reyes National Seashore, but in January we find Drakes Beach the place to be. This week we watched a miracle unfold.

Last month the male elephant seals arrived at Drakes Beach. The beach is closed to everyone except the elephant seals, making this a perfect place for these gigantic sea mammals to give birth. Visitors observe from the barricaded parking lot.

Male elephant seals at Drakes Bay exert their dominance at this time, in anticipation of the female arrival.

When we visited Drakes Beach this week, some of the females had arrived, some had given birth, and more were still expected.

All of the elephant seals along Drakes Bay are Northern Elephant Seals, Mirounga angustirostris.

Info links at end.

Each of the females arrive pregnant. Each will give birth to one pup, typically at night. Rarely do they have twins.

Females have travelled 3,500 miles from the Gulf of Alaska, feeding on primarily squid, deep diving throughout their long journey.

Their bodies are built to dive deep, allowing them to hunt below the great white shark ranges, their biggest predator.

Once they land on the beach, they give birth and nurse their newborns. They shift into a fasting mode and live without eating for about 3-4 weeks, resting and relying on the metabolism of their blubber stores.

Last January we were delighted to find hundreds of elephant seals–bulls, cows and pups–all over this beach. This January we blocked off several days on our calendar to return to the beach to witness more of the elephant seal extravaganza.

The road is open 10am-4pm, we arrived soon after 10am. We saw there weren’t nearly as many seals on the beach as last year. Not to worry, we told ourselves, there is always something spectacular to see here.

Ten minutes later the most wonderful event happened.

There was only a dozen of us visitors who had arrived so far, two docents were there too. This small crowd of appreciative, attentive adults was part of what made the experience so lovely.

The docent quietly said, “I think this cow is about to give birth.”

And sure enough, about five minutes later the cow was writhing, quietly, and twisting about.

She is a big animal: the female elephant seals are up to ten feet (3m) in length and weigh up to 1,500 pounds (600 kg).

None of us humans, including the docents, had ever seen an elephant seal give birth before. So we watched and waited.

At first a shiny black tail started to emerge from the mother, and then more of the pup’s body appeared minute-by-minute. You can see the pup emerging in the photo below, beneath the seal’s tail.

The mother, who was silent, wriggled her body some more as the pup’s body steadily emerged.

We stood there quietly, awestruck.

This went on for about five minutes and then, lastly, the pup’s head came out.

Immediately after the head had emerged, there was a whooshing splash of fluids that followed.

The mother and her newborn are front and center in the photo below. At this point she hadn’t yet laid eyes on her pup.

We stood there, each one of us holding our breath. The pup was not moving, it was so still it looked dead.

The mother turned her ungainly body around to get face-to-face with her pup. She barked and barked and barked. A concerned female, also pregnant, looked on.

For five minutes, we all waited anxiously, no one dared to utter what we were thinking.

And then the pup issued one funny little squawk…and we were all relieved and so happy. I looked around at our little crowd of onlookers, all strangers, each one of us triumphant at the breathing of this new life.

For the next 15 minutes the mother bonded with her pup, barking and nudging and tending to the amniotic sac that was covering her newborn. They bond through sound and smell.

This bonding is a crucial part of the newborn’s life. If this imprinting does not occur, the pup will starve because the mother will not recognize it to feed it.

The mother moved around to get closer to the pup, the pup lifted its head, and piles of sand buried the placental afterbirth.

Our newborn pup was relatively small, about three feet long, so it is probably a female, male pups tend to be a bit bigger than females.

Athena and I named our little pup “Jan17” for the day she came into the world.

Jan17 started barking, now robustly, in response to her mother’s barks, while the mother used her front flipper to swipe sand onto her body. She did this often, nearly constantly, in order to cool down her body.

Then about a half-hour post-birth, both mother and pup were resting quietly, two of them now breathing quietly together.

About 1.5 hours after the birth, the gulls scavenged and unearthed the placenta, a rich source of nutrients to squabble and squawk over. In the photo below, you can see the mother is barking in objection.

Months ago we bought a small book on Elephant Seals at a Point Reyes Visitor Center, and we had brought it along that day.

We waited around nearly two hours, hoping to see the first time the pup suckled.

We were enjoying a cup of tea and scone, when Athena read that sometimes a day or two will pass before the suckling begins. So we finished our tea, as gleeful as could be, bid adieu to the docent and headed out for new adventures.

We learned from the docents that in a few weeks, peak time, the elephant seal population at Point Reyes will number about 2,500. And later we had a higher vantage point from an overlook and saw thousands of seals lining the long stretch of beach.

As we drove out, we spotted about 50 tule elk in the distance. The sun was out, the hills were emerald, and a new baby seal had come into this world.

How incredible life can be.

Written by Jet Eliot.

Photos by Athena Alexander.

More information:

Book link: Elephant Seals, Revised Edition (2018) by Carole and Phil Adams

Link: Viewing Elephant Seals, Pt. Reyes, Nat’l. Park Service

Link: Northern Elephant Seals, the Marine Mammal Center