grunion greeting, 2009 #2

grunion (smelt?), western grebe, black-crowned night heron
full moon cycle (11:25pm - 1:05am), clear skies

Love my high quality pics?!? We went out grunion greeting on Del Monte Beach again. Although there are other grunion beaches on the Monterey area list, Del Monte is convenient for us. The experience was quite a change from the night before with the group from the workshop. Besides someone sleeping in the sand, we were the only people on the beach!

The only grunion (or smelt?) we saw for sure was a dead one washed up ashore 2 feet away from a dead grebe. Fortunately, a sprightly night heron was hunting nearby to entertain us while we enjoyed the romantic fuller moon and soothing sounds of the waves. It was facing away from the water and we took an immediate kindred liking to it as humans and bird alike were running back and forth along the berm to avoid the larger waves. There was also a floating bird, possibly a grebe, not too far out in the water that was diving. A lighted squid boat anchored and stayed straight out from the cement structure almost the entire watch period. From about May 5-12, squid boats were out on the bay well into the daylight hours - normally we only see them at night.

Since it was so dark, the dead bird could have been a Clark's grebe. I had no idea what kind of bird it was until I got home to look it up. I didn't know to check if it had white under its eyes (Clark's) or black under its eyes (western) to distinguish between the 2 species. Plus, we're not sure how to tell the difference between a dead grunion and a dead smelt.

This night heron managed to gulp down one silvery, skinny fish, which we later believed to be a grunion. After about an hour and a half, the night heron flew away inland with a companion. We decided if it knew to go, so should we.

May 24 is the next scheduled grunion watch; we'll be there.

grunion greeting, 2009 #1

We attended a Grunion Greeting Workshop at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. Among many informative and serious bits of information, they also showed a film clip from the 1981 horror movie Piranha II: The Spawning by James Cameron, which featured genetically modified attack fish created from grunions, piranha, and flying fish. We still laugh about this film and think we should add it to our Netflix queue.

Later that day (10:55pm-12:55am) we went out to Del Monte Beach in Monterey with a group from the workshop, including Dr. Karen Martin from Pepperdine University. She had the coolest toy - a night vision scope! A visitor from out of town compared watching grunion to watching the bulls run in Spain. I thought that was an odd comment. I hope we're not that odd.

We missed seeing the 4 scouts other people saw, because we had walked down the beach to the cement structure where we saw a night heron land briefly on the berm.

habitat ~ 05/08/09 ~ Pinnacles National Monument

Pinnacles National Monument - west entrance

May 8, 2009

smoky arches moth ~ 05/08/09 ~ Pinnacles

smoky arches moth
Drasteria fumosa
8629

It sure is pretty! Noctuidae? It makes for an awesome Rorschach test. I see a horse's head like Chauvet Cave drawings in the dark part.

ps 10/14/10 -In the neighborhood of Hodges 8640?

pss 04/06/11 - This was one of first 5 posts on Nature ID. I originally posted it as an unknown moth. Thanks to the help of Chris Grinter of the Skeptical Moth, I now have corrected the ID above with embedded links.