This gull was obviously having fun goofing around with the little wavelets rippling over the big flat expanse of stone. Was he/she simultaneously looking for something to eat? A good bet.
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This gull on a post in Big River’s estuary is so accustomed to humans, I had the feeling he/she would have allowed me to pet her/him. However, I wanted to make sure to get a good picture, so I stopped ten feet away and he/she graciously allowed me to make this portrait.
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I take pictures of these trees on the south side of Big River’s estuary every winter when the white branches are dramatically naked of leaves. Here the trees are leafing anew.
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When Marcia and I bought our house twelve years ago, one of the very first things we did was to have a sturdy deer fence installed around half our property to keep the ravenous ungulates from eating everything except the rhododendrons and huckleberry bushes. However, I did not extend the fence to include the apple tree in this picture because the little tree was hidden in a dense tangle of vines. I only discovered the apple tree after the deer fence was complete.
I have several times since then considered digging up the tree and transplanting her inside the deer fence. However, that would mean planting her in soil infested by voraciously thirsty redwood roots, and without her taproot, chances of survival would be nil.
During our twelve-year tenure here, the little tree has been harshly pruned by browsing deer, and with each passing year more and more of her branches and blossoms form higher than all but the biggest and most ambitious (starving) deer can reach.
However, despite this year’s amazing blossom set, the continuing absence of pollinators, notably bees, means the valiant little tree may not produce many or any apples. The bees are absent because our misguided local, state, and national governments continue to allow the use of pesticides and herbicides containing neonicotinoids that are the proven cause of honeybee and general insect decline in America and around the world. Don’t use Roundup!
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This rock in Mendocino Bay is extremely attractive to my eye. I’ve looked at this stone thousands of time in the last eighteen years, photographed it hundreds of times, and there is always a gull standing on the peak of the rock. I believe the eternal presence of a gull atop this rock explains everything.
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This mighty tree came down recently from her place on the headlands where she grew for a very long time. Countless photographs and paintings of Mendocino and Big River Beach dating back to the early 20th Century feature this tree standing above all the others. A defining feature of this stretch of the Mendocino headlands is no more.
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Pajaro, a piano solo from Todd and Marcia’s new album of songs Ahora Entras Tu.