Happy Vernal Equinox from the North Coast ~ We have been enjoying a cool, wet winter, and now brilliant and vivid green start to spring on Wave Cut Ranch.

For the past couple of weeks humongous and majestic trailing flocks of migrating Aleutian cackling geese have been passing over the Mendocino coast on their route to breeding grounds in the Aleutian Islands off western Alaska. On very windy days they skim the surface of the ocean, but usually pass high overhead, some of the breathtaking snaking V-shaped flocks numbering over 600 individuals. We hear their distinct sky-chatter approaching high overhead before we see them – like the crowd noise from an open air stadium in the sky.  

The Violet-green and Barn swallows have also returned to Wave Cut Ranch! One of our favorite signals of approaching Spring. Their flocks steadily grown in number over the next several weeks, happily swooping our pastures for insects since we have commenced our major restoration projects of restoring the coastal prairie on Wave Cut Ranch, thus enhancing the invertebrate and bird populations, by removing major stands of invasive eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Scotch and French broom from the marine terrace.   

Because of the cool and wet late winter this year, and the cold ocean temperatures the native flowers on Wave Cut Ranch are a bit delayed blooming. We are keeping a watchful eye on our Douglas iris patches, and for early-bird Cal poppies. Meanwhile, the native California blackberry ground hugging vines have been blooming with beautiful small white rose family blossoms, sustaining the first bumble bees to cruise the pastures and meadows here.

This time of year on the north coast, California’s coastal bunchgrass prairies are bursting with verdant growth, are starting to bloom and support the emerging pollinators, invertebrates, nesting and foraging birds, amphibians including Pacific chorus frogs, numerous coastal reptiles, a multitude of rodents and small mammals, and more!

Here is a link to our article on California’s precious and imperiled coastal prairies

At vernal equinox this year the seasonal saturation wetlands and vernal pools on the north coast are a bit past their peak inundation, and water levels are starting to wane. But wetland plants, algae, microbes, invertebrates, and amphibians that depend on the seasonal wetlands are emerging and flourishing within their constrained hatching-blooming-reproductive cycles and season.

Here is a link to our podcast about California’s Vernal Pools and Seasonal Wetlands this spring

New life on the ranch for Spring!

Last spring equinox it was seven chicks and an orphaned/abandoned rabbit, who have grown up into thriving permanent residents at Wave Cut Ranch. And this vernal equinox it is our beloved new ranch dog, Starla! A rescue Australian Shepard extraordinaire ~  

The horses (Tule and Cali) are fat and happy in the verdant green pastures this equinox, as they profusely shed their itchy, bleached winter coats in great drifting wind driven clumps that adhere to everything, and which the breeding birds are eagerly harvesting for nesting material.

And new life in the Wave Cut Ranch Family!

And last but not least, this Spring Equinox we are blessed with the first of the next generation of the Wave Cut Ranch family ~ grandbaby, Logan!!!