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Old Point Reyes Schoolhouse Homework Report
by Karen Gray
January, 2007 - The first days of the New Year brought unusually high winds out of the north followed by rare nights of hard freezes. Sadly, the winds downed trees that took the life of one west Marin woman. They also caused a fire that burned Manka’s Inverness Lodge and Restaurant to the ground. The record freezes, while unremarkable in other parts of the country, did real damage to the Schoolhouse gardens of coastal natives and perennials. We’ve been pruning and hauling out dead brown thatch for days now. Fortunately, most everything is already sending out tender new growth from the roots.
My biggest concern during this time is for the hummingbirds who wintered over on the coast. Not only are their tiny bodies particularly susceptible to freezing temperatures but there are next to no flowers with nectar to be had locally. I’ve doubled my feeders and take special care to thaw them out in the early morning.
Further afield in early January my son, a mutual friend and I gradually moved along Drake’s Beach as they were fly fishing the surf there. As we chatted with the sun in our eyes, a very large silvery log ahead on the sand raised up and turned its snout in our direction. The first of the elephant seals had returned. Hunted nearly to extinction for their pelts, there were none in Point Reyes when we first moved here. We are now blessed with quite a large colony in residence over the winter.
Down south at the Bolinas Lagoon, twenty-some species of ducks and geese are massed on the water. Some have come over the Bering Straights from Russia flying thousands of miles to get here. They are wearing their most beautiful plumage for the mating rituals that preceed their migration back up north to their nesting grounds in the artic. Viewing is spectacular just from the side of the road with many individuals right at the water’s edge.
The gray whales are also migrating, heading south along the coast in great numbers now too, on their way to Baja, Mexico. My family spent a week on the rugged Sonoma coast north of here this month. Sitting on the deck in the sunshine we watched the whales surfacing so close to shore that we could hear their breathing. We also enjoyed minus tides then, revealing the fascinating life forms usually hidden from view under the sea surface: orange, lavender, red and purple sea stars, colonies of barnacles and muscles, sea anemonies, limpets, tiny crabs and fish.
The neon green of California’s ‘second spring’ is rich on the hills now. Pussy willows are full and silvery on their branches above the creek banks. Despite the cold temperatures coastal California is preparing to bloom.
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