February 21,2024 Wednesday

2 North Bound Gray Whales 0 South Bound 5.25 hrs REW (3)

Partly sunny, partly cloudy day with muddy nearshore water from the recent rain runoff didn’t prevent Bottlenose Dolphins from displaying hunting and social behaviors for the majority of the day; delighting beachgoers with non stop action. Lob tailing, leaping (porpoising) spy hopping,rolling with white belly displays (possibly courtship) as many smaller pods interacted, coming and going in all directions, speeding across the transect at times or slowly meandering through the debris.

The road into the beach suffered at least four small landslides which forced the closure of the two way road into a single lane in two sections. The hillside trail going up to the Natural Preserve also suffered two small land slides which brought down dirt and several ancient Giant Coreopsis plants.

One Gray Whale sighting with two whales northbound. The pair stopped at Bird Rock for a minute before heading out past the muddy water and continued to migrate north bound.

Sun Dog Rainbows formed at sunset on both sides of the sun as it was setting. Typically this phenomenon is seen 22° to the left or right of the Sun. They can also meet to form a Sun Halo. Technically it is known as parhelia (singular parhelion) they can be white but sometimes quite colorful and appear looking like detached pieces of a rainbow, with prismatic colors of red closest to the Sun, with blue towards the outside, furthest away from the sun.

**** REW ( Reliable Eye Witness ) counts are not included in the daily or weekly tally: they are counted and kept separately as a record of the whales observed at Point Dume. The REW counts are extremely helpful and provide important data to keep track of the seasonal and daily changes of the migration. The total gray whale population has declined 46% due to the ongoing UME (Unusual Mortality Event) from 2019-2024.

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