March 19, 2015 Wednesday

3 North Bound 0 South Bound 3.25 hrs

First sighting was a pair of Gray Whales in close to shore and second sighting one solo whale. Both traveled through quickly close to shore bearing out deeper towards the sun-line.

SunDog was seen tonight. Sun dog formations are an optical phenomenon, a partial section of a rainbow halo ring that forms at 22 degrees and the same altitude as the sun to the right or left or both. Tonight several types of clouds formed including a heart shaped cloud lit with the Sun-dog to the left of the sun. This optical phenomenon is only seen under the right circumstances: ice crystals form in high cirrus clouds or cirrostratus clouds which are thin ice filled marine layer like clouds. The sun light bends and is reflected back through the ice crystals horizontally. The bright shimmer of colors are always spectacular to see and always displayed with red the closest to the sun with blue furthest away based on refraction or bending of light rays through the ice crystals.

Large squadron of Brown Pelicans observed flying in scattered disorganized patterns heading out towards the setting sun. Finally aligning into an echelon or “V” shaped formation. This type of formation helps conserve energy as they follow one leader and form two diagonal lines. They fly on the updraft lift of the bird in front of them, allowing them to increase the distance they can travel at a lower speed.

Beautiful sunset with bright vibrant shades of orange and reds as the low marine layer forms past the Channel Islands and slowly moves towards the Point.

After sunset contrails from airplanes were back lit with visible shadows creating an optical phenomenon on the clouds further north past the islands. One of the contrails resembled a funnel cloud (Cumulonimbus incus clouds) which form into tornadoes seen during severe weather. Contrails are commonly seen all day with several flight paths from LAX to the south and to the north with Naval Air flights and Camarillo Airport. The shadow behind the contrail tonight was a rare sighting.

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