“Fogust” is around the corner! But fog permitting, sky watchers may enjoy the conjunction of the moon, Mars and Jupiter on the evening of Tuesday, July 30. These celestial orbs will appear close together; they don’t change position in the sky, but they look as if they did. The new moon of Aug. 4 will usher in a continuing summer pattern of early-morning, very low minus tides and afternoon high tides.
Beneath our fog-bound skies we are being rewarded with the luscious purple gems of berry season, as both blackberries and huckleberries ripen. Two species of blackberries grow here: the native California berry, which is about the size of a dime, and the larger Himalayan berry, about the size of a quarter. Use care in picking blackberries, as poison oak often drapes its vines over the sturdier berry canes. Huckleberry shrubs laden with small berries are found amidst the bishop pine forests of the Inverness Ridge.
Humpback whales have returned to our waters, bringing sightings at the Headlands, Limantour and Great Beach. Unlike winter migrating gray whales, humpbacks linger, splashing and lunging into clouds of krill and schools of small fish such as herring. As long as the food holds out, they’ll be here, returning to southern tropical waters in the winter.