March closes out with a new moon on the 31st and midday high tides in the five-foot range. Mid-April will bring the first of the annual meteor showers as the Lyrids make their appearance.
It is fully wildflower season. Pierce Point Road has an amazing super-bloom of fiddlenecks (Amsinckia intermedia), dense clusters of tiny golden-yellow curls on the west-side stretch near the McClure ranch. In Coast Miwok tradition, the leaves of this plant, known as tsepa, are an early salad green. The east side of Pierce Point Road has a dense population of wild radish, an introduced species related to the domestic radish. They have lavender and white four-petaled flowers. The Woodward fire of 2020 recycled nutrients into the soil, and this year, the purple lupine seem especially abundant along Woodward Valley Trail.
Wildflowers tend to draw our eyes to the ground with their bright colors and myriad shapes, but look up for trees that are also flowering. Red-barked madrone trees are showing their creamy-white sprays of urn-shaped flowers, and California buckeyes are sending up spikes of pinkish-brown flowers alongside the yellow fringes of flowering bay trees.
Larger numbers of northward-bound gray whales have been seen on clear days from the lighthouse. The migration typically slows down in April. Weaned northern elephant seal pups continue to gather along Drakes Beach.