If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the chefs of Fort Bragg were trying to outdo themselves with special huckleberry infused foods during the 2nd Annual Huckleberries and Hounds Festival scheduled for Sept. 26-28.

Breakfast

• Cafe One will offer scones and pancakes.
• Eggheads will add huckleberries to their famous Kansas Cakes.
• Mendocino Cookie Company will create a huckleberry bran muffin.

Dinner

• vCanto says its pastry chef is planning a gourmet dessert.
• The Restaurant plans for a gourmet chicken dish with huckleberry sauce and huckleberry dessert.
• Mendo Bistro will create a venison leg with huckleberry sauce and a frozen vanilla bean souffle with huckleberry soup.
• Rendezvous Chef Kim Badenhop is working on a special menu to be revealed later this week.

More on specific plans as they unveil them in the next week.

After rave reviews for last year’s Huckleberries and Hounds Festival, the Fort Bragg Promotion Committee decided to fund the event for a second year. This year, however, the festival will be moved from the third week of October to the end of September, closer to the midpoint of the huckleberry growing season. Huckleberry King and area supplier Eric Schramm, who invented a machine to clean the pea-size fruit so it’s ready for cooking up pancakes, creating sauces and making ice cream, is gearing up for the season. Johanna Jensen of the Mendocino County Dog Owners Group (McDog) has organized the dog events for a second year. Most interesting to me: doggie art making. Paint will be applied to their feet so they can create their art by running up and down the aisles on an art canvas at Racine’s, an office and art supply store on Franklin Street in Fort Bragg. That will be a sight to see. More than a dozen local restaurants are expected to offer huckleberry infused treats. Among them: Egghead’s corn meal Kansas Cakes and Cafe One’s huckleberry scones.

Where does one of the world’s top birders spend most of his time with spotting scope and camera in pursuit of happiness? The answer: Fort Bragg, California, 150 miles north of San Francisco on the ruggedly beautiful Mendocino Coast.
You might find Ron LeValley, a birder, adventurer, biologist and nature photographer, scouting the rocky shoreline of Fort Bragg’s MacKerricher State Park in search of Black Oyster Catchers or rare and endangered Snowy Plovers.

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This handsome fella may have won the Ugliest Dog Title at the Petaluma contest, but it wasn’t crowned at the original Ugly Dog Contest. Paul Bunyan Days, the oldest small town celebration on the Mendocino Coast, has posters from as far back as 1967 advertising our Ugly Dog Contest, which we believe makes our contest the original.

Don’t have an ugly dog?  Don’t worry, you and your dog buddy can still join in the fun by entering at least one of the other categories.

Registration for the competition begins at 2, and judging starts at 3, on Saturday, August 30th. Look for us on the field at the corner of N Harold and E Laurel. Better yet, visit the Paul Bunyan Days web site for a map and complete listing of the many fun family events.

Fort Bragg pelagic trips offer one of the best opportunities to find Hawaiian Petrels anywhere on the California coast. Three sightings of HAWAIIAN PETRELS on Shearwater Journey’s August 8, 2008 pelagic trip from Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor thrilled seabirders with repeated passes as close as 50 feet to the boat! It’d been in the news that 8-8-08 was supposed to be a very lucky day - and indeed it was for the folks who searched for Mega-rarities on the Shearwater journey.

Other highlights of the trip included two XANTUS’ MURRELETS, sitting on the water providing excellent views of this small alcid that rarely reaches northern California; a BLUE WHALE just outside of the harbor, over 90 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES; great views of CASSIN’S AUKLETS; a grand slam on all three species of jaegers, POMARINE, PARASITIC, and LONG-TAILED JAEGERS; over 550 COMMON MURRES, many with chicks, 55 RHINOCEROS AUKLETS, and other assorted wildlife.

There were great sea conditions, with practically no wind from the north. This presented a rare opportunity to travel south with no fears of being “creamed” on their return trip to the harbor by the prevailing northwest winds.

Conditions were so perfect that she decided to head to a “Life” canyon for her - Navarro Canyon off of Point Arena. Debbie explained, “This area of ocean has practically never been explored by any seabirders. Navarro Canyon needs much more exploration, and I fully intend to do this!”