The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 108

adequate for the eager peak-season crowds of whale watchers To avoid disappointment leave your car at Drakes Beach near the park entrance and take the free shuttle bus which runs from 10 am to 5 pm each weekend in January Call (415) 663-1092 for further information including the February schedule If you want to avoid the crowds entirely try one of the state parks some of which also have interpretive programs For information 445-4624 If you want to see the whales close up you might consider a sightseeing excursion by boat or airplane In the past few years whale-watching tours have grown to a multimillion dollar business In Northern California many of these tours are conducted by two non-profit organizations: The Whale Center in Oakland (415) 654-6621 and The Oceanic Society in San Francisco (415) 474-3385 Both groups are dedicated to building a constituency for whales both consider their tours an important part of their educational work The tours begin either in San Francisco or Half Moon Bay and feature three-hour excursions to Point Reyes Prices range from $19 to $27 depending on time of week and society membership Phone for reservations and details The Whale Center also offers airplane tours at $60 for members $65 for non-members For a list of other organizations providing whalewatching tours throughout California contact the state Office of Tourism 322-1396 Once you've spotted a whale don't be content with its spout Use your binoculars to look for the head tail flukes and back as the whale undulates through the motions of its swimming and diving cycle Watch also for more spectacular behavior including breaching and courtship rituals characterized by spectacular dives and a great thrashing of water "Skyhopping" is also common occunng when the whale raises its head vertically out of the water sometimes as far as 8 to 10 feet apparently trying to look around to get its bearings before continuing its journey Gray whales have been known to hold this position for longer than 30 seconds and often repeat it several times in succession There are scores of places along the coast where whales can be seen but for Northern Californians one place stands out the lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore 30 miles north of San Francisco Here the whales generally pass within five miles of the shore and often come within a mile The National Park Service cooperates to make this an exceptional whale-watching location stationing naturalists at the lighthouse and running a small information center to instruct visitors the ways of whales and whale-watching If you go to Point Reyes on a weekend however don't plan to park at the lighthouse the parking lot is small (accommodating only 20 to 30 cars) and is in CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE A big-beast bibliography By Richard A Lovett Special to The Bee Few wildlife species have generated as much literature as the great whales According to in there are 75 current titles that begin with the words or and hundreds more undoubtedly lurk under other parts of the alphabet Which is just fine if you want to look over some books before setting your sights on the real things These books can generally be divided into two categories: field guides and natural history texts Field guides are designed to assist the reader in identifying what species of whales have been spotted natural history texts contain information about whale biology often focusing strongly on whale behavior One of the hottest-selling books in local bookstores fits into neither category: Great Whale Rescue: An American Folk by Tom Tiede and Jack Findleton Selling at $1495 this 151-page hardback recounts the story of Humphrey the humpback whale who captivated Californians and gained national attention when he swam into the Sacramento River Delta in October 1985 For California whale watchers however the best introduction to this confusing jumble of information comes from two small booklets both of which are readily available in Sacramento Mammals of by Anita Daugherty is distributed free by the state Department of Fish and Game To obtain a copy of this 61-page field guide call 445-7613 during business hours The other is Oceanic Society Field Guide to the Gray available in bookstores for $395 Devoted exclusively to gray whales this 50-page booklet identifies 100 land-based whale-watching locations between Baja California and Alaska and gives background information about whales and the art of whale For those who want more information the best field guide according to most professional whale biologists is Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and (320 pages $1295) Robert Mammals of (64 pages $495) however provides a less expensive alternative that many readers will find a useful combination of field guide and natural-history text The Audubon Society's Guide to North See WHALES Scene page 8 A fluke opportunity can easily be yours By Richard A Lovett SpvcUl to 1 hf Bef Like its human neighbor the California gray whale is one of the great commuters Only migratory birds and a few other whales can match its annual 120tM)-mik round-trip pilgrimage Each October as the long Arctic night draws near and oceans begin to freeze the whales abandon their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Siberia and begin their annual migration to the warm bays of Baja there to court their mates and bear their oung Traveling singly or in small groups they cover (id to 100 miles a day and take between 22 and 3 months to complete the journey In mid-December the front-runners generally pregnant females hurrying to reach Raja in time to give birth begin to pass Northern California By mid-January the slower-moving males and non-pregnant females have arrived and the migration peaks with more than 100 whales visible each day from the lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore There is a mystique to these giant mammals and in recent years whale-watching has become an increasingly popular hobby among coastal Californians Part of this mystique was captured by the recent "Star Trek" movie which hurled the enterprise's crew backward in time for its own meeting ith the mysterious leviathans of the deep Of course time travel is not necessary for whale viewing Whales can be seen in clear weather any day between January and April from dozens of points along the California coast The California gray whale is the only species to have recovered from commercial extinction to relative abundance Since the 1920s when land-based whaling reduced their numbers to less than 5000 the whales have steadily multiplied Now there are more than 17000 of them a population almost as large as that which roamed the coast before it was devasted by commercial whaling One of the best things about the hobby of whale watching is that it requires no special equipment All you need to do is drive to any loft headland overlooking the Pacific taking with you warm clothes a picnic lunch and patience Binoculars a stop watch and a guide book are also useful but not mandatory hat you are looking for is the whale's spout the 15-foot plume of condensed water vapor that accompanies the high-pressure exhalation from its lungs On a calm day the spout will be visible for miles and if the whale comes close enough you might even be able to hear the explosive of its exhalation Be patient as you wait for your first whale Migrating gray whales generally stay submerged for several minutes at a time taking only three to five breaths between dives With a little practice you can use your watch to time the whale's breathing cycle predicting when and where it will next appear Bee graphicJames Carr £951 a satisfying stab at the master INSIDE Midlife mush 6 Shirley best-selling on a Limb" makes the move to TV with predictable results The Bob Wisehart reviews MOVIE REVIEW THE BEDROOM WINDOW Cast- Steve Guttenberg Isabelle Huppert Elizabeth McGovern Brad Greenquist Paul Shenar Wally Shawn Writer-director: Curtis Hanson Executive producer: Robert Towne Producer: Martha Schumacher Running time: 1 12 minutes Arden Cinedome Sacramento Orive-ln Rating: for violence language nudity sexual content By George Williams Bee Reviewer ost attempts by Hollywood directors to revive the spirit of the late Alfred Hitchcock have missed the mark including two sequels to But a new film written and directed by Curtis Hanson called Bedroom is an exception Bedroom gets you going Though it quite match the touch for gripping suspense and sophisticated storytelling close Hanson and his uncredited screenplay collaborator Robert Towne No 1 script doctor aimed high They have attempted to create the kind of spine-tingling emotion that graced best movie In that film Jimmy Stewart turns us all into peeping Toms as he spies on his neighbors in an apartment house across the courtyard from his flat where he an expert photographer armed with a roomful of telescopic lenses is recuperating from a broken leg Stewart becomes convinced one of his neighbors is a murderer but he convince the police Hitchcock loads us up with guilt as we See Scene page 4 Special to The Bee Elizabeth McGovern stumbles into trouble on the trail of a killer 7 i Video.