It's always thrilling to see a Humpback Whale, or in Ron LeValley's case, two Humpback Whales.

Humpback Whales can be seen off the Mendonoma Coast in the summer and fall, though not in great numbers. Ron LeValley went out on a boat from Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg and came across two Humpbacks. And they came very close to the boat, obviously curious about the boat filled with people. Ron says they were spouted on several times and he had to clean his camera lens three times!

 Below is the tail of a diving Humpback.

 And below the Humpback is about to spout. I have a feeling this is one of the times Ron had to clean his camera lens.

And here is a Humpback's barnacle-encrusted tail fins.  Ron says there are two species of barnacles on this whale - the acorn barnacle, Coronula diadema, which is unique to the humpback and the rabbit-eared barnacle, Conchoderma, a kind of stalked or goose-necked barnacle that settles on Coronula.

Below you will see this Humpback Whale is taking a good look at Ron!

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his fabulous photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's photography, here is his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/