Humpback Whales spouting a rainbow, as photographed by Richard Kuehn.

Though Rich Kuehn took these photos off the coast of Monterey, Humpbacks occasionally are seen off the Mendonoma Coast in summer and autumn. I thought his photo was so beautiful and asked if I could share it here. With the spout showing a rainbow, the Gulls and the blue Pacific Ocean, it is an amazing photo.

 Thanks to Rich for allowing me to share his photo with you here.

Friday's sunset - a vision of golds and oranges.

Friday's sunset was so beautiful. It evolved over a period of a half hour. Here is a photo I took just after the sun disappeared from view.

This photo was taken from our deck in Anchor Bay.

Quail Dad "talking" to one of his offspring, as photographed by Siegfried Matull.

Siegfried and Gretel Matull were enjoying watching birds in their garden at The Sea Ranch, including several families of Quail. Siegfried wrote, “Unexpectedly a father Quail and one of his young kids came flying onto one of our driftwood planters, right in front of us. They were only three yards away and totally ignored us, staying for about five minutes. From time to time the father was ‘talking’ to his kid, like giving him advice."

Siegfried said further, "This nature encounter created a beautiful feeling for us. We are really so blessed to live in this Mendonoma nature paradise!”

Thanks to Siegfried for allowing me to share his fun photo with you here.

Dyer's Polypores are popping up on the Mendonoma Coast.

Sometimes it seems like they pop up full grown overnight, and other times you can see them evolve over a period of several weeks; Dyer's Polypores are here. Their scientific name is Phaeolus schweinitzii. Several just made an appearance on our land this week, yet one fruited several months ago in our forest. Craig Tooley was there to photograph it. It has a rather unusual top to it.

Below is one Rick and I just noticed yesterday afternoon. It's quite beautiful, don't you think?

And here is one that is just emerging. It will be fun to watch it as the days go by.

This fungus has its role to play in nature as it helps to decompose dead wood. Dyers of yarn prize this fungus for the pigment it holds. Depending on the age of the fungus, they can dye yarn yellow, orange or brown.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo, the first one here, with you. To see much more of Craig's photography, here is his website: ruffimage.com

A Buttermilk sunrise, as photographed by Drew Fagan

A low pressure system has swept away the fog and brought beautiful clouds. This morning the sunrise was amazing and Drew Fagan captured it with his camera.

And last night's sunset was beautiful too. I took this photo from our deck in Anchor Bay.

Thanks to Drew for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see Drew's art, here is his website: http://drewfagan.com/

A few Boletus edulis have popped up - porcini, anyone?

Several King Boletes, Boletus edulis, have appeared, though we haven't had any recent rains. Irma Brandt went out recently, looking for moist soil under pine needles. This is what she found - a nice, fat King Bolete under a Bishop Pine tree.

This mushrooms usually fruits in November, when our first rains trigger their appearance. Rick and I have checked our spots and no mushrooms have appeared. It will be interesting to see what kind of wild mushroom season we have this year.

Thanks to Irma for allowing me to share her photo with you here. To see Irma with the biggest bolete I've ever seen, here is the link: http://mendonomasightings.blogspot.com/2011/10/biggest-king-bolete-ive-ever-seen-was.html

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/