As promised, here's the photo of a Blue Whale Craig Tooley took from an airplane last year.
And here's another Blue Whale Craig photographed several years ago.
The world's largest creature, Blue Whales are a rare sighting. They have been seen off the Mendonoma Coast this year, which is early. It signifies the abundance of food for these giants of the sea.
Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share these photos here. You can see more whale photography on Craig's web site: http://ruffimage.com/
On July 5th I saw what I thought was a breach out in the Pacific Ocean. The ocean was calm and I saw a big splash of white water. Now, Rick and I are a half mile away from the ocean so when we see a big splash like this we know something special is going on. Thinking it might be a Humpback, I trained our scope on it and saw it wasn't a breach but a huge spout. Blue Whales!!! There were three, perhaps four of these behemoths.
You can see the back in the photos below. Blue Whales are so huge they do not come out of the water except for a peek at their backs.
I have a much, much better photo of a Blue Whale, taken by Craig Tooley from an airplane. I will share that another day. Any day you see whales is a good day, but seeing Blues is something extra special.