Tag Archives: Craig Tooley

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Craig Tooley recently spent some time photographing the birds on an offshore rock at The Sea Ranch. He found some Brown Pelicans in breeding plumage - yellow on the top of their white heads, and red skin on their throat patch. It certainly does seem early!

Those black birds are Brandt's Cormorants, and the dark brown bird is a juvenile Brandt's. At the very top of Craig's photo looks to be the bottom parts of a Western Gull. Nice to see everybody getting along!

Below is a video Craig took showing the pelicans preening themselves. They are resting on the journey southward.

I will miss their comings and goings during the winter months, and look forward to seeing them again in late spring.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo and video with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

A beautiful cool day here today. Fog rolled in over the ocean this afternoon and it's a sea of white. A storm is arriving early tomorrow.

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Several species of swallows migrate northward to the Mendonoma Coast to build their nests, lay their eggs and then diligently feed their chicks. Craig Tooley wrote, "These little Barn Swallows are perched above the front door of friends of ours. Our friends have graciously decided to enter and exit their house through the back door until the chicks fledge. The swallow parents are hard-working.”

Later Craig noticed this Barn Swallow skimming over the sand, presumably scooping up insects from the wrack on the beach.

Interested to know what beach wrack is? Here's an explanation from the web:

Natural material that washes onto the beach is referred to as wrack and includes algae, sea grasses, and some invertebrates such as sponges and soft corals. Wrack serves as the primary source of nutrients to beach communities and is the foundation for the food chain.

Good to know!

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

It's beautiful here on the Mendonoma coast today, temps in the 70s with a stronger afternoon breeze.

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I wouldn't call these small wildflowers rare, but they don't bloom very often. Neighbors have a fairly large colony of them, but only one bloomed this year. In showing some of the rare wildflowers at Rick's and my place, we found a group of Little Prince's Pine blooming along a trail up from the forest floor.

They stand only a couple of inches tall and they are very easy to overlook. Native wildflowers, in many cases, are Mother Nature's way of seeing if you are paying attention!

Thanks to Craig Tooley for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

It's breezy and warm, with the fog out over the ocean. I have a second clutch of Violet-green Swallows in a birdhouse under the eaves. The babies are getting very loud and I think they will be fledging soon.

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Another unusual plant appeared recently, one I have never seen before. It's Pyrola aphylla and has a rather silly common name of Leafless Wintergreen. It's blooming on the forest floor now. Craig Tooley came by several weeks ago and photographed the plants, which were just barely beginning to bloom. Craig's close-up of the bottom of the cluster shows several new shoots coming up and extremely small leaves.

More recently Mary Sue Ittner and Amy Ruegg, along with others, came over to see them too. You can see by Mary Sue's photo that most of the blossoms have opened  up.

And here's Amy's closeup of the beautiful flowers. Pyrola aphylla are perennial herbs and native to California.

For me, the amazing thing is, I've never seen them on Rick's and my land before, and we've been here over 27 years. What a welcome surprise!

Thanks to Craig, Mary Sue, and Amy for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Another foggy, cool day near the coast!

 

 

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There is something going on underground at Rick's and my place and an adjacent neighbor in Anchor Bay. Fungi and plants are weaving their magic for some rare and unusual wildflowers. The rarest of them is the Small Ground Cone, Kopsiopsis hookeri. They are mostly dried up now, but a single one barely pushed to the surface a few weeks ago. They are known to be symbiotic with the plant Salal. The new Small Ground Cone kind of looks like a turtle emerging from the sandy soil.

Nearby there are Gnome Plants, Hemitomes congestum. They come up in different places, but in the same general area. Fungi in the area is Matsutake and Queen Boletes. This photo of a newly emerged plant was taken by Bob Rutemoeller.

And just across from the Gnome Plants, a single California Pine Foot, Pityopus californicus. This photo was taken by Craig Tooley.

I have a couple more to show you, but on another day!

Thanks to Bob and Craig for allowing me to share their photos with you here. I sure wish I had 3-D glasses that would let me look into the ground and see all the connections going on down there!

Drippy fog this morning, enough to show .001 in the rain gauge. The sun is trying to break through this afternoon. The fog has lifted and the Pacific Ocean is still there! Yay!