Tag Archives: Ron LeValley

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It's practically impossible to tell an Allen's Hummingbird and a Rufous Hummingbird apart. Even experienced birders have  difficult time. Let's face it, they look the same to me! Ron LeValley suspects this is a Rufous, as they migrate through our area as this time of year.

If you look closely at Ron's photo, you will see a tiny spider on the hummer's beak. Great shot! Rufous Hummingbirds migrate north as far as Alaska and then return south in the fall - or in the case of the Mendonoma Coast, late summer - sometimes all the way to Central America. Quite a migration for such a tiny bird.

Rufous Hummingbirds are very feisty. Two have shown up in my garden in Anchor Bay. They are having aerial battles with the resident Anna's Hummingbirds. It's quite a show.

To hear the sound of this hummingbird, here's the link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/rufous_hummingbird/sounds

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his beautiful photo with you here. I can almost hear this hummer's wing beats. To see much more of Ron's photography, here's his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/

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Ron LeValley photographed a pair of Water Striders mating on a pond. Look closely at the surface tension of the water - trees are reflected.

Water Striders are bugs that can literally walk on water. They eat insects on the surface of the water.

Beauty surrounds us if we but pause to notice. Lucky for us that Ron has allowed me to share his photo here. To see much more of  Ron's photography, here is his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/

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I love these dolphins. Risso's Dolphins look like no others, with their rounded heads and scarred bodies. Ron LeValley got these fantastic photos of them.

They usually are about ten feet long, though they can get as big as fourteen feet long.

Risso's Dolphins feed on Squid and the scars on their bodies are believed to be from their encounters with their prey.

Risso's often travel in large pods and have been seen surfing waves and even the wakes of Gray Whales.
The male is a little bigger than the female. Here Ron shows you what their dorsal fins look like. 

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

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Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila menziesii, are blooming in sunny spots on the Coast. A great place to see them is in the meadows at the Stornetta Public Lands. Ron LeValley recently photographed a lovely group of them near Fort Bragg at MacKerricher State Park, obviously another great place to see them.

 And here is a close-up of this wildflower. In Reny Parker's book, Wildflowers of Northern California's Wine Country & North Coast Ranges, she writes, "Baby Blue Eyes...the spring sky smiling up at itself."

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

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Susan Gonzalez sent in this photo to see if she could get an identification. Ron LeValley identified it as a partially leucistic American Robin.

You can see it's not a true albino as its eyes are normal color. Still it is a very unusual bird.

Thanks to Susan for allowing me to share this photo with you here. To see two other partially leucistic birds, here's the link: http://www.mendonomasightings.com/2012/09/05/two-strangely-colored-jays/