Always lovely to see, Western Trilliums are in bloom on the Mendonoma Coast now. Tricia Schuster photographed one of the first ones to bloom.

Promise me you won't pick them! If picked, the leaf-like bracts won't be there to produce food for next year. Picking trilliums can kill them, or at the very least, set them back for years. So not worth it, right?

Western Trillium blossoms change color as they age. Here's a photo Craig Tooley took some years ago showing the fresh white trillium and an older trillium, perhaps 5 to 7 days older, with a pink blossom.

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

Another sunny, warm, dry - as in no rain for weeks - day. New flash! The first of the northbound Gray Whales have been seen of our coast. These are the newly pregnant females headed to their feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.