Paul Brewer photographed this beautiful Monarch resting on a geranium.
The winds shifted a bit yesterday, bringing smoke to the coast. Not as bad as a week ago when Paul took this eerie photo of the sun.
Thanks to Paul for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Paul's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.capturingnatureswonders.com/
We are doing our best rain dance. Want to join in?
Cooks Beach, just north of the town of Gualala, has a large pocket beach, a creek for little ones to play in, and a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. It's a perfect place to go to see the sunset. Eric Duff did just that a few weeks ago.
I love the reflection on the wet sand. Thanks to Eric for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To learn more about Cooks Beach, here is the link to the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy: http://www.rc-lc.org/
Some smoke has flowed into the coast from the inland fires today. It's not too bad, but you definitely can smell smoke. There are a lot of evacuees here, and we are trying to help them as best we can. We pray the rain in our forecast materializes. It is forecast for late Wednesday. Rain would be such a boon for Northern California.
Grace O'Malley spotted this Hummingbird Moth, Hyles lineata, in her garden near Timber Cove. In Grace's first photo you can see the very long tongue of this moth.
Grace wrote,“A Hummingbird Moth appeared in my garden, hovering around and sipping nectar from the Giant Impatiens. The U.S. Forest Service advises ‘like most moths, they have a very long tongue which they carry rolled under their chins’ and unfurl to reach the nectar of the long-necked flowers they prefer."
These spectacular moths are most often seen around dusk. Thanks to Grace for allowing me to share her photos with you here.
The Mendonoma coast is free of smoke from the terrible fires. Many evacuees have come here and their stories are heartbreaking. Rain is in our forecast for next Wednesday. We hope it will come sooner than that and put out all the fires.
Craig Tooley photographed the sun yesterday. The terrible fires that began Sunday night inland from the coast have brought smoky skies. This was taken in the middle of the afternoon.
The smoke is less today, but we can't relax until the first rains come. Steve Paulson of KTVU TV said the long range forecast shows rain possible Oct. 20th. May it be so!
Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here.
Pacific Wrens are hard to photograph, at least for me! They used to be called Winter Wrens, but their name was changed a few years ago. This little bird with the upright tail was foraging near a small pond in our creek. Our neighbor, Karen Tracy, pointed this bird out to me. Thanks, Karen!
Also seen was another inconspicuous bird, a Brown Creeper.
In the bottom photo, the Creeper caught a bug!
We are having a warm day here on the Mendonoma coast today. With the clear horizon last night, Rick and I saw a small green flash at sunset, bringing feelings of gratitude and happiness.