Author Archives: Jeanne Jackson

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Craig Tooley caught this little treefrog looking up, as if looking at the stars.

A Sierran Tree frog by Craig TooleyI love these little frogs, which are also call Chorus frogs. For such a tiny frog, they have a big voice. Here are two photos Craig took of a Sierran Treefrog in the daylight hours. The pads on its feet give it the ability to climb pretty much anything. They act like suction cups.

Sierren Treefrog showing foot pads by Craig Tooley Sierran Treefrog by Craig TooleyThanks to Craig 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: www.ruffimage.com

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You never know what you might see on the beach. We had some high surf several weeks ago due to the remnants of a hurricane. Marilyn Green wrote, “Here is a comical and almost friendly green crab on Pebble Beach, The Sea Ranch. I certainly enjoyed ‘meeting’ this creature.”

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I sent Marilyn’s photo to Carol Preston of NOAA. She wrote, “It is a Lined shore crab, Pachygrapsus crassipes. It is fairly common in the high tide zone. This particular one is especially beautiful.”

This small crab is found from Oregon to Baja California.

Thanks to Marilyn for allowing me to share her photo.

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Name change alert! The powers that be have split the Western Scrub-Jay into two species. Our Western Scrub-Jay is now a California Scrub-Jay. This feisty jay decided the Gray fox was an intruder and started dive bombing it. Hal Fogel photographed the event.

IMG_9026.CR2The fox decided this wasn't the place to explore, and it headed off.

Hal has been visited by Gray foxes in the past. This is one of my favorite photos of Hal's - a very intent fox!

Intent Gray Fox by Hal Fogel

Thanks to Hal for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

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...of a silvery moon. That's the title Vicki Albiston gave to her recent sunset photo, which shows a crescent moon and the sunset reflecting on clouds.

By the light of the silvery moon by Vicki AlbistonWe haven't seen many sunsets recently, with all the fog covering the ocean. But the fog keeps the temperatures nice and cool, and the plants moist - something to be appreciated.

Thanks to Vicki for allowing me to share her photo with you here.

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Local diver, Jack Likins, recently SCUBA dove at Stillwater Cover. He's one of the volunteers with Reef Check California. These divers collect data by doing invertebrate, fish, algae and habitat transects using SCUBA tanks. Here's a photo of Jack taken by David Hills.
Jack Likins scuba diving for Reef Check California by David HillsJack reports that the conditions at Stillwater Cover are pretty dismal. He didn't see much kelp, though he did see some big fish and plenty of abalones in deeper water - over 20 feet deep. He did find the abalones there were hungry. He waved a kelp frond in front of some abs, and they would 'jump' up and grab it.
He then took some of the volunteer divers to a spot off The Sea Ranch to dive for abalone. Of course no tanks can be used for that - it's free-diving only. Here's what Jack found, "Sea Ranch was a completely different story. The bull kelp and the shorter brown kelp is making a strong recovery with some nice thick patches. The abalones looked 'meaty.' The bad news is the purple sea urchins are still pretty dense, but there seems to be enough food for everyone. We didn't see many fish, but maybe because of the wind and currents, which made it hard to free-dive. There is still a lot of sand in areas that are usually rocky this time of the year.
"The Nature Conservancy has developed a website for recreational abalone divers to submit size data for the abalones they catch. The hope is that the data will be used by the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife to help manage our abalone fishery." People can check it out and submit data at https://tncfish.typeform.com/to/CzaLS3
To learn more about Reef Check California, here is the link to their website: http://www.reefcheck.org/california/ca-overview
Here is one of my favorite photos of Jack with a ten+ inch abalone. He was photographed among Naked Ladies, a non-native flower that many of us love.
Jack Likins finds a big Abalone by Roger Rude (Large)Thanks to David and Jack for allowing me to share these photos with you here.