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Here are a few more photos of the late afternoon rainbow I showed you yesterday. Judy Mello of the B Bryan Preserve in Point Arena sent in several photos taken by Cassidy Spooner. Here's Mazi, a nubian giraffe with a beautiful rainbow behind her.

Cassidy also photographed Anisa, a bontebok antelope.

They were having fun with their endangered animals and the rainbow!

Randall Balmer got a nice photo of the rainbow that day. He said it was stretching up and over the Gualala Ridge.

Dan Lewis found his pot of gold at Gualala Point Regional Park.

And if you'd like just one more...just one more rainbow pic, this is from this morning as the last storm in the series was moving out. Taken by me, a traditional early morning rainbow. It was like a gift.

Thanks to Cassidy, Randall, and Dan for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Yesterday's storm was nearly an inch of rain and we now have received 30.30 inches of rain season to date. Hooray! Now we have a stretch of dry weather to enjoy.

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The sun came out briefly late this afternoon and I saw  a glimpse of a rainbow to the east. During the last series of storms there were multiple late afternoon rainbows one day, and many people photographed them. Joan Rhine got this double rainbow in Gualala.

And Seve Cardosi got this one as she crossed the Gualala River Bridge. See how full the river is, and how muddy from the storms.

Carolyn Case was happy to find this afternoon rainbow at Gualala Point Regional Park.

Tomorrow I will show you some more from that day, including rainbows and a giraffe at B Bryan Preserve in Point Arena!

Thanks to Joan, Seve and Carolyn, aka CC, for allowing me to share their photos with you here.

Lots of rain today. The main storm seems to have passed late this afternoon, with showers at dusk. We've had six inches since the series of storms began on Jan. 1st. and a little over 30 inches season to date. The forecast says we will have a string of dry days ahead after the remnants of today's storm moves out. This could be a GREAT time to visit the Mendonoma Coast.

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Witch's Hat mushrooms, Hygrocybe conica, are quite tiny. When young, they can be a yellowish-green, as Paula found.

A week or so later, Paula sent in this photo, saying she had never seen it before. It's also a Witch's Hat; it just has turned black with age.

These mushrooms are not considered edible and with a common name of Witch's Hat, I wouldn't want to eat them anyway!

Thanks to Paula for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

We've had a lot of rain, nearly four inches since Jan. 1. We have one more storm coming in later today and raining tomorrow. Then the predictors say we have a dry week ahead. We need to dry out - the ground literally squishes when you walk on it!

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Acorn woodpeckers have been busy gathering up their namesake nuts and storing them in granary trees. Jon Shiu wrote, “I observed a couple acorn woodpeckers in Little River."

[At first] I have not seen them with any acorns. But I looked a little closer and could see the acorns.” Jon photographed a granary tree, a dead upright tree where they drilled holes to store their acorns.

These woodpeckers drill thousands of holes in dead trees, utility poles, and other wood, filling them with harvested acorns. The whole group constantly monitors and moves drying acorns to smaller holes to keep them secure from theft by other animals.

When my research mentioned “other wood,” I had no idea these birds would use an empty birdhouse for storage in Gualala. Mark Escajeda wrote, “We enjoy our delightfully noisome year-round neighbors, a community of acorn woodpeckers. They fly around and chat among themselves as if they own the place, which we guess in many ways they do. This year they've taken advantage of the idled birdhouses we have on our side of the fence. We'll clean the houses in late winter for springtime nesting by violet-green swallows and western bluebirds, but in the meantime, we're happy to help.”

Watching Nature is fascinating! Thanks to Jon and Mark for allowing me to share their photos with  you here.

We received 1.14 inches from the first storm, 25.27 season to date. Next storm is about to hit!

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I was in awe of last night's sunset. The reds were magnificent and it lasted for well over fifteen minutes. Rozanne Rapozo took several photos from her home on The Sea Ranch and I thought this one looked like a painting. But she assures me it was the actual sunset!

I took this photo from inside Rick's and my house in Anchor Bay as the sunset was getting going.

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

The vibrant sunset was letting us know a storm was headed our way. It's rather unusual in that it's coming in from the south. Most storms come in from the north. Batten down the hatches!

Happy New Year to you and yours!