One storm was moving out before sunset last night, leaving us with this beautiful sight.
The last storm for a while moved in today and we have received a solid inch of the wet stuff, and it's raining as I write this. Mushrooms are appearing as if by magic. And it's such a blessing to have early rains.
Heather Crownover had a visit from two tiny owls. She wrote, “We recently have had close-up visits from Northern pygmy-owls, one of only a handful of diurnal owls. In the first picture, you can see one owl looking straight at me, while the other is just below and tucked away within the branches of the tree.
In the second picture, the lower owl has taken flight. The third picture was a different encounter where the owl seemed as interested in me as I was with him. I could not choose which picture to send of this small, but fierce, impressive bird.”
I love these little owls - they have false eyes on the back of their heads, a nice gift from Mother Nature. I was on KGUA FM radio last week, talking about this owl sighting. Peggy Berryhill asked me what diurnal meant. And I flubbed it! It means "of the day."
Thanks to Heather for allowing me to share her photos with you here.
It's been very cloudy and cool today. Rain is predicted for Friday.
Earlier this month Kate Bloch wrote,
"I was just about to email you two photos of wildlife I saw earlier this afternoon as sunset approached. Because it looked like the fog bank was a slim bank across the horizon, it seemed prudent to wait for any end-of-daylight pyrotechnics, and today certainly came to a close with a beautiful sunset and a lovely light purple flash. I hope you had a chance to witness the display."
"And here's a photo of the green flash from September 17th, as the flash ended up with a lovely silhouette of a pelican above it."
It isn't easy to photograph a green flash but Kate has the talent and ability to do so. I thank her for allowing me to share these photos with you here.
I did see a beautiful green flash last night, Monday. It's said to be good luck to see a green flash. I hope that works for photos of green/purple flashes too!
This morning it was sunny and mild. And then...and then...the fog came up from the south. Most of the time it comes from the north. It rolled over Rick's and my house in Anchor Bay early this afternoon and the temperature dropped dramatically/
Shari Goforth found this bald eagle hunting. She saw all the gulls take flight but the brown pelicans stayed in place. It's very rare for a bald eagle to take a much bigger brown pelican, but gulls are much easier pickings.
Thanks to Shari for allowing me to share her photo with you here.
The past weekend and today, Monday, have been warm with very little wind - perfect autumn days!
A sign of autumn, Dyer's Polypores are fun to spot in forests. Carolyn Case found two of them.
And Thane Frivold found one.
Dyer’s polypores are harbingers of autumn, letting us know the season is changing. Their role in nature is to decompose dead wood. They get their common name because dyer’s of wool use these mushrooms to dye the wool. When the mushroom is young, it dyes yellow, then orange, and then as it has aged, it dyes brown. I so enjoy watching them evolve in the forest.
Thanks to Carolyn and Thane for allowing me to share their photos with you here.
Bonus sightings today: Susy Rudy found two King Boletes, boletus edulis, yesterday - the first I have heard of this season. Hooray! And Humpback Whales are being seen today and the past couple of days in large numbers.