Tag Archives: Craig Tooley

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Many of our native wildflowers are quite small so you need to pay close attention when hiking in forests or on bluffs. Here are a few that are currently blooming.

Milkmaids, Cardamine californica, a member of the mustard family.

Milkmaids by Amy Ruegg

And Hooker's Fairybells, Disporum hookeri, a member of the lily family. The flowers shyly hid underneath this plant's leaves.

Fairy Bells by Amy Ruegg

Slink Pod, aka Fetid Adder's Tongue, Scoliopus bigelovii, also a member of the lily family.

Fetid Adder's Tongue, the first wildflower of the year, by Craig Tooley

All of these and more are blooming now, though the Slink Pod bloom may be over. I will share more of our coastal wildflowers soon.

The first two photos were taken by Amy Ruegg and the last was taken by Craig Tooley. I thank them for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is his website: www.ruffimage.com

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Craig Tooley was out with his camera and photographed some of the big waves that have been hitting the coast. The first two show the action at Hearn Gulch, which is found in Mendocino County at mile marker 10.0 just north of Iversen Road. As you can clearly see in the second photo, there is an impressive blowhole there.

A beautiful day on the Mendonoma Coast by Craig Tooley Big waves at Hearn Gulch by Craig Tooley

And Craig captured big waves and a rainbow - just lovely to see.

Big waves and rainbows by Craig Tooley

Thanks 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

To learn more about Hearn Gulch, here is the link to the Redwood Coast Land Conservancy: http://www.rc-lc.org/ These fine folks have worked to bring us public access to Hearn Gulch, Cooks Beach and the Gualala Bluff Trail, and I, for one, am very grateful!

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Craig Tooley was out at Black Point Beach at The Sea Ranch when he noticed dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins!

Bottlenose dolphins by Craig Tooley

A bottlenose dolphin by Craig Tooley

I sent Craig’s photos to Bill Keener of Golden Gate Cetacean Research. He wrote, “Wow, these are great shots, and I can immediately recognize the individual dolphins here! In the background is Allure, in the middle is Bliss, a female who had a calf two years ago, and in the foreground is Fletcher.
“They have all been sighted fairly recently in the SF Bay Area. This is valuable information. We are working on a scientific paper with all the dolphin researchers in California describing how the coastal bottlenose stock is expanding its range north. Craig’s photos are one more set of data that prove it.”

It is the dorsal fin that allows scientists like Bill to identify individual animals. It’s exciting to be able to contribute to Bill’s research through our citizen science, and with the talent of a great photographer like Craig.

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

To learn more about the Golden Gate Cetacean Research organization, here is their website: http://www.ggcetacean.org/

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Craig Tooley titled this photo "A rare sighting." Thankfully, this year seasonal creeks are full, and beautiful cascades such as this one are not hard to find.

A rare sighting - a waterfall by Craig Tooley

And there's a mushroom growing in the foreground.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo 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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Spiders are associated with Halloween so I thought I'd share a recent photo of a scary-looking Orb Weaver. Kathy Gustafson photographed this spider. She and I believe it is a Pumpkin Orb Weaver.

Pumpkin Orb Weaver Spider by Kathy Gustafson

Even though it looks pretty scary, it's a good guy in the spider world. Harmless to humans, orb weavers build beautiful webs.

Rozann Grunig recently photographer spider webs, highlighted by morning dew. They may well have been built by orb weaver spiders.

Spider Webs by Rozann Grunig

Here's a photo of spider web jewels taken by Craig Tooley. It is in Craig's and my beautiful book, Mendonoma Sightings Throughout the Year.

Rivers

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