Cuvier's Beaked Whale
An incredible encounter with these rarely seen whales. They can dive for about 4 hours but thankfully, on this day they were only staying down for a half hour or so.
Short-eared Owl
One of the diurnal species of owls, they hunt during the daylight hours.
Pacific White-sided Dolphin
Movement
Snow Geese and Ross's Geese take flight.
Blue Heron - Rainbow Trout
The Heron was actually able to choke that huge trout down and actually caught and swallowed two more slightly smaller ones before taking off to digest.
Western Grebes
A mother grebe feeding her baby a feather (supposed to help in digestion of their real food) How cute is that baby?
Friendly Fin Whale
The second largest whale next to the Blue Whale. We had three of them hanging around our boat for a while.
Anna's Hummingbird
This one was getting quite territorial, even with me. Buzzing me while I was in the back yard, even when I was trying to change the feeder.
Mirror. Mirror.
Black Skimmer fishing on a still calm morning
Susan and Blue on the Little lakes Trail.
The Eastern Sierra around Mammoth has any number of beautiful hikes. The Little Lake Trail along Rock Creek is our favorite (so far)
Emergence
A Monarch butterfly pushes its way free of the chrysalis.
Monarch
Monarch Butterfly. So beautiful. So endangered.
Chrysalis
A Monarch butterfly's chrysalis, still wet with morning dew.
Southern Sea Otter
Risso's Dolphin Calf
A very young dolphin, you can see that it is still very lumpy and the fetal folds are quite prominent.
nelson
We named this Red-footed Booby "Nelson" after his third day riding shotgun on our boat.
Humpback Breach
Casper surfacing
Our most famous Risso's Dolphin, Casper (thought to be albino), comes up for a breath in perfect water conditions.
Just Breathe
Transient Killer Whale "Louise" bends water as she comes up for a breath in the glassy waters of Monterey Bay.
Bad day to be a sea lion
Killer whales will often celebrate after a successful hunt. This one was showing off the remains of the catch.
Friendly Humpback
This season, we had so many different friendly humpbacks stay with our boat! Such an amazing experience to have these very intelligent animals interact with us.
Mantis
A Praying Mantis that I found in our back yard. We don't often see these fascinating insects, so it was fun to be able to photograph her.
Successful hunt
A Bald Eagle carries a trout it had just snatched from the lake.
Northern Right Whale Dolphin
These unique looking dolphins love bow-riding and playing with the boat.
Sperm whale!!!
After eight seasons on the water, I finally saw my first Sperm Whales in Monterey Bay.
