Male Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) stretching wing and tail feathers.
A second before the photo above, the hummingbird was turned to the left. You can see how much the angle changes the color of the head and throat feathers -- bright pink/rose colored (above), darker and more purplish (below):
Northern lights as seen from Walpole, Massachusetts, on 10 October 2024. Wow!
An interesting purple color in the sky at sunset tonight — clouds gathering ahead of rain tomorrow? Photographed from Bodega Head on 4 November 2022.
Recently we were noticing some beautiful green sculpins hanging out near some green algae in a high intertidal zone pool.
After looking around a bit, I think we found three different ages. Below are two more individuals that I think are likely the same species, an older and younger individual:
This sculpin's orange coloration was a perfect match with the nearby sponge (visible in the foreground)! Photographed in the low intertidal zone on 3 January 2022.
Not sure which lichen species this is, but it sure was dramatic in the gray overcast light this morning (2 April 2021). Many thanks to Eric for capturing this orange beauty along the bluffs!
CORRIGENDUM and ADDENDUM (3 April 2021): I heard back from a few NHBH readers and learned that (1) this is *not* a lichen, but an alga (!) and (2) it's likely Trentepohlia aurea. (3) After further reading, it's also possible that T. aurea is no longer the accepted name for this species and it should be called T. flava instead, but I'll defer to experts. Thanks so much for the assistance!
I've been working on some indoor projects recently, so here's a photo from the archives. Since the spring flowers are starting to bloom, enjoy this golden California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). (This one was photographed in May 2011.)
And two more to wrap up this series illustrating color variation in the tentacles of the tubeworm, Spirobranchus spinosus:
This morning (20 December 2020) a large flock of Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) was feeding on sweet gum seed pods in our front yard. I'd estimate there were ~30 individuals, so it was a good opportunity to look at color variation.
Because so many siskins have been coming to our bird bath this fall, I'd been noticing that there's quite a range in how much yellow there is on each bird — some are primarily brown with barely any yellow visible, while others have bright yellow in the wings which is apparent from a distance. I had been wondering about this variability (e.g., does color vary with age, or whether the birds are male or female?), when I read that there is also a "green morph" — although rare, some siskins show much more yellow/green coloration.
Today I was taking advantage of being able to look at a lot of siskins up close. I was taking photos of different birds from different angles. There was a variable amount of yellow in the wings (some were more buffy than yellow), but most had brown backs:
While doing field work yesterday (12 December 2020), we spotted some bright blue isopods in the intertidal zone. Although quite small (only ~2-3 mm long), their bright coloration really made them stand out against the reddish-brown rocks:
