Joshua Pritchard of Ben Lomond snapped this photo and sent it to us this morning of a tree on fire at the interchange of Highway 1 and Highway 17. See Sentinel story on the fire at the Fishhook

Local photographer Paul Schraub, while on assignment for the Santa Cruz County Convention and Visitors Council, captured this photo of spy hopping whales in the Monterey Bay on Tuesday.

This photo was just submitted to our Pets on Parade photo contest, had to share it on the Photo Blog.

From Tracey Heggum: A group of friends (9 adults and 4 children) gathered at Seabright Beach yesterday morning to create a peace sign out of all natural elements, to honor all of those affected by September 11th. It took us 2 hours, at a playful pace . Take a look at the photos, if you'd like; or better yet, go see it at Seabright Beach. Unfortunately the photos fail to capture all of its beauty.

Stinky the whale surfaces on Aug. 19, 2011. The photos were taken by Captain Michael Sack, Sanctuary Cruises Whale Watching, about two miles off of West Cliff Drive / Steamer Lane.

Stinky surfaces.

Stinky waves to his fans.

While we were visiting New Brighton beach on Saturday we got to see the amazing sight of thousands of pelicans and other birds swarming right at the shore line. They were enjoying the massive amount of sardines that were apparently in the water. The sardines were actually washing up on the shore in spots. Max, in the photo, was at the beach celebrating his birthday with family and friends so he had a nice birthday surprise. Photographer: Jennifer Silver-Herman