Posts in Category: San Diego
Pelican Ponders the Prospects
Brown Pelican, La Joya California
I described La Joya Cove, Scripps Park and the Children’s Pool in La Joya California in some detail yesterday. One of the attractions of the area is the large colony of nesting Brown Pelicans. They are always in full breeding plumage when I visit in early March, and for a big bird, they are strikingly colorful. This bird was resting with a group of 15 or so, on a rock ledge above the Children’s Pool. He has, I think, a very “pondering” air, as though the weight of the universe rests on his hunched shoulders. Maybe it does. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent (the birds are close!). 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Brants in breeding posture. Happy Sunday!
Brant’s Cormorant, La Joya California.
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
My friend Rich and I, being in San Diego for the San Diego Birding Festival, drove the short way up to La Joya cove, Scripps Park, and the Children’s Pool yesterday before work. I am always amazed that this little strip of park along the clifftops is there, right in the heart of urban, touristy, La Joya California. And more than just being there, it is home to a large colony of Brown Pelicans, always in full breeding plumage when I visit in March, both Brant’s and Neotropic Cormorants (also in breeding plumage), a colony of Sea Lions at the north end and a pupping beach and nursery for Harbor Seals at the other end…not to mention California and Heermann’s Gulls, Black Turnstones, Song Sparrows, Anna’s Hummingbirds, thousands of Ground Squirrels, and assorted other birds and wildlife…and all of this in less than a mile of protected cliffs and beaches. Yesterday the sea was wild with a coming storm. The waves were huge with big breakers and water fountaining high into the air when they hit the cliff. That simply added to the sense of wilderness surrounded by city.
I admire the generosity of eye, and of spirit…the light within those who have struggled to keep this bit of wilderness right there in the heart of the city. There is a lot of that around San Diego, and, for me, that adds to the undeniable attraction of the place. Generosity is in the air, and there is a feeling of blessing over all. If God has special places, then I can believe that the coast of southern California is one of them.
What we have here in the image is a breeding plumage Brant’s Cormorant, displaying over his, as yet meager, pile of nest materials. What he lacks in material possessions, he attempts to make up in flash and style. Whatever it takes to attract a mate. It would take a very stingy eye not to see the beauty, and the humor, in a bird like this…doing its thing. Or that is what I think. No light at all in someone who can not see and value a Brant’s Cormorant in full breeding display.  🙂
Happy Sunday!
Brown Pelicans in Fligh
Brown Pelicans. The Tide Pools, Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego CA
It was a beautiful day at Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument yesterday. Relatively clear with enough clouds in the sky for drama. Cabrillo is not a birding hotspot. There is nothing there you can not see elsewhere in San Diego, but I always spend a morning there when I visit. The landscape and the views are simply too compelling to miss. These Brown Pelicans were soaring along the updraft over the loess cliffs above the tide pools at the foot of Point Loma. Glorious!
Nikon P900 at 260mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom.
Anna’s Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird. Famosa Slough, San Diego CA
I spent my first morning in San Diego, as I generally do, at Famosa Slough, a urban wetland which is basically between my hotel and the convention center where they hold the San Diego Birding Festival…pretty much in downtown San Diego…or at least in downtown Point Lomas. It is maybe a half mile inland from the San Diego River mouth and the Pacific Ocean, in a little basin with a wide channel flowing out of it. I don’t know the history of the place, but I admire the instincts of those who fought to preserve the wetlands, against what must have been pretty intense pressure to drain and build. It is literally surrounded on all but one side by apartment buildings and condos, and the forth side is bounded by the expressway. My friend Rich came out to San Diego a day early and had already visited Famosa. He emailed to say “your hummingbird is still there.” There are actually at least 2 resident hummingbirds…or perhaps it is more accurate to say that there are two frequented perches. I have no idea if the hummingbirds I see on the those perches year after year, day after day, or moment to moment are always the same hummingbirds. One perch is frequented by Black-chinned Hummingbirds, the western cognate of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and the other is frequented by Anna’s Hummingbirds. Over the years I have noticed that neither species likes to sit facing the sun, so it is difficult at Famosa to get a gorget shot like the one above. Patience. Patience. And more patience. I won’t say luck, because I don’t believe in the stuff, but certainly you have to be in the right place at the right time, and the recipient of a small measure of grace. 🙂 This Anna’s Hummingbird showing the full helmet is the only full gorget shot I got yesterday, and I took a lot of pics!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Flight Check
Breeding plumage Brown Pelican, La Jolla CA
The sun is shining in Southern Maine this morning, but it is only 18 degrees out, and we still have 3 feet of compacted snow in our yard…so you will forgive me if I drop back a few weeks to early March and Southern California for this pelican flexing wings shot. Warm memories on a cold day!
Sony HX400V at about 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Little Blue wing thing
Little Blue Heron, San Diego River Channel, CA
I photographed this Little Blue Heron on its rock at the edge of the San Diego River Channel in many different poses. It was just to good to pass up. Here it is just stretching a wing, for no apparent reason other than the stretch. There were a lot of Little Blues along the channel, but this is, in fact, the same bird that I posted eating the crab a few days ago. Like I say: too good to pass up.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Black Turnstone
Black Turnstone. South Shores Park, Mission Bay, San Diego CA
Black Turnstone is a Pacific Coast bird…we only have Ruddy Turnstone on the Atlantic shores (and they are on both coasts). And I know right where to find them in San Diego (though I am certain they can be found in many places in the area). They are always on the boat docks at South Shores Park on Mission Bay, next to the back entrance to Sea World. I popped over there on my way back from the San Diego River channel on Saturday morning just to photograph a few. 🙂 I like this shot because of the arrested motion and the subtle lighting on the head.
Sony HX400V at about 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 160 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Brunch! Happy Sunday.
Little Blue Heron. San Diego River NWR.
I gave myself a morning off from intensive birding yesterday…only going out for a few hours to the easy birding along the San Diego River above the Sports Arena bridge. I went to find Burrowing Owls reported there…or I thought reported there. It turns out I had my directions wrong. Still, the channel above the bridge was full of birds…especially Little Blue Herons…and there were even two white-phase Little Blues. The Little Blues were relatively close by anything but Florida standards and I enjoyed watching and photographing them. This one made a complete three course meal. It caught the crab and ate it, then it ate seaweed for a while, and then it stepped out into the water had a few delicate drinks.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Brunch, of course, is a particularly human take on this scene. The Little Blue Herons, like most birds, feeds continuously, from before sun-up until it is too dark to see. “Feeds”, though we use the word for what birds do, might give the wrong impression as well. It is not like birds sit down to a laden table and or a full trough and feed. “Hunts” might be more accurate. Sun-up to sun-down the Little Blue Heron hunts. Occasionally during the course of its day it finds something to eat and eats it. And then it right back to the hunt. And, of course, during nesting season, the adult herons hunt for their whole brood. And yet Jesus, when he spoke of God’s care for us, used birds as an example. If God provides for the birds of the birds of the air, then certainly we can have confidence in God’s provision for our lives. Don’t worry, he says, about what we will eat, but live with thanksgiving. Take a lesson from the Little Blue.
Green-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal. Tijuana Slough Estuarine Research Center. Imperial Beach, CA
We spent the morning yesterday at Tijuana Slough National Estuarine Research Center. We had good views of Godwits, Whimbrels, and Long-billed Curlews…and stunning views of a few Green-winged Teal. The angle of the early morning light was just right to pick up the green on both head and wings in a way I have seldom seen before, and the Teal floated down smooth water of the Slough to within 40 feet of us.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 200 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Eye of Pelican!
Breeding plumage Brown Pelican, La Jolla CA.
I have a short list of “must get to” places when I am in San Diego for the San Diego Birding Festival each March. The cliffs at La Jolla are high on that list, and, if weather and time cooperate, are generally my first visit. Harbor Seals with pups at one end of the cliffs, Sea Lions (this year also with pups) at the other, and breeding plumage Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, Brant’s Cormorant, a host of western gulls and a few terns, and generally a lot of ground Squirrels in between. It is a wildlife photographer’s dream. The birds can be quite close on the rocks the top of the cliffs…the Sea Lions are medium distance (except for the adolescent and pup nestled up in the shade of a bush right against the fence this year), and the seals are a good way away on Children’s Pool Beach (which is closed for the birthing season)…but all are close enough for some amazingly satisfying shots.
Like this shot of the Brown Pelican’s eye…need I say more. Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.