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!