NEST BUILDING @LINDO LAKE – Mar 19

Went off to Lindo Lake this morning for some photography. The skies were overcast to start with but soon the sun came out and made for a lovely morning. The Eastern lake is dried up, but there were plenty of white pelicans cruising in the larger lake. They were fun to watch as they traveled in a group around the lake.

JUST CRUISIN'

My eye was attracted though to the great egrets who were flying around gathering nesting material. After getting into a good position for the light I had a good time capturing some of their antics. 

Great Egrets -

 

In the same trees were some night herons who were doing the same thing, nest building. They were a little more elusive but perseverance paid off.

 After a couple of hours I called it a morning and returned home to enjoy a cup of coffee and proceed to edit pictures. I am getting better at deleting images – – I am down to 47 from this morning’s shoot after taking 406! Now you know why you like most of my pictures; you only see the better ones.

Enjoy.

ANZA-BORREGO IN BLOOM - Mar 13

Went off to Anza-Borrego State Park to photograph the spring wildflower show and a hike into Borrego Palm Canyon. I was on the road by 0530 to pick up my hiking buddies, Myrna and Chris, in route. We traveled through Cuyamaca S. P. to Julian and then down Banner Grade into the desert. Cuyamaca was still in it’s winter colors, grey and brown, but the desert was blooming.

Our first stop was for flower photography. The desert is lovely and the flowers were in beautiful shape. We spent a good hour and a half wandering along the  North side of Henderson Canyon Road. The dune evening primrose, sand verbena, desert sunflower, and brown-eyed primrose were abundant. There was also the stately Arizona lupine along the side of the road.

SAND VERBENA & DUNE EVENING PRIMROSE

LOOKING INTO HENDERSON CANYON

DUNE EVENING PRIMROSE AND SAND VERBENA

HENDERSON CANYON VIEW I

HENDERSON CANYON COLOR

GLOWING DUNE EVENING PRIMROSE

 We then stopped for some farm fresh tangelos before heading for Christmas Circle to the restrooms before going into the park itself. The Farmer’s Market was open so we also got some vegetables and fruits there – small beets which I cooked up that night, nice avocadoes, fresh strawberries and raspberries which Chris shared with us.

The hike up Borrego Palm Canyon was delightful. There were flowers in bloom that needed to be identified: chuparosa, ocotillo, wild cantebury bells, desert dandelion, indigo bush, desert sunflower, windmills, hedgehog cactus, chollla, fremont’s pincushion, notch-leafed phacelia, brittlebush, blue palo verde, desert willow, desert lavender, bladderpod, gold poppy, ….Then there were lizards, and a coachwhip snake, and a California quail posing for us as well. We enjoyed our “lunch” while sitting in the shade at the palm grove. 

BEAVERTAIL CACTUS

NOTCH-LEAFED PHACELIA

THE HIKING DIVAS

PALM GROVE, BORREGO PALM CANYON

CALIFORNIA QUAIL

 After the hike we stopped at the very nice Visitor Center and heard about the abundance of flowers in Hellhole Canyon, and the Hawkwatch going on with the annual influx of Swainson’s hawks.

CHOLLA BLOSSOM

BARREL CACTUS BLOOM

OCOTILLO BLOOM

Finally it was time to return home. The drive was smooth with little traffic in our direction. I did stop in Julian for a coffee. It was wonderful day and enjoyed by all.

SANTEE LAKES - MARCH 12

Went off to Santee Lakes once again to chase more birds and get more practice at photographing birds in flight.

Things were pretty quiet. There had been a wedding and reception on lake shore so that may have been a contributing factor. 

FEMALE RING-NECKED DUCK

GREAT EGRET IN GLIDE

SNOWY EGRET LOOKING UP

AMERICAN WIDGEON DRINKING

We have a special assignment in Darkroomers Camera Club: “All Wet” coming up in April. This is one that I will put in to the compettion:

SPLASH DOWN

 It was a lovely afternoon to be out and about.

SANTEE LAKE BIRDS – MARCH 5TH

I try to get out to photograph something somewhere every week. This week a couple of us met at Santee Lakes which is a reclamation water facility with five lakes located in the neighboring community of Santee, CA. It has become a great place for bird photography as the birds are acclimated to people with lots of walkers, fishermen, and photographers doing their favorite activities.

Today we quickly spotted an osprey perusing the lakes for a catch. It took him quite a while to go for one. He dive bombed from the tree very close to the lake and caught one, but was not able to keep a hold of it. 

PERUSING THE LAKE

GOT IT!

FLUFF DRY

There was a lovely great blue heron that flew by, as well as a snowy egret, and a regal great egret who was just being regal. 

GREAT BLUE

SNOWY EGRET

SNOWY EGRET

GREAT EGRET BEING REGAL

 Also there were a number of ducks and coots to photograph-

AMERICAN COOT

FEMALE RING-NECKED DUCK

MALE RING-NECKED DUCK

MALE WOOD DUCK

 There was a nice cormorant posing and airing his wings.

CORMORANT AIR DRYING

I still need practice in picking up flying birds in my lens as it is flying by so that is incentive to get out again.

SAN DIEGO ZOO – Feb 2015

A long overdue visit to the San Diego Zoo this past Thursday. Only had a couple of hours as I had an engagement at 1130. I went with a couple of photography friends who regularly get together on Thursdays. I had learned that there might be a good opportunity for photographing the Malaysian tiger if we got to the exhibit right after the Zoo opened.

  

We were able to make it and the tiger was actively searching out it’s various food sites. Once he found the big bone he went off to gnaw on it in private. 

MALAYSIAN TIGER

 So then we traveled through one of the aviaries where I was not very successful with my photography so I moved onto the orangatans. Got several good shots as I knelt down to be a face level with this male. 

PENSIVE

ORANG PORTRAIT

Then I got one decent photo of a young gorilla before he turned his back on me.

YOUNG GORILLA

 My final stop was with the flamingoes. They are always colorful and it is fun to capture the various neck contortions.