The Secretary Bird

The secretary bird is native to Asia and Africa. The secretary bird's English name was once thought to come from the 1800s when Europeans first spotted these birds. Back then, male secretaries wore gray tailcoats and dark knee length pants. They also used goose quill pens that they carried behind their ears. This bird shares many of these physical features: long, dark quills at the back of the head; long gray wing and tail feathers that resemble a tailcoat; and black feathers that go midway down the legs like short pants. Secretary birds are distantly related to buzzard, vultures, harriers and kites. But unlike those birds, secretary birds spend most of their time on the ground. They stand over four feet tall. In their natural habitat they nest and roost high up in acacia trees at night. The secretary bird is the national is emblem of Sudan and a prominent feature of the Coat of Arms of South Africa. The photos below were taken at the San Diego Zoo. The bird gave me a good viewing. The biggest challenge was that it is behind glass. It was a busy day at the zoo and I had to be patient to not have strollers and legs in the glass reflection overlaying my view of the bird in my photos. I have always loved the secretary bird. As you browse the photos here, maybe you will see why?

If you'd like to see a few more photos from my time visiting the secretary bird this day there are a few more here . 

Comic Con San Diego 2014

Comic Con is a big event in San Diego. I think that our downtown gets more packed with people than at any other time of year. The tickets to get in to the actual Convention Center that houses the Comic Con are getting harder to obtain every year. A friend of mine told me that this year they somehow gave preference to out of town folks to get tickets over locals. I don't know how that works. I do know that it is a BIG deal and pretty pricey to get the tickets. I don't feel the need for a ticket to Comic Con to enter the Convention Center. There is plenty of entertainment all over downtown during this event. Just hanging out in front of the Convention Center and watching the crowd is incredibly fun and entertaining. Below you will find some photos I came home with from this years event and a link to a gallery of more. 

Every year there are a group of people trying to save the heathen Comic Con attendees. Because if you believe in Batman you must be heathen right?

You can see this dude in head to toe by clicking the gallery link at the bottom of the post here.

I am not sure what this monkey did to piss the transit enforcement off, but you'll see a series of photos in my gallery. They even made him take his shoes off!

I don't get most of the costumes but I still can appreciate them!

Say WHAT?

Head on over to my full 2014 Comic Con gallery. You just might see something that tickles your fancy, makes you shake your head or both.

A Day Trip to Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

It was a beautiful Southern California May day. The best part of the day was getting to see my friends Steve and Ken. I realize now that we've been friends for about 13 years. We go way back to before any of us had a digital SLR camera and we were shooting with Panasonic bridge cameras. We actually met on a dpreview forum. You know the way the years slip by and people get busy and one thing leads to another. Before you know it, it's been years since you've seen your friends. It was so good to see Steve and Ken. It was just as comfortable as ever, like no time had passed at all. We always have a great time together and this day was no different. I introduce you to Steve and Ken. Steve is in front and Ken is behind. This first photo is a peek to how my day went photographically. I took two quick photos of the guys and the best one is what I show you here. I managed to get Ken with his eyes closed! But doesn't he look relaxed and peaceful?

There weren't a whole lot of birds around. But some of the usual suspects made an appearance, like this Great Blue Heron high in a tree. All of my shots are heavily cropped because I didn't drag my Bigma around. For me it was more about spending time with old friends and enjoying the company.

And of course there were a few Egrets around.

There were some interesting log formations in the pond.

I did get a photo of a Tern hollering on the bridge way across the water. Look close, you'll even see his tongue. 

The Tern's are quite acrobatic and entertaining to watch.

Oh look, I managed to catch a Black-necked Stilt in flight.

A Cackling Goose shaking it's wet head at me.

A Brown Pelican on a fly-by.

We went for an early lunch around 11 a.m. at a local Mexican restaurant. I ate too much and had a strong Margarita. Hey, we started out early. I was up at 5 am to make the 90 minute drive up there. But Steve commented, "This drink is strong." I laughed and said, "Well they figure if you are having a Margarita at 11 a.m. you must be serious!" That set the stage for how I felt when we traveled on to San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. It was too hot at 1 p.m. at SJWS, and I was feeling the extra heat of a bit of tequila in my system. We moseyed around for a short while. I was treated to seeing a White-faced Ibis. Pretty cool looking bird as you'll see below.

It is kind of surprising how many different birds are in this small watering hole next to the Visitor's Center there at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. 

I want to provide you with a link about Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and also one for San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary which is really a unique place tucked into Irvine. It is smack dab in the middle of a full development of business. It amazes me to walk around the area and experience natures adaptation of man's encroachment. It is an oasis in the middle of man for the wildlife. 

If you take a look at the  gallery I put up, you'll see some of the other things that caught my eye. I did manage to get a shot of a tern with a fish in his mouth flying by. There is even a raccoon at SJWS, even if it is a bit of a rough shot from being underexposed, cropped and pushed. Oh and don't miss my favorite blurry shot of the day, a Swallow in flight! If you've ever tried to take a photo of these birds, you may appreciate even a blurry shot of one. They are such beautiful birds but man are they tough to photograph in flight. They are fast and change direction on a dime without notice. 

A Hot Day at the Zoo

September 3, 2013 was a hot day in San Diego. It's been hot and muggy for us for over a week. I know that the best time to go to the zoo is when it is cool. Even rain is better than heat for the zoo animal activity. But I had the day off, it was the first day of school for most of the kids in San Diego and I figured the zoo would be pretty empty. I was right, there weren't many folks at the zoo at all.  I did get one shot of this tiger with airplane ears and a fresh bone. I am sure my friend Frank will know which tiger this is. Check out the comments and maybe he'll let us know there. I was pushed out of the tiger area by a whining screaming child. His parent kept dragging him back to take a photo of them with a cell phone in front of the tiger.I was patient until the fifth time the parent dragged this screaming tot back to the glass. Then I decided I'd had enough. The whole reason I braved the heat is because I figured the zoo would be quiet and peaceful after the long weekend. I wandered around the zoo a bit but the animals were hiding for the most part just as I expected in the heat.

I figured the reptiles would be happy in the heat and humidity. They were active and visible even more than normal. More than one type of Cobra posed for me. I was treated to seeing the Komodo Dragon fed some mice. These were very small for Komodo Dragons and on the inside of the exhibit area, not the very large one well known at the zoo that is all by itself. In any case I was amazed that they swallowed one mouse after another for a total of FIVE mice each! Of course they swallowed them whole. What amazed me is I couldn't see where the mice were after they passed those jaws. If you've seen a snake eat a mouse you know that there is a visible lump of mouse in the snake. Not so with a Komodo Dragon. After eating five large mice they looked the same as before they ate them. I found that strange. You won't see any photos of that action. I was too busy being amazed and enjoying the show.

Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragon

I have just a few more shots from the day uploaded here if you'd like to see more.

A Walk In Little Italy and Getting to Know the x100s

Little Italy in San Diego is an ethnic business and residential community established in the 1920's. Little Italy today represents Downtown San Diego's oldest continuous neighborhood business district. At one time more than 6,000 Italian families lived in Little Italy and toiled to build San Diego into the center of the world's tuna industry. With the decline in the tuna industry and the construction of Interstate 5, Little Italy saw steady decline for almost 30 years. I didn't know it was in decline. As I was growing up my family regularly shopped at the heart of Little Italy in markets on India St. The best Italian cheeses and meats couldn't be found anywhere in San Diego except Little Italy. In the early 90's shop owners decided to rally and make Little Italy stronger. Family run business joined hands with developers to promote the area. Things have changed over the past 20 years. There is still much new construction all around. The streets are bustling with life especially at night. The long time favorites are going strong and the addition of new places are showing Little Italy to be a modern urban neighborhood. It is always a favorite place for me to visit.

The famous sign. I imagine this sign has had more photos taken of it than any other landmark in San Diego

The deli here is where we used to always buy all of our antipasto for all holidays

Mona Lisa has won me over for deli goods now. Very similar place to Filippi's but someone just a notch above these days.

My friend Frank was nice enough to let me steal his idea for this shot. That is Frank holding his Fuji x100

The Burger Lounge has tasty burgers, fries, shakes, beer, and a pretty cool decor.

When you order you take this flag, put it in a gizmo on the table and when your order is ready they know where to deliver.

While I waited for my friends Frank and Heather to arrive I took a walk down to the Embarcadero. I uploaded a couple and more from the Little Italy walk-about. I'm trying to get a handle on this new Fuji x100s. It is completely different than anything I've used in the past. I love the form of the camera, now I just need to learn how to get the best from it. All the above shots were taken with it. Here is the link to more if you'd like to take a look. I don't pretend to know what I'm doing with this camera yet, but hopefully it'll come. Getting to know the Fuji x100s

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks National Monument is said to be a "mini Bryce Canyon". I couldn't fathom how something so large could be called "mini" anything! Here are a few links if you'd like to learn more about the area. The first link is the  National Parks Service and this one is from Utah dot com and here is the link to wikipedia if you'd like to check out  wikipedia  

We took a short walk around the rim around 2 miles out and another 2 back. It was an easy walk, but I did find myself a bit light headed from being over 10,000 feet, we were at 10,300 here. I think that 10,000 feet may be my personal altitude trigger because I wasn't dizzy walking around Bryce. I'd get winded and have to catch my breath quicker than I am used to, but I wasn't dizzy walking in Bryce. Here at Cedar Breaks the area was empty. There were only a couple other cars in the parking lot at the visitor center. The weather was perfect and the skies were a beautiful compliment to the amazing landscape. There was a sign next to the first sign post I'll share here that said, "Exposed cliff edges watch your children". Uh yep, that is good advice. Better watch YOUR step too!

This is a nine frame vertical panoramic of part of the amphitheater at Cedar Breaks

The horizontal panoramas don't work real well on this blog so I encourage you to click on over to my gallery and look at the panoramas there. Here is the link:

Cedar Breaks Gallery

Kolob Canyons Utah

Over Labor Day weekend we took a trip to Utah. Our destination was Bryce Canyon National Park. On our way to Bryce we stopped at a couple of places along the way. I will begin my blog posts with those places we stopped at briefly. This is just a "quick and dirty" post to get you warmed of for things to come. Kolob Canyons is a park of Zion National Park. It appeared to be the much less traveled section of Zion. You can read a bit about the area by clicking this highlighted link and you can learn a bit about how to drive there here The mountains have rich color and the vegetation was plush. There are many hiking trails. The trail we walked was empty except for one couple we passed. Much different than the more popular main area of Zion that always has people in it, just varying amounts at different times. Without further ado, lets get on to the photos of this area. You can't see it from the entrance to Kolob Canyons but within a very brief drive you'll turn a corner and see these majestic peaks around you. From hwy 15 you'd never know these are such a short distance away.

Of course I have many more photos of this area in a gallery you may view at this link: Kolob Canyons