wordless Wednesday

sunrise ~ 10/23/14 ~ at home

sunrise from home

October 23, 2014

It's been a while since we've had a stop-in-your-tracks-and-stare kind of sunrise like this.  I believe the intense color was helped along by the particulate matter in the air that was left over from huge fire they had in Gilroy yesterday morning.  I could see the smoke plume from across the Monterey Bay.  Thankfully, it wasn't a wildfire.  Late October is the time of year I consider the start of sunrise season.  Is there a season for sunrises?  Sure.  Why not?  Of course, sunrises happen every day, but to get color, amazing color and contrast and clouds, autumn, winter, and spring skies are the ticket in our Mediterranean climate.  Around here, it goes all the way through to April (if my blog's sunrise pics speak to any pattern).  Sigh.  I can hardly wait for the rain.

ps 10/25/14 - It rained this Saturday morning.  Yay!  The last time it rained was exactly one month ago on 09/25/14, also in the morning.

sunrise ~ 06/13/14 ~ at home

squid boats at sunrise

There seems to be an unusual number of squid boats this year.  They light up the night with their squid lights, green, red, white.  It's Christmas!  Ooof, now that I read that old post, maybe I say there's an unusual number every year?  Ha!  That's partly why we moved bedrooms, because for several months of the year we had very bright night lights.  Thanks to the incredibly fast growing Monterey pines, that soon may not be a problem for us.  Because of the funny way sound carries across the water, I can sometimes hear their conversations on their boats from our balcony.  Many seem to be from outside of the Monterey Bay area.  I wonder if squid fishermen are nomads, following their catch.  I also wonder what else they catch in their nets besides squid, because surely there are other larger animals who would also like to eat squid. The young male sea lions are making a racket down by the Coast Guard Pier, the harbor seals seemed to have doubled in numbers, and a lone, young male elephant seal is being a bully at Hopkins.  There have been high counts for other marine mammal sightings in the Monterey Bay - 56 humpbacks and 150 Pacific white-sided dolphins on June 11, 2014 in a.m. only!  Just to note, last night was grunion greeting for the June full moon.  I didn't go.  Maybe tonight?

rainbow ~ 02/02/14 ~ at home

double rainbow from home

February 2, 2014

Yeah!  'Bout time.  Supposedly we had some precipitation on Thursday for a whopping total of 0.05".  I think we get more than that on a decently foggy summer's day.  And before that, the last time it rained was December 7, 2013 with 0.25", which got our butts out for a Fort Ord hike.  Crazy dry winter.  As I write this, it's slowly, but steadily continuing to sprinkle.  Yay!

ps - Our Monterey Bay view is quickly becoming obscured by trees! Compare this picture with one 5 years ago on December 15, 2008 and one 3 years ago on February 19, 2011.

sunrise ~ 01/17/14 ~ Monterey Harbor and Marina

Monterey Harbor & Marina
January 17, 2014

After giving Andy a ride to downtown early this morning, I did a quick stop at the Municipal Wharf.  This past week I noticed several fishing boats out on the water at night, and I was hoping to take pictures as they came in for the day.  I'm curious to know what they're catching.  They haven't used their big, bright squid lights, but by the full moon I can tell their boats are often surrounded by gulls.  I think I was too early today, as the fish market fellas were just arriving in their big trucks to prepare for loading and icing the catches.  In any case, I had the chance to watch the sunrise from a different perspective.  It was beautiful.  

As it happens in my blog reader, Shaina from Middle of Everywhere mentions the Belt of Venus.  Oho!  I never knew that pink glow that so often accompanies sunrises and sunsets has a name.  Cool!  I also want to mention that I've been seeing an awful lot of shooting stars (2-14 over the course of an hour and a half before sunrise) in the north skies since mid-December.  Has anyone else noticed this, too?

wordless Wednesday

sunrise ~ 09/01/13 ~ at home

sunrise from home

September 1, 2013

We heard there were over 100 humpback whale sightings yesterday due to anchovies in the Bay, so we're keeping an eye on the water more than usual.  It's been absolutely gorgeous here the past few days.  Lots of sunshine, finally; June gloom fog that last through August is long gone.  September and October are the hottest months in Monterey with an average high temperature hovering around 70°F (21.1°C).  The water has been extremely quiet, despite it being comfortably breezy.  Based on my observations from past years, it should remain quiet until the autumnal equinox later this month when the waves kick up in a big, loud way.  Hopefully, I'll be finishing up my physical therapy from my bicycle accident, and then I'll be able to enjoy the fall changes out on the trails.  Until then...

ps 09/07/13 - Well, that was a load of hooey.  The waves are very loud this morning, much earlier in the month than I expected.  So much for my past observations.

pss 09/08/13 - A belted kingfisher came flying into view out of the fog this morning, trailing its distinctive rattle.  Ha!  The fog has returned in all its glory.  I'm enjoying the variation.

gone

sunrise from home

December 5, 2012

Gone.  This is the label I use in my Google Reader to mark blogs I follow which haven't had new posts in several months.  The list seems to be growing by the day.  I miss some of those bloggers as if they were real life friends who have moved away.  I wonder how they're doing and hope life is treating them well.  Every so often someone surprises me and comes back from being gone, like The Ohio Nature Blog and The Skeptical Moth.  Dang kids and new jobs seem to get in the way of regular blogging.  

I can't say I have those excuses.  I have been a bit lackluster in my blogging routine this year. The dry dreary weather and now windy rain have discouraged me from going out as much as I would like.  In large part to being otherwise preoccupied, I have also missed posting whole sections from my photo archives, like a camping trip to Morro Bay and a couple outings to Fort Ord.  I have already ID'd many things that are easy to photograph and narrow down to species; now all I have left are annoyingly perplexing unknowns and exceptionally crappy photos. However, I'm not giving up, yet.  My hiking should inform my blogging, rather than the other way around as it has been in the past year or so. I think this transformation of intent has really shown in a lack of curiosity in my blog posts.  I want to get back to truly enjoying hiking for all the things that drew me to this activity in the first place - being outside, clearing my head, getting a little bit of exercise, and simply enjoying nature. I'm not closing the door on Nature ID, even though my posts may become fewer and fewer for a while.  I'll see you when I have something fantastic to share. Blog on!

Big Sur Half ~ 11/18/12 ~ at home

Big Sur Half Marathon from home
November 18, 2012

Technically this wasn't at sunrise.  It was taken a couple of minutes after 8:00am as the lead runner (orange top in lower right through the trees) ran by as part of the Big Sur Half Marathon. The majority of runners are still heading out towards Asilomar (seen on the road).  We can always tell when the lead man and lead woman run by, because of all the cheering.  The usual cow bell isn't around this year.  We may not head down to cheer on our friends since Andy has just started making a big breakfast.  With our running/hiking in the rain yesterday, we're a bit hungry.

Update: Newlyweds Ben Bruce and Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce won first place for men's and women's.  I wasn't sure I had captured the lead runner above, because it's unusual to have a non-Kenyan or non-Ugandan win the Big Sur Half.  Speaking of races, after breakfast Andy and I followed the last of the runners into Monterey.  There I spotted a blue-colored darner in front of the Portola Hotel. I've added a week's lead to Graeme of Imperfect and tense in our dragon hunt.

sunrise ~ 01/19/12 ~ at home

sunrise from home
January 19, 2012

We had a lovely amount of rain off and on since Thursday ~4:15pm, the same day this sunrise picture was taken. By Friday night with help from the wind, our salty, ocean-mist covered windows finally had some cleaning. I really should park my car outside the garage so I can take advantage of nature's free car wash.

News, personal, and online stuff have been a bit... erm, different in the past week. I'd like to think I'm not the only one experiencing this. I've been wanting to update my indices and correct past blog posts, but blogger has been temperamental. Then, I'm still trying to find the right balance of what personal notes to share on Nature ID. Am I sharing enough to make a post interesting, or am I sharing too much (better known as TMI)? And, I won't even get started with the news.

Like the sunrise of a new day and like the declarations for a new year, it's comforting to believe starting fresh and new can actually happen. Here's a great time-lapse video of Yosemite to remind me and perhaps you, too, how the daily conditions of humans are truly insignificant compared to the larger picture: http://io9.com/5878091/this-time+lapse-video-of-yosemite-is-staggeringly-beautiful.

sunrise ~ 12/29/11 ~ at home

sunrise from home
December 29, 2011

Heavy sigh. I have pictures from Christmas Day of mushrooms and questions about why branches of Monterey pine and coast live oak have been chewed away, but I haven't felt up to researching and finding IDs and such. In some ways 2011 has been the hardest and the best year for us. I like sunrises. Each day, they provide a promise of a clean slate and a chance to experience something new. Wishing a great 2012 for everyone!

about the organization of Nature ID

sunrise from home
June 6, 2011

Nature ID is my online nature journal. It serves as a learning tool and helps me keep track of what, when, and where. As such, I post and organize this blog in a peculiar way so that I can quickly reference a past post. However, this doesn't make it easy for people to "follow" my blog.

To cover the when, I frequently backdate. This means the date header on an entry is the date I took the pictures, not necessarily the date of when I posted to the blog. My blog archives serve as actual hiking/observation dates. I'm currently posting from a hike on May 14, 2011 at restricted Fort Ord - Army Lands.

For the what and the where, I liberally use labels. At the bottom of every post and grouped to the right in the sidebar are highlighted labels that link back to specific Nature ID posts (this is different from WordPress blogs, where a "label" will take you to a listing of multiple blogs with that particular tag - I don't personally like that, so I don't do it).

When I first began this blog on May 6, 2009, I only had 3 labels: flowers, animals, and Fort Ord. I now have 472 labels in multiple groups as shown in the sidebar to the right. Scrolling down from here to eternity is inconvenient. I'd like to remove the lengthy label lists. So, I'm creating an index page (shown as a tab along the top) to help followers navigate within Nature ID.

ps 06/11/11 - Thanks to Janet's comments, I've started adding titles to my ID posts (what, when, and where) to help those who use blog dashboards, readers, and aggregators to easily click directly to specific entries.

pss 07/17/11 - A skeletal index page is up and running. I finally removed the lengthy lists to the right and am in the process of creating grouped index posts which show labels in general categories.

sunrise ~ 06/03/11 ~ at home

sunrise from home
June 3, 2011

I'm posting another sunrise pic to show the variation of lighting from day to day. Both June 3 and 6, 2011 pictures were taken between 5:40-5:45 am.

sunrise ~ 04/14/11 ~ at home

sunrise from home
April 14, 2011

I should note that I NEVER digitally alter my sunrise pics. I like how my little point-and-shoot captures low-lighting. It doesn't always match with what my eyes see, but the colors end up being incredible.

Wishing everyone a happy Easter, Resurrection Sunday, or plain old 'nother day of the week!

sunrise ~ 01/31/11 ~ at home

sunrise from home

January 31, 2011

Yep, we're still doing our annual tradition of hand-cutting paper snowflakes and taping them to our living room window. The dark profile hides the fact we reuse our office print paper to make these; in full sun, they're quite colorful and patterned. While it will occasionally snow in the mountains south of here every couple of years (shocking, I know, especially since we've had mid-70 °F weather for most of January this year), this is our version of winter. Click to see our 2007 window. Also, if you're up for it, check out my virtual collection of snow and ice from other blogs posted to my companion blog.

sunrise ~ 12/25/10 ~ San Francisco

sunrise looking over to downtown San Francisco
from Grandview Park
December 25, 2010

This picture was taken oddly enough from the Sunset District. As much as I love the diversity of people in San Francisco and the Bay Area, I'm not sure I'd like living there, er, with all the people and traffic. It's certainly a larger peninsula in many respects than where I live 2 hours south on the Monterey Peninsula. The green strip in the middle on the left of the photo above is Golden Gate Park.

sunrise from home
November 27, 2010

The later sunrise this time of year is a bonus here. Unfortunately, I don't have other recent pictures to share on Nature ID. Wishing everyone a lovely December. Happy holidays!

Veterans Memorial Park
November 14, 2010

Yep, this is a bit of a different view point from my usual sunrise pics from home. Andy had a last minute invite to run the Big Sur Half Marathon in place of his running friend Bill Gates who was in Geneva or something. No, not THE Bill Gates, but we still had a good chuckle over people calling him Bill and being announced at the finish line. After I dropped him off for a 1 mile warm-up, I found this pretty view from the hill as I was wending my way back home by car, because the main road was closed for the run.

sunrise from home
November 4, 2010

sunrise ~ 10/23/10 ~ at home

sunrise from home

October 23, 2010

I prefer sunrises over sunsets. There's an inherent promise of a future with sunrises.