great blue heron
Ardea herodias

Finally! I had the camera on me while driving by Crespi Pond in the Pacific Grove Golf Links near Point Pinos Lighthouse. We regularly spot great blue herons and black-crowned night herons here (not to mention American coots and a plethora of various gulls), but we rarely have the motivation or camera to stop and watch. In fact, there are two night herons hiding in the reeds in the second pic (for lack of a better ID of this pond plant), barely evidenced by their white faces. It's our standard route home from the grocery store; I know, what a terrible commute (psht!). As for the location, this is right across the street where Oceanview Blvd. changes into Sunset Dr., so I am including it in the Pacific Grove Shoreline Park location label.

I don't have much commentary on the great blue heron. I know there have been massive annual nests that have been killing the tops of the pines near a friend's house in Monterey and where they hunt for gophers in her yard. Usually, when I see great blues, nights, or great egrets, I'm out for my morning walk near the Coast Guard Pier... without a camera.

ps 03/15/11 - For great pictures of a great blue heron catching a gopher, check out John Wall's Natural California here and here.

En plein air

Tom Davies' paintings
September 25, 2010

There is something incredibly magical about viewing plein air art outdoors, versus some sterile and snooty all-white galleries. When nature and the open air is your studio, it is fitting to have your work displayed as shown above when participating in the Monterey County Studio Tour. Tom mainly paints local outdoor scenes but also does portraits and places in Italy and France. I asked him if it was okay for me to take pictures of his work to post to my blog. He was happy to grant me permission. Check out his website and story in the link embedded in his name above. To see more of my pictures from his studio tour, see my Flickr set.

This is not the first time we've seen paintings hooked on trees and tucked away in the shrubbery here in the Highlands. For big celebrations the family pulls out the grandfather's work to adorn their yard. It's wonderful! I feel incredibly blessed to have met this family upon returning to California from Ohio. They have always welcomed me with a big smile and a warm hug. They are good people and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

sunrise ~ 09/24/10 ~ at home

cruise ship coming into the bay

September 24, 2010

This is probably the quickest I've ever loaded a pic from the camera to Nature ID. It looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day here on the coast. We haven't seen cruise ships for a while, but when they do come into the bay, they always seem to arrive right at sunrise. We chuckle that most people on the ships are probably still sleeping off the previous night's heavy buffet and miss the spectacular sunrises. For whatever reason, I have rarely had a desire to do a cruise; once I was tempted to do a river cruise in Europe. Mainly, we've been seeing military ships and squid boats out on the bay this year.

The vertical line of red dots on the mountain in the background is a tower located on Mt. Madonna. For the longest time I couldn't figure out the location of the mystery dots as I still get disoriented where things are across the Monterey Bay. A couple friends moved to the mountain right below the tower last year, so we finally figured it out.

Oh, here's a shout out to my uncle, aunt, and cousins who are heading to San Pedro, CA this morning for a 14-day cruise through the Panama Canal to Miami, FL. I can't wait to see their pictures!

ps 09/20/12 - There's another cruise ship coming through this morning.  I thought it'd be interesting to log when I see them, and sure enough as I looked up this post it's almost at the same time of year!

pss 10/02/12 - Today there was another cruise ship.  When it first came in this morning like shown above, it made an unusual turn towards Moss Landing.  Later in the day it was anchored in the usual spot just outside of the Monterey Harbor.  I'm starting to wonder if the only reason I see these hard to miss massive cruise ships this time of year is because the summer fog has cleared away.  As a side note that I'd like to remember, cruise ship season = local termite swarms.  This evening I ran into a friend, almost quite literally as he was running across the street from his tri-pod camera to his car.  I turned around and jumped out to chat with him for a bit.  As the cruise ship was leaving the bay at sunset, large numbers of termites were flying around us.  With the low lighting, he thought they might be oak moths, but I caught one and confirmed they were indeed winged termites.

wordless Wednesday