From the monthly archives:

November 2009

These Aren’t Sleeper Waves . . . But They Could Be

November 27, 2009 Waves

It’s the deceptive nature of sleeper waves, sneaker waves, rogue waves — all names for the same phenomenon — that people unfamiliar with the California coast are lulled into a false sense of security. They are rogue or sleeper precisely because they strike randomly, out of the great blue . . .

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Thanksgiving Tribute to Berkeley’s Turkeys

November 26, 2009 Holidays

Photo collage of wild turkeys in Berkeley. The photos were taken in the Berkeley hills and in Tilden Park.

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Above SF From Twin Peaks

November 24, 2009 San Francisco

“It’s the magic towers of a steel fairyland — the beacon atop the proud Mark, the red, thermometer-like cap of the Drake, the sturdy, four-square crest of Mother Russ, the sudden, blunt end of Coit Tower — that make up the minarets of a metropolis . . .” “It’s the indescribable conglomeration of beauty and [...]

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It’s Not Imbalanced . . . It’s Itten

November 22, 2009 Photography

I’m becoming a curmudgeon and I’m not happy about it. I vacillate between the extremes, one day a sentimental fool, the next day, a hard-wired cynic. It’s not that illogical (or chemically imbalanced) when you consider that cynicism tends to be the flip side of idealism. You’d think I’d embrace this by now — that [...]

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Kids Playing in a Puddle

November 22, 2009 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

I just came upon some great footage on You Tube, from David Neils. It shows three elk playing in a forest puddle. Embedding is disabled on that particular clip — but you can link to it here: Three Elk Calves in a Puddle. This companion video below, also from Neils, shows what most people would [...]

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Tussle on Mountain Lake

November 21, 2009 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

This was a first for me . . . witnessing a down and dirty fight between American Coots intent on keeping each other off coveted turf. Neither bird was hurt. Well, maybe emotionally. The loser scrambled across the water to escape the victor. American Coots can drown in territorial battles, although it’s not common. They [...]

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Return of the Waxwings

November 19, 2009 Perching Birds

It starts with a whistle, but a whistle so faint it’s a whisper across the leaves. And then the sound of raindrops, but it’s not rain. It’s the patter of falling berries, pyracantha and holly, dropping into the blanket of debris below the trees.

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Deer in the Tombstones

November 18, 2009 Deer, Elk, Hooved

Hugh and I were doing our initial survey of an old pioneer cemetery in the East Bay, when we saw these unexpected travelers in the haze. I grabbed a few frames as a doe and her two fawns ditched around the tombstones. (More on the pioneer cemetery in an upcoming post.) In many areas of [...]

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A Bird Gets the Freddie Mercury Beat

November 17, 2009 Animal Behavior & Characteristics

My friend Sheila posted this vid on Facebook. If you watch the first minute, you’ll get the gist of Snowball’s interpretation. There is, however, a notable bow at the end. Snowball comes by way of Bird Lovers Rescue. They have a blog and website — dedicated to avian rescue and education.

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Ahimsa at the Tidepools

November 16, 2009 Ethics

I swear, if I have to ask one more kid to stop throwing rocks at animals . . . It was an imperfect plan to begin with: super-low tide on a Sunday at the gorgeous but hardly-secret Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. I’ve been waiting for a daylight minus (-) tide for a few months. I’d even [...]

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The Unheralded Hulet Hornbeck

November 14, 2009 East Bay

Until this week, I didn’t know how much gratitude I owed Mr. Hulet Hornbeck. The sign below marks the head of a commemorative trail at Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline — a park in the vast and lovely East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). When Hornbeck began his tenure as Chief of Land Acquisition for EBRPD [...]

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Pigeon Masters of Culinary Adaptation

November 13, 2009 Doves & Pigeons

Refined carbs aren’t any better for pigeons than they are for us. But urban birds, used to groveling for handouts, will take what they can get. This mottled pigeon person stumbled upon a bounty in Mission Bay. We could hear a gang of gulls on the approach so the pigeon was in his own Amazing [...]

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A Turkey-Friendly Thanksgiving

November 11, 2009 Agriculture

A few years ago, Hugh and I started our new Thanksgiving tradition of adopting a turkey from Farm Sanctuary. We can’t, of course, house a turkey in our one-bedroom flat without significant lifestyle changes. A pigeon rescue is about the most we’ve been able to handle in person. But Farm Sanctuary offers remote adoptions of [...]

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Cormorants at Work

November 8, 2009 Cormorants

First, a sidebar. I know this and continue to ignore it: tripod = tack-sharp photos. The IS (image stabilization) inside my Olympus is pretty darned good. And with the right shutter speeds, I can brace the camera in such a way that it renders crisp images without a tripod or monopod — which is super, [...]

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Sir Sea Otter

November 4, 2009 Central Coast

I saw this otter on my way home from Morro Bay last week. He was foraging and grooming around the public pier at Moss Landing. The otter was awfully far away for my lens, so these shots are heavily cropped, not too crisp. But they capture the moment. He (or she) had repeated success diving [...]

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[Not Quite] Deja Vu – Oil Spill on San Francisco Bay

November 1, 2009 Pollution & Trash

Almost two years to the day after the Cosco Busan spill, hundreds of gallons of bunker fuel leaked into San Francisco Bay on Friday morning. As with Cosco Busan, details changed as the day went on, with reports ranging from five gallons to 100 gallons. Today’s news reports don’t add any clarity, although the best [...]

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