A relatively slow morning at Salton Sea yesterday. I was hoping to get photos of Stilt Sandpiper and if I was really lucky a Ruff. I couldn’t find either and the hunters in the area weren’t helping things. I did photograph a beautiful adult Peregrine Falcon and a female/juv. Merlin (Taiga) at fairly close range. Always a treat to see a Peregrine Falcon so close!
Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Merlin (fem/juv)
As many of you may know, I was at Game 5 last night. Unfortunately we lost after several rookie errors, terrible pitching, bad fielding and terrible offense. We should have won Game 4…and after seeing how poorly we played in Game 5 it’s certainly no surprise we didn’t make it to the series.
I did manage to get some decent shots from the MVP box seats. Bear in mind, I did NOT have a photo pass. I snuck my 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 lens in with my 1D Mk III!! Everyone around thought I was “PRO” though. HAHA
Billingsley on the Mound
Luke Walton
Tommy Lasorda Yelling
Manny Ramirez Fouls
Russell Martin Not Happy About Strike Call
Torre Having Some Words With Ump
Nomar Garciaparra
Drove up to Monterey, CA this weekend for back to back Debi Shearwater pelagic trips. Debi is also the one we will be going to Antarctica with next winter. All six of the guides from the Antarctica trip happened to be on the boat with us, along with WINGS leader Steve Howell, which gave me ample time to pick their brains on any questions I had.
Saturday’s pelagic out of Monterey was pretty rough with swells exceeding 12′. Many people were sick, sacrificing their breakfast and lunch to the seagulls following the boat. Fortunately I was not one of them! Sunday’s boat trip out of Santa Cruz was much calmer as the winds had died down overnight. The highlight of the weekend were a pod of Humpback Whales that were being harassed by 6 Transient Orcas (Killer Whale). We suspect the group of Orcas were trying to kill one of the Humpback Whale calves. We don’t think they succeeded as we only noticed the remnants of a California Sea Lion floating in the water.
Lots of images follow:
Sea Otter
Sea Otter
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
Transient Orca
Transient Orca
Transient Orca
Risso’s Dolphin
Risso’s Dolphin
California Sea Lion
Sooty Shearwater
Buller’s Shearwater
Buller’s Shearwater
Pink-footed Shearwater
Black-footed Albatross
Northern Fulmar
Common Murre
Marbled Murrelet
South Polar Skua
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Northern Harrier
A Sprague’s Pipit was reported at the Silver Saddle Ranch in Galileo Hills of Kern Co. this morning. My dad and I raced up there late afternoon to try and get some photos before the sun went down. Fortunately someone was on the bird right as we pulled into the parking lot. The bird was very cooperative often coming within minimal focusing distance!
Sprague’s Pipit
Sprague’s Pipit
Also present, was a Varied Thrush:
Varied Thrush
It’s been a pretty busy schedule the past month for me so I haven’t had much time to post updates on my blog. We were in Austin, TX for the Austin City Limits music festival a couple weekends ago. I was able to get out one of the days we were there to try to photograph any Scissor-tailed Flycatchers still hadn’t moved south. I lucked out when someone from Austin posted he just had several in NW Austin. He was very helpful in giving me specific directions which yielded the following photos:
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Last Saturday I did another 3/4 day pelagic trip out to the 9-Mile Bank and the Coronados Islands in Mexican waters southwest of San Diego. Big surprise was a single (1 yr.) Blue-footed Booby among the many Brown Boobies. I was also able to get some better photos of Black-vented, Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters.
Other nice surprises included a pod of Blue Whale many Bottlenose, Risso’s and Common Dolphins along with a lone Elephant Seal on the Coronados Islands.
Photos from the pelagic follow:
Pink-footed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Black-vented Shearwater
Brown Booby
Blue-footed Booby
Blue Whale
Elephant Seal
Bottlenose Dolphin