Happy Day with a Crossbill

Birders have got to be about as good a people as plant folks. For the last forty years I've enjoyed the company of interesting, amusing, bright and enthusiastic plant people on four continents and a couple of islands. We all seem to get a true lift of spirit from nurturing an unusual plant to thrive and bloom - and it's no good unless the experience is shared.

Rebutias purchased at a friendly plant show - the Central Coast Cactus & Succulent Society of SLO.



And after only a few years - I find it's the same with birders! In both my lives in California (Santa Barbara County 2005 - 2009 and San Luis Obispo County 2011 - ?) there have been supportive, active, amusing and sharp bird folks. And it's also no good unless shared. The Yahoo Groups SBCObirding and SLOCObirding are very connecting, alerting many to special and often very transitory birds.

Which brings me to being happy with cross bills, or better - Red Crossbills. Late morning today I read that Red Crossbills had been seen near the Interpretive Center at Montana de Oro State Park, only about five miles from where I live - and seventeen miles from where I was seated at work. Thirty-four miles round-trip, pick up my wife, find the bird, drop off Jeanne and back to work in a late hour for lunch? NO worries!

We found the birds right away, watched them for nearly fifteen minutes, then back to work. It made me very happy to see crossbills - a new bird for me!

One of about a dozen we counted.

A male and two female Red Crossbills 

Look close for the crossing bills.  

They were actively feeding on the Monterey Cypresses, with thousands of mature, reddish-brown, spherical cones.

You can imagine how the scissoring of crossed bills would easily tear into a closed cone.

Click on any photo to view larger images of all photos in this post.

Sunrise Over the Morros

Los Osos enjoys a cool climate, frequently moderated by morning fog and thick clouds. This is rather seasonal, and when 'fog season' begins, its called "June Gloom" and sometimes when early "May Gray". I have not heard monikers for July and August. Or even September as the mornings have all been misty/foggy/cloudy - to the point of nearly drizzle.

NOT THIS MORNING!

 

Now this is the making of a GREAT DAY!



Shrouded Cross - Symbolism?

Since moving to Los Osos in May of 2011, I drive eleven absolutely stunning miles to work. First I head northward on the curving two-lane South Bay Boulevard, along the edge of Morro Bay's estuary,

A misty sunset at low-tide over the Morro Estuary.



then get on Hwy1 (CA-1 or the PCH for Pacific Coast Highway) eastward where the 'morros' (geologic volcanic plugs) stand as tall as 1,500' along the highway.



A view of Hollister Peak from the northern edge of the Estuary.  





When I arrive at work, I'm actually only 5 miles from home - as the crow would fly over the morros!

 

During my daily drive, I've noticed three crosses on a small knob above the Nazarene Church just before the estuary bridge leaving Los Osos. During Christian seasons, the crosses are draped with cloth of various colors. Puzzled as to reasons for those seasons and their colors, this Christian website set me straight.

"In most traditions, the sanctuary cross is draped in color only during Lent (purple), Good Friday (black), and Easter (white). Some churches leave white on the cross through Eastertide, drape the cross in red for Pentecost Sunday, and then leave the cross undraped until the beginning of Lent the next year."
 

 

 

However, driving past the church on this Labor Day morning, I was very surprised to find another adornment to the crosses: 

Now THIS seems like some real symbolism!

The Turkey Vultures seemed rather committed to their perch.

And kept a good look-out for their next carcass.

 

Click on any photo to view larger images of all photos in this post.



New Whale Overlook at Hendry's in Santa Barbara

When I lived in Santa Barbara from 2005 - 2009, I served on the Board of Santa Barbara Beautiful; a local non-profit doing the good work of tree-planting, landscaping, education and art in public locations. We had a long-running project that just never seemed to get the correct amount of assistance or funding and was still incomplete when I left for Singapore in mid-2009.

Looking for birds at the creekmouth, I found that the Overlook is done. And well-done, too! Located at Hendry's Beach, now a Santa Barbara County park, Arroyo Burro Beach, the overlook sits behind the Boathouse Restaurant.

This is the top landing, about 25' above the beach.

Right away you notice the elaborate arrangement of hand-set stones.

The view from the top is quite grand, although no whales, darnitall. The Boathouse Restaurant is on the extreme left.

 

The handrail mimicks the waves - in my opinion. I can no longer recall the name of the artist and will post when I can sort it out.

You can see the meticulous detail with individual attention to each mounting bracket to support the handrail among the surreal placement of stones.

The steps to the top - with a very wavy handrail.

 

Good work Santa Barbara Beautiful, I must say it was worth the wait.

 

Click on any photo to view enlargements of all photos in this post.

 



Reddish Egret at Goleta Slough

The Reddish Egret is a medium-sized heron, with dull red tones over gray. In this photo, the immature bird appears rather serene and even stately; not the stature of the Great Blue Heron, and only slightly smaller than the Great Egret.

It's when it's feeding that this bird is so remarkable, and worth the 100 miles from Los Osos to Santa Barbara.

I've heard this action referred to as a 'bird ballet'.

 

I think of it more as a "Feed-Dance-Frenzy"

As the bird runs,

 

hop-flies,

 

spins,

 

and generally shows off.

I'm of a mind that this "spread-wing" action allows the egret to better see and locate the small shiny fish it seeks.

The undersides of the wings are very light-colored and reflect light back to the water's surface. Even a tiny bit more reflectivity would make these small shiny fish sparkle even more.

 

And the Reddish Egret was rather successful, too - even though this bird was way out of it' natural range, normally found surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, Greater Antilles, Gulf of California and the Pacific and Gulf coasts of Mexico.

 

 Click on any photo to see larger images of all photos in this post.

 



 

Lookin' for a li'l bit of COLOR?

A couple of weeks ago a new friend of mine said I might want to stop by his house and take a look at some plants that were blooming.

 

Hell, I guess!

 

 

Paul's been growing tuberous begonias for quite a few years and appears to have the process pretty well in hand - wouldn't you agree?

 

 

He and his wife Laurel packed up many empty boxes, taped shut with cut-outs to carefully set the pots into and leave the plants plenty of room. Traveling to San Diego for the American Begonia Society Annual Convention and Show they had trouble with the nasty bumpy freeways in LA and made it with FORTY to enter, losing only two to the LA Freeways. They were the hit of the show, gathering ribbons galore. [psssst - don't tell Paul, but Laurel took BEST IN SHOW for her only entry.]

 

What he was showing me was the SECOND COMING - plants that he had started later to spread out his bloom time. Oh. Just in case you thought Paul might be into subtle plants at one time? His previous favorites were Dahlias!

 

Lola the Begonia Cat

Paul knows all the names, lineage and how a particular variety grows.

Me? I'm like a Crow, I just am attracted to shiny, colorful things.

A variety with amazingly few petals.

Small worktable = more space to grow great plants.

The range of colors is awesome.

Only one plant!

This one is so beautiful, I hate that it reminded me of sliced radishes.

 

Remember the Dahlias I mentioned that Paul grew before the bright and colorful tuberous begonias? They were the not-so-subtle Dahlias, like this one I found in a local nursery:



 So I s'pose you could say that Paul has bright colors in his DNA.

 

 Click on any photo to see larger images of all photos in this post.

 



The Blog is BAAACK with WHALES at Avila

After a two-year adventure to live and work in Singapore, my wife Jeanne and I moved back to California - about 90 minutes north from my last posting location, Santa Barbara and El Capitan State Beach.

We now live in San Luis Obispo, one of the "Happiest Places on Earth" as you can read in Dan Buettner's book Thrive. He actually lists each of the happiest places from four world regions - and chooses Singapore as the happiest place for Asia! So, we moved from one happy place to another! On occasion there's enough happiness around to make you want to slap someone, it's just so darn hap-hap-happy all the time.

This week we have all witnessed the hurricane reinvasion of Louisana and Mississippi, and a few weeks before my friends in Oklahoma City were counting days not above 100F, but those above 105F! Here in San Luis Obispo? No rain since April and notably warm days reach the low 80s. No hurricanes. No tornadoes. Here, no ice, no snow. What do we have? Wildfire season, mudslide season and the earthquakes never go out of season.

The outdoors is always enjoyable here and hiking and biking are rather popular with many locals to hike, good roads with bike lanes to ride - and also trails for mountain biking. We've settled into seeking birds and other wildlife - the most recent pulse even made national news - the Feeding Frenzy of Avila Beach or YouTube.

We went out for a look for ourselves - what a show! I took a first-ever video from my D90 Nikon:



  

Yet with my Nikon set for regular photos, the action was still crazy. We sat on the shore, only a few feet away from the curb and the car - on a bluff about 20' above the beach. Anchovies. LOTS of them. Must have been about a zillion, I figure to raise all that ruckus of whales, pelicans, dolphins, harbor seals and sea lions - not to say a ton of gulls.

Whales were lunge-feeding. I haven't heard of anyone getting hurt. Amazing.

I bet whale breath is nasty.

SO many Brown Pelicans!

With more digesting and waiting another turn.

These pelicans are simply too tired and too full from all the frenzy.

Everything is laid back in SLOCO (San Luis Obispo County).

The Sooty Shearwaters were not to be outdone, as some 10,000++ were only a bit farther offshore.





Click on any photo to see larger images of all photos in this post.





Color, Color & Color with Red Flowers & Yellow Birds

Sometimes serendipity is the best way to see great things in nature. Driving into this fine County Park to drop off Jeanne to her Pastel Class, it was impossible to overlook these trees. With a marine layer (fog!) affecting the coastline (it was sunny only 1/2 mile away) the colors were also very saturated, rather than the reflected colors seen on a bright day.


The trees - Erythrina coralloides or Naked Coral Tree - were planted years ago to separate a parking lot from the street. And wow. What a good decision. As I was driving out of the park, slowly now through the parking lot, I realized that their was ANOTHER color in the red flowers - Hooded Orioles. In these photos, they are all mature males, dressed up in bright yellow/orange and their best black.

The Hooded Orioles feed on the nectar produced by the flowers. I did not observe long enough to learn if they might be a good pollinator, as this is known as a 'humming bird tree'.


You can now see more clearly (now that those distracting bits of yellow are not in the photo) how this erythrina obtained the 'naked' part of its common name - blooming with NO leaves!


In confirming my identification of the tree, I found an informative link on one of my most favorite 'plant links' - the UBC Botanical Garden in Vancouver, BC Canada. There is more information about the Hooded Oriole at the Cornell website for birds.