Saturday, May 24, 2008

Recent nature sightings

Monday morning while I was waiting for the vet's office to open so I could call them, I was outside taking pictures of the clematis volunteer in our yard and I heard a different kind of chirping than usual. I looked up and saw a fattish bird with a red breast. My guess is it was a robin but within a second or two a hummingbird came along and chased it off. LOL, feisty creatures! Then as it flew off, this bird showed up. Unfortunately I only had my 60mm macro lens on, so this is the best picture I could get.

I can't tell what kind of woodpecker it is, but I know it's a woodpecker. It looks more like a Downy Woodpecker, but I swear it was larger than that, so it would likely be a Hairy Woodpecker, but who knows, maybe it's something else altogether.

Then on Tuesday afternoon, I drove down to Monterey to meet an online girlfriend. I had a great time and it was like we were old IRL friends. She and her family were headed my way on vacation so it was a chance we just couldn't pass up.

We took a walk down the Coast Guard Pier - AKA: The Breakwater - and were treated to a wonderful show of Sea Lions and Brandt's Cormorants. Check these out!
sea lions 07
Awwww, wasn't that sweet?
sea lions 13
Synchronized Swimming :)
sea lions 15
More cute babies!
cormorant04
Stop! You thief! This cormorant was flying AWAY from the nesting area with a bit of nesting in its beak. I was reading at the cornell site that they steal from other nests.
cormorant10
The nesting area... wow, just wow!
cormorant13
This one nearby adjusted herself and I spotted the eggs!
cormorant07
The blue on their necks is just amazing! And it's eyes are a bright blue as well!

I also spotted some jellyfish in the waters - never seen them before out there, and several starfish as well. Great place to hit for wildlife spotting! I'd say a little dangerous though. There isn't a barrier between humans and the sea lions and those adults are huge... although pretty docile basking in the sun.

4 comments:

Mary C said...

All your photos are "cute." But that Brandt's Cormorant is WOW!

Lutheran Lucciola said...

Oh, nice photos! I'm glad your puss-puss is doing better, too.

There was another Lutheran in Monterey this weekend, Pastor Cwirla from LA. A good weekend for Lutherans, I guess!

Heidi said...

Thank you both :D

Too bad I didn't know that... was he preaching there? I didn't notice anything on his blog.

Lutheran Lucciola said...

No, I only knew because of his page on the Wittenburg Trail site. Or maybe he did preach, not sure....

 

Current skin is Spring Green 2009
Best viewed on Firefox at 1024x768, larger or widescreen.
If you must use Internet Explorer, update to IE8 or the sidebars will look funky.