LIFE FORMS

2006.08.17
A BEGGER!
Guy lived in a hole a few feet away...
He actually scared me when he magically popped out - almost just under my feet!
My take on the deal:
Squirl would come out of hole to see if sea gulls were getting (his) potato chips.

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ME 2006.08.17
Can't find any anamals, so I will take a picture of me.

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2006.10.26
Different squirl; one mile north MacKerricher.

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Oregon seagull SeaSide?

Oregon seagull
SeaSide?

To get this picture:
Digital and film cameras are not fast enough to acquire focal distance on fast moving targets. So you must guess at the focal distance before hand, and set the camera to manual to hold it. Then pan the camera exactly at the same rate as the target.

(You will need a willing target; or at least halfway accommodating. This seagull gave me a lot of chances with his continual flyby. Evedently, he understood the complexities of this, and really wanted to help me. )

Canadian Geese 2009.AUG.03

Canadian Geese were foraging a hundred yards from any water. There heads were down and obsessively picking at plants. All I wanted was a picture but they still flew away.

Cormorants 2009.NOV.19

Cormorants can be seen in MacKerricher State Park from one of the board walks. I can't tell if they are getting small ropes from around their necks, or they are just preening.

Crow 2009.NOV.19

Two crows sat together afar as two tiny dots - barly visible - atop a far cypress. With excellent eye sight this one loved what I was throwing into the air and flew down. After I gave some fragment-de-spud-chips food, he flew back to his mate, 1000 feet away, where they perched as before, side by side. Never more to return, quote me.

Coots 2009.NOV.18

Coots playing in the rain...

You have to be loonier than a coot to be out in this rain. But I braved it for this stupid and dull picture.

I think they get this reputation because of sudden antics like diving under the water for no apparent reason, other than to get out of the rain.

A thing 2010.SEP.22

I do not know if this thing was going to bite me, but at least it was pretending too. The head looks like a fly, and it is a little smaller than a gallinipper mosquito. This fly-thing is only half an inch or so. And that is small for a gallinipper mosquito.

I actually caught a gallinipper mosquito back in Chico that was an inch long. Its abdomen even contained my wife's red blood. It was the only gallinipper mosquito that I had seen in my intire life. I had not even seen them in text books. I did not get a picture. Unlike this thing, I think they are very rare in northern california. Unfortunately, it died suddenly and all attempts to revive or put it back together failed.