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July 02, 2008
I had fun shooting birds at Rivendell. I got three lifers (first sightings) - Western Tanager, Band-tailed Pigeon and Black-headed Grosbeak!
A female Anna's Hummingbird is looking for some sugar syrup
An American Robin
A Dark-eyed Junco. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
rivendweller, sorry for calling this a Towhee. :)
Black-headed Grosbeak (female)
Black-headed Grosbeak (male)
Black-headed Brown-headed Cowbird (female)
Black-headed Brown-headed Cowbird (male)
Crayfish or crawdad! I had no clue what this was and first described this as "Something like a lobster and a crab..."
Mourning Dove
Black-headed Grosbeak female
Acorn Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Tanager male
Band-tailed Pigeon!
July 02, 2008 04:30 AM
July 01, 2008
I have so many photographs of a variety of birds from Rivendell, but Steller's Jays need their own post. First, they are the most visible inhabitants of the place and second, they put on the best show for photographs.
Steller's Jay
The young fledgling is begging for food. Young birds sit low and flap their wings rapidly like this one is doing, if they want to be fed.
Looks like the trick is working for the fledgling
Worked!
July 01, 2008 06:31 AM
June 30, 2008
It's been a couple of months already since I last interacted with pets of any kind, so it was wonderful meeting the four lovely cats at Rivendell.
Daisy. The oldest of the four and very quiet.
Yakkitty
Toonces
Josephine
June 30, 2008 02:53 AM
June 29, 2008
The place is as magical as it sounds!
The Mokelumne river that flows in the Rivendell of the Sierra-Nevada has been flowing the same path for thousands of years and along the way it has carved out some fascinating rock sculptures.
Notice a bear in the river? Here's the bear
Notice a Beluga, a Sea Lion and a Polar bear? Here they are
Notice a tortise? Here it is.
And an elephant and horse behind it (thanks to low_delta for noticing it)! :)
June 29, 2008 05:43 AM
June 24, 2008
I was in Chennai this weekend to attend a wedding but had some free time to visit the snake park at Guindy. It was an interesting place and this time I had the company of little Yasho and Nandini. One of the nicest things was to watch their reactions to the various displays.
Here is Nandini pointing to the longest snake in India.
In India, the reticulated python is only found in the Nicobar islands
Siamese crocodile
A Spectacled Cobra during the demonstration. Other common snakes that were demonstrated
were: Vine snake, Checkered Keelback, Rat Snake & Bronzebacked Tree snake. The demo was
also aimed at dispersing some of the common myths about these snakes.
The boards carrying information on the snakes, crocodilians and lizards were quite good. This place is worth a visit if you're in Chennai.
The neighbouring zoo was not as great with the neglected air that some of the zoos in India have. I was saddened at the spectacle of a White bellied Sea Eagle perched on the edge of a tub of water. I don't know whether it was reared in the zoo itself, but immediately memories of a morning watching this bird hunting on the open sea came to my mind. Felt depressed after that.
Later, it was a bit of a coincidence that I was reading
Life of Pi in the train where there is a long passage about zoos. He writes that with the possible exception of captured wild animals, most zoo residents live in a kind of "compressed territory" akin to the way we live in houses. Maybe I should quote this:
"A good zoo is a place of carefully worked out coincidence:exactly where an animal* says to us "Stay out!" with its urine or other secretions, we say to it, "Stay in!", with our barriers. Under such conditions of diplomatic peace, all animals are content and we can relax and have a look at each other"
He goes on to point out how animals that could escape from the zoo did not and in fact returned to the security of their own cages. It was an interesting take on the 'cruelty' factor that most of us associate with zoos. However, he ends the discussion on this note:
"...I don't mean to defend zoos. Close them all down if you want (and let us hope that what wildlife remains can survive in what is left of the natural world). I know zoos are no longer in people's good graces. Religion faces the same problem. Certain illusions about freedom plague them both"
* I suppose he means an animal in the wild
June 24, 2008 09:45 AM
June 15, 2008
This owl was the first thing I saw when I reached the gardens, much later than I'd planned. Slowly approached it with the scope and got this photo. Watching those fierce orange eyes looking at me with disdain was a humbling experience. What a great way to end two weeks of confinement in the campus..! It was so windy that the scope along with my tripod (quite heavy) fell down. I had a few bad moments but thankfully nothing was broken. One more pic under the cut:
June 15, 2008 12:13 PM
June 14, 2008
Polk Street, San Francisco
June 14, 2008 08:49 AM
June 01, 2008
Depressing
June 01, 2008 04:07 PM
May 29, 2008
This is the second time this week I'm up till 4am and still not able to sleep. I had this issue a while back and looks like its acting up on me again.
May 29, 2008 10:45 PM
...there's a tiger in there!
The tiger is about thirty feet away, but if someone hadn't seen it walk into the bush, no one would have had a clue about its presence.
May 29, 2008 09:00 PM
May 27, 2008
A normal hot day on the coastal San Francisco area can suddenly turn all foggy like we found out (again) the other week when we were driving towards Point Reyes.
on the Golden Gate bridge
Fog moving in from the Pacific
Shooting birds is tough in fog - even with cooperative ones like this male Red-winged Blackbird
Another view of the blackbird. High ISO and dense fog result in very grainy photographs.
May 27, 2008 04:26 AM
May 18, 2008
I headed out north yesterday and I was expecting the place to be slightly cooler than the south bay. Just how cool I couldn't have guessed. When I arrived at Point Reyes, the summer clothing I was in looked like a bad bad mistake. It was all foggy and windy and very cold - at least for my tropical skin. :) Anyway, I managed to sneak in a few photographs...
North Beach. There wasn't much left of the beach to see! :)
North Beach again.
The fog moving in looks like mega-tsunami approaching... :)
The fog moving in from the Pacific into the California coastline...
The coastline looks as beautiful as ever! :)
Moonrise gives way to...
Sunset over the Pacific!
May 18, 2008 09:50 PM
This windy morning I didn't expect much from the Botanical Gardens, but as usual the place threw up some surprises. An Ashy Woodswallow was the first bird of the day- I think the pylon there is its regular perch. Kingfisher Rock had a Painted Stork, a Grey Heron and a Little Egret enjoying the breeze. I liked their pose :)
Further on, a Rock Agama was sunning itself. A real beauty, this one:
Agama
In the grasses, as many as 6-8 peahens and a couple of peacocks were walking about. Ashy Prinias, Black Drongoes, S.G Bee eaters and a Long tailed Shrike were noted. We went off to explore some of the areas behind one of the artificial ponds. This was a thorny, overgrown patch but a Painted Francolin made up for that. After some wandering here and there we finally reached the main path once more. Decided to do some birding near the Kingfisher Rock once more, where the water had dried up considerably since I saw it last, but the remaining patch of green was a refreshing sight.
A Large Egret, Woolly necked Stork and 6 Pond Herons had taken refuge here among the reeds and a pair of Red Rumped Swallows were flying about near the overhanging rock- perhaps nesting there. We watched as the heron warily eyed an Egyptian Vulture flying overhead. It was getting hot and we decided to turn back and at the last minute thought of looking for the Woolly necked stork near the far end of the pool. Luckily for us, we disturbed a huge orange and black bird- at first we thought it was a raptor but it turned out to be the Rock Eagle Owl. It sat for a few moments on a rock and I had a good look through the scope. As usual, my camera batteries ran out at the crucial moment so I couldn't digiscope it. It was a lovely bird, highlight of the day.
May 18, 2008 07:14 AM
May 16, 2008
I voted last week.
It was an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).
It does not have a paper trail.
Something smelled fishy.
I do not trust machines.
Shudder
May 16, 2008 06:37 AM
May 09, 2008
May 09, 2008 02:24 PM
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