Fluid Flow

The organizers moved the race from February and then came up with the dullest coarse imaginable. Visalia to Bakersfield? Even running it in to the hills didn’t make this a watchable stage.

You had the whole state. Even though an El Nino year gave you a taste of February as you ran into Santa Rosa, the tour was a sleeper. The only suspense was wondering when Phil Liggett would butcher another California place name.

Merced to Lee Vining, now that would have been an interesting bike race. Weed to Crescent City. Needles to San Bernadino. Anything through Death Valley.

There is so much to California that running the race through the central valley leaves us a little flat.

After logging many hours at Point Lobos, I finally produced a single decent hike write up over at EveryTrail.com

Point Lobos Birding at EveryTrail

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While I have been making regular birding excursions to Point Lobos, this was the first time that I actually set a route and stuck with it enough to write a decent description of the hike.

Black-crowned Night Herons

My goal is to actually cover all of the trails at the reserve and perhaps create a decent guide. But I needed a starting point and hiking the park perimeter is a good start.

From here, I can add an out and back, or some inner loops that I have already done, or just go out and do some more birding.

Now that the why is out of the way, lets deal with the what. It was a good day of birding.

I met Ranger Chuck on the trail and he told me of Brandt’s Cormorants in display and nesting Black-crowned Night Herons.

Brandt’s Cormorants

This caused the only detour of the day, as I wasn’t planning on going out on the Bird Island loop. But I can’t resist cormorants in display so off I went.

From there I went inland along the South Plateau Trail. I got glimpses of Spotted Towhees, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Dark-eyed Juncos and a few poor shots off.

I have never been overly enamored with this trail giving its proximity to Highway 1, but you can see a number of woodland birds along the trail.

An April shower hastened my hike down to Whaler’s Cove, where I took shelter in the Whaler’s Museum. If you haven’t checked it out, it is worth a look.

Once the rain stopped I continued along the North Shore Trail. The highlight here was a couple of seals playing with a lost kayak paddle.

I flailed in my attempts to get decent shots of tree swallows and White-throated Swifts. The California Quail and Bewick’s Wrens also alluded me.

The last segment of the hike was back along the South Shore Trail. While the Sea Lions were abundant at the point, I didn’t see and Sea Otters or Gray Whales this trip.

More photos on Flickr.

As a child I learned that I had super powers that would get me out of almost any predicament. To invoke them, I merely had to say a magic word.

For some unknown reason the magic word was the name of a Mexican volcano. So when I found myself victim of a extreme tickling session etc, all I needed to do was utter the word “Popocateptl” to transform myself into Super Tom and escape the danger.

Had the magic word been “Eyjafjallajokull”, I am pretty sure I wouldn’t be here today.

Last Friday as I was coming back from Modesto, I stopped off at a couple of parts of the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge north of Los Banos. As is typical for a mid-day, week-day side trip. I saw one other person.

That is usually good for birding, but the mere presence of my truck was enough to set off the ducks on the water. I guess they have learned to associate trucks with guns.

American Coot

So I didn’t get any good views of ducks, but there were coots and lots of shorebirds that didn’t seem to mind the truck. There were also lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, Western Meadowlarks and a couple of raptors to see.

The first stop was at the West Bear Creek Unit (about 15 miles north of Los Banos. The location features a 2.5 mile auto tour that loops around some of the wetlands. About halfway around the loop is a rest stop with pit toilets. The loop would be an easy walk, which would probably afford better birding (see above regarding ducks).

Northern Harrier

But it was a little too cold and windy for me, so stayed in the truck. I did, however, turn off the stereo and open all the windows so I could hear as well as see the birds. Still I am certain that I missed some of the smaller and elusive habitants.

While I spotted a jackrabbit, it was gone before I could bring my camera up. A Northern Harrier prowled the area, living up to his former name “Marsh Hawk”. I was pleased to see and shoot a few Western Meadowlarks, though my shots showing their breast markings were not so good.

The smaller shorebirds were concentrated at the north end of the loop where the water appeared shallower. Here a couple of American Avocets and a few Black-necked Stilts joined a large flock of Long-billed Dowitchers. Also along the shore was a Killdear, a Greater Yellowlegs, and a few peeps that I couldn’t get a good view of.

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge at EveryTrail

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After spending about an hour at the W Bear Creek Unit, I continued down the road to the main part of the Refuge. The site is about two miles off Highway 165 on Wolfsen Road (about 6 miles north of Los Banos), and offers two auto trails, one around a large Tule Elk preserve and one around the wetlands for viewing waterfowl.

Great Blue Heron

I chose the waterfowl route, which may have been a mistake. A large portion of it along the river was closed. Next time, I will do the Tule Elk route (or both).

I did see a couple of bull elk across a wide field. But chose not to try for a photo through the fence. I could just make out that they were bulls in my binoculars, the camera would have had no chance.

Not to say that the waterfowl tour was poor. But most of the birds that I saw were along the road out to the hunters parking lots and would have been missed if I had stuck to the abbreviated route. I am assuming that the full route is closed for portions of the year.

White-faced Ibis

Perhaps the highlight of the day was a flock of White-faced Ibis in breeding plumage. Normally these birds seem completely misnamed.

When I have seen them before, they were nondescript and dark and only their form suggested “ibis”. In breeding plumage, however, they are a mix of almost iridescent purple and green and you can actually see a white ring around their bill.

I also a encountered a cormorant (double crested?) who flew parallel with me as I drove down a dike road. It would have been a great shot, but there were safety considerations.

Other birds were a Western Kingbird, Western Meadowlark, Great Blue Heron, and Great Egret. All in all, if you find yourself traveling between Turlock and Los Banos with a little time, there is good birding here.

It is probably even better if you get out and walk.

San Luis National Wildlife Refuge - 2 at EveryTrail

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More photos on Flickr.

Point Lobos Magazine - Fall 2009

Picture Perfect: Phony wildlife photography in magazines, books, calendars, and posters is giving people a warped view of nature. By Ted Williams

(Via Incite: Audubon Magazine.)

When I first saw the image of a mountain lion at Point Lobos, I was in awe. I know that there are big cats in the area and the photographer who took the shot spends enough time there to get great wildlife shots.

But cats are so elusive that getting a shot like that is like winning the lottery. I was extremely lucky to get my bobcat shots at Point Lobos a few years back.

How do you get a shot of a mountain lion on the beach?

You hire the mountain lion. In this case the mountain lion, named Kona, was brought to the Reserve to film part of a National Geographic production called “The Secret Big Sur”.

You can read more about the shoot and other movies that have used Point Lobos as a location in Point Lobos Magazine - Fall 2009 (pdf 17 Mb)

In light of the Incite article, I am not certain that it is a good idea to use our State Parks in this manner. I don’t know how or whether the resulting DVD will fully disclose that they are using a captive animal.

Without full disclosure you may generate a false impression of what wildlife is like or as is in this case what our State Parks and Reserves are like.

For example, story has it that a visitor to the Reserve saw a copy of the magazine with the mountain lion on the cover and immediately got in their car and left the Reserve.

Thanks to G. Dan Mitchell Photography for the link.

That is how I described my first memory upgrade on my Mac SE, 21 years ago.

I don’t recall how much of an upgrade it was, it was probably doubling the memory from 1 to 2 megabytes. But it required cracking the case, removing the motherboard, and a stiff drink.

It was an ordeal. Mostly because I had never done it before and, while I was somewhat fearless, I was mucking with the most expensive thing I had ever owned.

Flash forward.

Today, I doubled the memory on my Macbook Pro, from 2 to 4 gigabytes. It was a two minute outpatient procedure. The installation took less time than finding the necessary screwdriver.

I think we have made strides here.

Antidunes on the Toutle River, 1984

Geologists find a way to simulate the great Missoula floods: “Scientists use detailed computer simulations to get a play-by-play look at how the great floods unfolded thousands of years ago.”

(Via Oregon Local News.)

Supercritical flows seem likely across the scablands, at least until water backed up at the entrance of the Gorge. Similar conditions probably occurred at the Gorge outlet near Portland. There you had expanding flow that could have produced and preserved some very large antidunes. It all kind of depends on the sediment load of the flows.

I am trying to imagine my little beach experiments blown up a few thousand times. Impressive, to say the least.

Remembering the Frisbee inventor and his simple sports innovation / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the Frisbee inventor, died this week. His simple sports innovation – a plastic, aerodynamic disc – has become one of the most popular toys in American history, uniting beachgoers, college kids, and competitive teams for half a century.

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

There was a time when I flung and caught the disc with some magic. So today we raise a glass to the memory of Walter Fredrick Morrison.

Thank god I downloaded the trial version and didn’t purchase the upgrade.

Aperture 3 provides over 200 improvements. Notably, Faces and Places have been called up from iPhoto. While my photography doesn’t lend itself to Faces, Places is important. It took me a little while to figure out how to use Places, but once I did, it was easy to geotag my images.

Unfortunately the location data was not included when I uploaded photos to Flickr using the new Flickr uploader.

The Flickr uploader is a treat. It forces you to place images into a set. It gives you the option of setting the size of the photos as “Web Images”, “Optimized Images” and “Actual Size Images”. It doesn’t explain what this means.

I think that I could understand this behavior in iPhoto, but this is Apple’s Pro-level photo software. Don’t you think the user might have a better idea of how they want to present their images online than Apple?

All Apple had to do was purchase the exceptionally fine FlickrExport plugin and add its capabilities. But no, Aperture 3 comes with its own marginally useful uploader (hopefully the plugin will still work - I haven’t tried that).

The new brushes are helpful. I also like the full screen browser (and the fact that full screen mode doesn’t black out your extra monitor).

But I am left wondering if this upgrade is worth it. Does it really provide enough enhancements to cover the upgrade costs?

I am not sure, I am going to have to play with it a bit more. But my initial reaction isn’t good. I don’t see that the upgrade is that much better than what I have with Aperture 2 and plugins. I would have thought that Apple should have come up with something superior.

The Big One is inevitable. Catastrophe is not.: “The message for Southern California from the horror in Haiti should be — but probably won’t be — to prepare for disaster.

(Via L.A. Times - California | Local News.)

I actually started this post before this LA Times article came out. But it is an easy post to work off of. While we don’t expect a natural disaster will turn our cities into third world countries, we must expect it.

There is a difference between a natural disaster and a man-made one. We make man-made disasters by being unprepared.