Berkeley

Avian Drama At The Berkeley Marina!

| foxstudio
Black-crowned night heron. Minding its own business.
Black-crowned night heron. Minding its own business.

We just spent a couple of days in Berkeley, staying at the Berkeley Marina Doubletree. Our room was on the first floor overlooking the marina, so all I had to do was open the sliding glass door and walk ten feet to see and photograph the various birds that were hanging about, including this black-crowned night heron. As you can see, it was late afternoon and the light was really nice. I’d taken three shots when…

Incoming!
Incoming!

a great blue heron flew into the frame from stage left. I just stood there and kept shooting. The smaller heron sprang into the air.

I want THIS rock.
I want THIS rock.

And got out of the way as fast as it could.

My rock.
My rock.

Not only was this a great little slice of life sequence, but…wow….the light.

I am happy now.
I am happy now.

It was all over in less than 30 seconds.

There.
There.

The night heron, having moved not really any farther than it had to, continued on about its evening routine.

Moving on.
Moving on.

All is peaceful again.

Sundown
Sundown

 

It’s Raining, Finally, In Humboldt County. And Here Are Some Squirrel Pics For You.

| foxstudio

squirrel 2Just got back from a short trip to the San Francisco Bay Area. We stayed at the Doubletree near the Berkeley Marina, a dog-friendly hotel where we could walk along the waterfront. I have a new little Nikon Coolpix S6800 and the resident California ground squirrels were just the subjects I needed to try it out for wildife. It did pretty well. Lots of noise at full zoom, but definitely enough shutter speed to catch the little critters in good focus. Do they ever have a room with a view…

squirrel 5

That’s the Golden Gate in the center on the horizon. San Francisco is to the left and Marin County to the right.

squirrel 1

There were often three or more up on the rocks hanging around.

squirrel 3

One doesn’t usually associate squirrels with large bodies of water, but the rocky edge along the bay creates perfect habitat. There’s an adjacent large park with an off-leash dog area where the squirrels can sit in the trees (even though they are “ground” squirrels) and blow raspberries at the canines.

squirrel 4This is the closest I could zoom without the photo getting really noisy, but it’s plenty close enough.

Otherwise, we had a lovely time visiting with family and doing some shopping. I cut my annual swath through the Dick Blick store for art supplies and picked up a few things at REI. We went to Rangoon Superstars for Burmese food one night, Party Sushi for Japanese the next night and finished up with Nepalese/Indian at Taste of the Himalayas. A stock-up stop at Trader Joe’s and we were ready to wend our way back up to Behind the Redwood Curtain. Where today it is raining for the first time since December. And now there are flood warnings through Friday night…