Tag Archives: Nature

Sunbathing Snake

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It’s a real wakeup shock to walk up on a 3 to 4 foot snake laying in the sun right beside the trail. My mind registered him and my muscles reacted instinctively. Before I even realized it, I had jumped 2 feet in the air and backward. Only then did I become consciously aware there was a snake, and what I had done. Ancient survival programming recognizing a danger pattern and firing. There is still that animal core of protective instinct deep within us.

Mr. Gopher Snake remained frozen, his own instinct telling him not to move. I left him in peace to soak up as much sun as he wanted. He has a tale to tell Mrs. Gopher Snake this evening.

Gopher Snake Sunning
Gopher Snake Sunning

December Big Waves

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A storm churning out in the Pacific Ocean sent huge waves into the California coast. Here on the Central Coast, the breakwater protecting the entrance to Morro Bay was an excellent place to watch the ocean swells landing hard.

You feel a rumbling sound that surrounds you. When the wave hits you can feel the ground shake. The foghorn blowing in the background really completes the maritime touch.

The swells were running 17-19 feet at the breakwater. The occasional wave a bit bigger than the rest drives some of the braver souls backward.

Quite a show mother nature is capable of putting on.

Caught Without My Camera – Drat!

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Following a dinner of Red Snapper at the Sea Shanty in Cayucos California, walking along the beach afterward the sky decided to do this. And of course, catch me without my trusty Nikon. So what can a guy do but grab his smartphone, shoot away, and hope for the best.

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These pacific sunsets are in danger of becoming habit forming.

Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve

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The Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve park protects 90 acres of coast live oak trees (Quercus agrifolia), some up to 800 years old. The park was established in 1972, and is located just south of Los Osos California off of Los Osos Valley road. A number of trails traverse the park for your hiking and viewing pleasure.

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Morro Rock

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Morro Rock (aka “The Gibraltar of the Pacific”) is a landmark feature on the central California coast. Formed around 23 million years ago as the plug of a now extinct volcano, it rises 581 feet from sea level. In 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese explorer, named the rock as ‘El Morro’, which means ‘the crown shaped hill’ in Spanish. The rock was an important navigational aid for mariners for over 300 years, and at least two tribes consider it a sacred site. Today it stands guard over the entrance to the sheltered bay of it’s namesake city, Morro Bay (pop. 14,950). Morro Rock was designated a California Historical Landmark in 1968.

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Supermoon

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Like 3/4 of the worlds known population, I decided to shoot some photographs of the August 10th SuperMoon.

When a full moon occurs at the same time as the moon being closest to earth in it’s elliptical orbit, that’s a SuperMoon. It can be up to 14% larger in appearance and 30% brighter luminosity, than the full moon at other placements in it’s orbit.

I have been working on my moon shooting skills in the nights leading up to that event. I’m shooting with a 200mm zoom lens which is not known for stellar (HA!) performance at the long end of it’s range. Focusing is very difficult for these old eyes, but critical for the detail I want to show. What I wouldn’t give for a Nikon 300mm fixed length F4 lens right about now.

So everything goes swimmingly, and my results are improving, as I practice every night shooting a fuller and fuller moon leading toward the August 10th peak. Then, on August 8th, clouds and heavy rain move in.

And so it remains, until the night of August 11th, one day after the peak SuperMoon viewing. In the below shot, you can see a slight darkening toward the lower right of the Moon, indicating it is just past peak.

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There is a lessor SuperMoon coming again in a month, on September 9th. I plan to be out there shooting it.

I wonder how the weather will be?

 

Trees Deciding They’ve Had Enough

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So it’s all awesome and wonderful living under the big, shady, green trees on the edge of the lake. Or, it is until they come down. In the lake. And you have to get them out.

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It’s a perfectly clear afternoon (albeit there had been heavy rain on the previous day), blue sky, no wind, quiet and peaceful. Then 2 large pine tree trunks, without any warning, begin falling toward the lake. The tree is what is called a combinant tree. It has two trunks coming out of the same root body.

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At first there was hardly any noise. Then gunshot loud cracking sounds as the falling pines land on and take with them a beautiful 10″ Maple.

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Now I don’t mind too much losing the 2 pine tree trunks, other than the expense involved to get them out of the lake. But the loss of that gorgeous hardwood Maple tree just breaks my heart. The violence and volume of the cracking noises it made as those 2 pine tree trunks took it down is something you can’t un-hear. The poor thing was fighting hard for it’s life all the way down, as it was nevertheless relentlessly broken.

That’s enough drama for a while, Mother Nature.

Nobody Eludes Me for Nine Years!

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Easily the most skittish of the animals on the lake, this guy will flee in panic if a human comes outside, even on the far side of the lake. Up until now the only shots I have been able to get of him have been thru window glass from inside the house.

But no more! I got him! I saw him coming and managed to sneak into hiding and wait until he stalked by right in front of me.

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He is a Great Blue Heron (Wikipedia) and frequently hunts around the edge of our lake. I have been trying to get an up-close out of doors shot of this guy for like 9 years now. With an average life span of 15 years in the wild, it’s possible that this could be the very same guy who has been frustrating me all of this time.

Redemption.

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