This blog is predominately about camera trapping in California. We camera trap to save our souls and to teach primary school students about biology and conservation. We will also touch on other camera trapping news and musings, sets from afar, mediocre herpetology, sucky birding, and other natural history discussions.
On my way down to Carmel to meet Christian, among the hellish labor day weekend traffic, I made a quick stop at Jetty Road/Elkhorn Slough to take a look at the Sea Otters that frequent the area. I thought I only had about 20 minutes before I needed to get back on the road so that Christian and I would have a similar Carmel ETA. Turns out traffic was even worse for him and I could have taken longer and worked a bit harder to learn the camera and get better photos, but these will serve as try #1.
The otters were mostly sleeping in a big raft when I got there, so the opportunity for adorable action shots weren't there.
Rubbing eyes was about the most action these guys would do. A cropped shot where nothing seemed to be quite in focus.
This one floated a bit away from the main raft and was the closest otter, but the bastard did nothing but backfloat
Foot tags abound
Wait, wait, an exciting eye scratch
Cute little critters that would eat your face off if you give them a chance.
So now some crappier pictures and duller thoughts from me (JK).
I too was really worried about getting seasick. I laid off the beer and bourbon blend the night before, took a dramamine before bed, another when I woke up and one more on the boat at about the 5 hour mark. Went to the store and bought ginger snaps, ginger beer and sunscreen. I failed to use all three and only the lack of sunscreen came back to bite me. Never got sick, never really got close, so that was a huge positive.
Seas not too rough but a little windy
I meant to rent a nice sharp zoom lens, but put it off until it was too late, so I shot all of these pictures with an unsharp 18-270mm Tamron lens. I like the lens a lot for its versatility when hiking and you only want to carry one lens, but it is a major compromise. My 100mm Canon is quite sharp but I didn't think it would have the reach I needed and outside of the gulls right off the stern wouldn't have done me much good. So non-sharp images it is. Also the higher ISO to get quicker shutter times is probably a contributing factor.
Western Gull
I suck at birding. Not sure if these are Western or California gulls
Pomerine Jaeger (lifer)
Black-footed Albatross (lifer)
Another Pomerine Jaeger
Heerman's Gull (lifer according to ebird profile. I am sure I have seen before, but not paid close enough attention too. I tend to ignore gulls, which is a huge detriment to trying to learn more about birds. Would be kind of like a herper just ignoring all Ambystomas, poor form)
This Pomerine Jaeger is much more badass than the one's above
Pink-footed Shearwater (lifer, no pics of the Buller's Shearwater, also a lifer)
More Black-footed Albatross. Totally fell for these gals.
Call Me, Maybe?
Western gull(?) not being nice to my Albatross friend
Want to also thank Seagull Steve and his pals, Christian (a different one than CTC Christian) and Amy, for their good company and most importantly putting up with our novice questions. Nice, wittier than all hell, sarcastic and a little vulgar. Couldn't ask for anything more in company on a long day. They all even decided a day of pelagic birding was not enough and that they needed to go find a first county record the next morning. Steve will have to return to the birder rankings as that might be enough to move up to #6 in the U.S. of A. Seagull Steve is promising photos from the trip soon and they will blow mine out of the water so check his blog often.
It might have been mentioned here before, but we suck at birding.
Yet, we keep coming back to it and diving in deeper than before.
The latest excursion: a pelagic trip out of Monterey with Alvaro of Alvaro's Adventures.
guys, these guys look serious
The expectations were mixed. Obviously with the first time out on the ocean, some sweet life birds were going to be seen.
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS
The stereotype of birders loomed over: socially-awkward weirdos lacking the fun gene carrying around a zoom lens akin to a shoulder cannon. Now, a couple of those terms have been lobbed in my direction at times, so maybe a weirdo should respect a different weirdo?
Really, I was worried about losing it over the side. I haven't truly been out on the ocean since a disastrous deep sea fishing trip as a young brat on vacation in Hawai'i, where the vomit was flying.
But all was good this time and I maintained focus like a ninja, for there was a great prize to observe.
No, not the Great Skua, immortalized in song by the mighty British Sea Power,
on the Pacific we are treated to the SOUTH POLAR SKUA
Yeah, I didn't get great photos, but still amazing to see at this distance -- we actually had about 7 total observations! Another pelagic trip on the bay spotted not a one Skua.
The trip ended with some clowns lounging about.
NEIGHBORHOOD SQUABBLE
small wound on this sea lion
Overall a pretty great trip -- everyone aboard was helpful, friendly and there were no mentions of jizz (though the hilarity of a jizz drop might have been pretty incredible?).
And despite some slow moments, a great selection of birds were on display and now one of my students thinks I am a god because I have seen an albatross.
