First Sony Bird Pics

Yellow-Rumped Warbler, a winter visitor

White-crowned Sparrow a winter visitor

Western Bluebird on shed roof

Western Bluebird flew just as I snapped

Western Bluebird checking me out

Spotted Towhee – spotted at last minute

Scrub Jay – hopping around

Red Tail Hawk at dusk

Oregon Junco

Western Bluebirds on Old Fence

I wanted to share the first bird pictures with my new Sony a 6000, a mirrorless camera which is very light weight. I was using the 55 – 210 mm lens to shot the pictures at my daughter Em’s house on Christmas Day. There is a learning curve. After using my Canon for a billion years, I found the Sony zoom lens works just a tad differently. I am in love with the depth-of-field and look at the fabulously sharp bits of wood fence, roof, etc. Yep, I need to use it more so that the zooming becomes second nature as it is with my Canon. Those of you from the colder climes, we are taking good care of your summer birds the White-crowned Sparrow, the Oregon Junco, and the Yellow-rumped Warbler. They are common visitors to our yard where I have bird seed out for “visitors”.

Thanks for visiting us. Now go have a crafty day.

 

Aloha Pukana Lā

Sunrise over Ft. Hase Beach

Sunrise from the front porch as I sit drinking my early morning coffee.

Looking across the street, early morning coffee view

Aloha pukana lā = Hello sunrise.

The beach in the pictures is about 600 steps from our daughter’s new house on the base. We’ve been taking walks down to and along the beach every day.  The Hubs and I got Fitbits this year to help us meet our goal of walking 10,000 steps every day. Meeting that goal definitely has not been a problem here in Paradise. Tomorrow morning we say aloha to our little bit of heaven, board the plane, and fly back home.

San Diego Skyline

Had to share this gorgeous picture The Hubs took of the San Diego skyline. He’s turned into a wonderful amateur photographer. I “forced” him into taking photography classes through the local adult school when he retired. Perfect choice for picking out his hobby. (I accidentally posted just the pic before I wrote the post, so here is the post.)

After walking a zillion miles hiking around the Silver Strand area, Alan wanted to take pictures of the Hotel Del at sundown. Have to admit that I was exhausted and told him he was on his own to walk around The Del. My Kindle is always with me, so coffee and treat in hand, I sat outside to enjoy what was left of our beautiful, chilly, windy day. What a perfect ending to a wonderful day. Um, my pics are taken with my iPhone.

Coffee, Almond Croissant and the Kindle – Ah…..

View from my outside table

View of the sun going down behind Point Loma

The Dead Tree And Me

~We’re re-landscaping the backyard. It’s gone to rack-and-ruin due to the Hubs accident and the dog digging it up looking for the gopher. The one item I will get a little weepy over is my dead, dwarf peach tree. I love this tree! All of my bird feeders hang from the tree. At any given time I can see at least 4 different species of visitors since there aren’t any leaves to hid them. Yesterday, at one time, I saw House Finch, Lesser-Green-Backed Goldfinch, Anna’s Hummingbird, Mourning Dove, and California Towhee. The new tree to replace it is a Palo Verde which has tiny little leaves so, hopefully, I’ll be able to easily see my little feathered friends.  Here are some of the easy-to-see-birds on my tree. Dead tree? Really? These are just a tiny fraction, not even the tip of the iceberg, of the birds visiting my favorite tree. For some reason, I’ve “lost” some of my favorite pics.

Bushtit

Anna’s and Bushtit- I was aiming for Bushtit when Anna appeared

Gulf Fritillary

Anna’s Hummingbird

Female Hooded Oriole – Summer Visitor

Male House Finch

House Finch feeding baby

California Towhee kept moving

Lesser Green-backed Goldfinch male

Lovely shadows on fence

All photos were taken with my Canon Rebel.

Carlsbad State Beach Here We Come!

– One of the greatest things about living in San Diego is the camping with the grandchildren at the beach, so off to Carlsbad State Beach we go.

The first thing to do is hit the beach. Running in the water and jumping the waves. Digging for sand crabs is  sooo much fun. Also, don’t forget to bring your boogie boards and shovels.

While Grandma and Papa get the camp set up, son takes grandchildren on a bide ride. What could be more fun?

We stayed for two nights. On the second night, Q and her hubby came to visit and we had a BBQ. Nothing tastes better than a BBQ while camping. The best part is we get to do the whole thing over again next weekend. 🙂

~To put in my two cents! So glad we were invited for a bbq. It was delicious and the company was awesome. I was so totally taken with the pouches of Brown Pelicans which would fly up the coastline and down the coastline. I guess they are not endangered any more since there were an awfully lot of different pouches flying up and down.

Pouch of pelicans flying up the coastline

Single Pelican Flying Low

Time For Checkers?

~Confession time! Lately, I’ve been so busy gardening and taking pictures in the garden that I haven’t been knitting, spinning, or sewing. Followers may remember that I have planted flowers to attract hummers and butterflies. It is so exciting when a new bird or butterfly pays a visit. I’ve been trying to remember to have my good camera outside with me at all times, keeping the 55 – 250 mm lens on so I can zoom into the critter. Hurray! Yesterday a new butterfly, Checkered White, visited the yard. It was so polite, remaining on the verbena while I grabbed the camera and shot some photos. I wonder what type of knitting pattern for a shawl could be designed from the pattern on its wings? Don’t you think it looks a bit Art Nouveau?

Curls And The Killdeer

~Finally! A visit to Curls, she had a day off on Friday, well until 1:30 pm when they called and asked her to come in and help a new person with deliveries. Curls and husband Al live on a two acre lot up in the San Diego mountains and there are always a lot of critters visiting. When driving in the longish driveway to the house I passed some killdeers. When I mentioned this to Barb, she said two killdeers had set up nests on the ground in the front of the property. We drove past the nest which borders the driveway so I could get some shots. This is a perfect nesting site, look how well she blends in with the dirt. They don’t fly off if a car goes by, they do if it’s someone walking. Love what the killdeer is saying to me: 1. Are you looking at me? 2. You are looking at me. What do you want? 3. Get the heck out of here! Just leave a nesting mom alone.

Are you looking at me?

You are looking at me. What do you want?

Get the heck out of here! Just leave a nesting mom alone.

We left before she went into her wounded wing act, thus giving the bird the name “killdeer”. Figured she needed to stay on the eggs. I didn’t have my good camera with me so I used my iPhone.

Views From The San Diego Bay

~It’s easy to forget that San Diego is a Navy base until you visit the San Diego Bay. Seaport Village fronts part of the bay, and from it’s vantage point you can look across to North Island Naval Airbase, which is on Coronado Island, see the USS Midway, a floating museum, and, if you’re lucky, a naval vessel traveling by. On Monday’s field trip to Seaport Village we were lucky enough to catch the USS Preble, a destroyer, speeding by, heading out to sea. It was going at a such a fast clip that I didn’t have time to get the entire ship. My hats off to all of the men and women who serve our country!

USS Preble

The day was one of those hazy, brown days which make photography difficult. Just a short walk down the boardwalk and the USS Midway museum is visible. The top right picture shows the actual distance from our stance. I zoomed in for the rest of the pictures. One of our photography field trips is on the Midway, so you’ll get to see her up-close-and-personal. I’ll write a bit about her history then.

Naval Security rushing across the bay towards North Island.

We were surprised to see fishing boats at Tuna Harbor which weren’t out on this beautiful, hazy, hot day.

There is also the Embarcadero Marina at the southern end of Seaport Village. If you’re visiting at the right time, you can see Jerry Lewis’ boat, Sam’s Place, docked here. We’ve seen it in the past.

From the bay view we turned back walking the few steps inland towards Seaport Village, time to view the flowers and stores, but that’s another day.

Clever Ideas For Your Garden At The Bazaar!

~July 16, 1769 ~Mission San Diego de Alcala is officially founded on Presidio Hill, which, in turn became the City of San Diego. Odd place to start the city since water is not easily accessible at the top of this hill. The mission is later moved about 6 miles east and is located next to the San Diego River. One of our field trips will be to the first mission founded by Father Junípero Serra. The original mission was turned into a Presidio which held a garrison of men. It was not until the late 1820’s – 1830’s that Old Town San Diego was settled. This town was at the western foot of Presidio Hill. I still think it odd that San Diego did not start on the bay or ocean! It was a few miles inland. While the Eastern seaboard was in it’s struggle with the English, we were developing under Spanish rule. In 1969, the two-hundreth anniversary of it’s founding, Old Town became a California State Park.

There are only a few structures left from the original Old Town. This isn’t going to be a walking tour of the historic buildings. I’m a flower person and my eyes were drawn to the plants. The Hubs and I started our tour in one of my favorite places, the old Bazaar Del Mundo sold and renamed to Plaza del Pasado. Sorry, old-timer here it will always be the Bazaar in my mind. We arrived early before the shops opened, so it was nice an quiet except for the gardeners. The Bazaar was built around a very large courtyard and has quite a wonderful garden. I’m not going to put the pictures in collages as I usually do so that you can get ideas for your garden. All pictures were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX130IS since The Hubs had a class and got to use “the good camera”.

These fellows greet you upon entering the bazaar

There are so many wagons with plants. Wish I had the rooster in my garden!

This fellow kept following me! He bought lunch for me so I guess that was ok!

And so, from the bazaar, I say, “Adios”.

On The Move With Pro HDR

 ~A few weeks ago, we met our daughter Darcey and s-i-l Todd in Las Vegas for a couple of nights. He had a conference there and we just wanted to see them! Had a marvelous time. The bizarre part of the trip were the two HORRIFIC storms we had to drive through both coming and going. As we were driving towards Vegas, it was 109 degrees in Baker, Ca. We watched the temperature slowly drop during the next 30 minutes until it was 68 degrees! The sky opened up and HUGE chunks of hail started falling. OMG! In the desert? During the summer? We have driven to and through Vegas a lot since my in-laws moved to Montana in 1976. Never have we encountered this.

During the 6 hour drive, I got antsy and started looking for great iPhone apps. Found Pro HDR. As we were leaving the storm area, on the way home, I decided to try the app even though the car was moving.  It is really a fun app! I like the way the pics turned out, even though there are movement shadows. What fun! For those of you that don’t know about HDR, to put it simply, you take two pictures of an scene/object/etc; one where it looks washed out  and one where it is darker. The two pictures are then combined into one. The HDR pictures show a greater depth of color. Hubs wants to get a camera which will do this. Using the app, you are instructed to hold the camera steady and tap the screen when ready. You can watch the app quickly scan to brightest point, snap, and then darkest point, snap. Takes about a second. If you don’t have the app get it! There is a free version and one that you pay for. If you want before and after shots, make sure you save the before.