026 Yellow River, Squared

We walked along the river, at its highest tide of the month this morning. To shake things up a bit while editing my pictures, I decided to crop into a square format today, just to see how they looked. What do you think?




There is always something happening on the riverside path. I think these guys were talking about a local troublemaker.



We walked over to the sand dunes and my wife filled her shoes with sand. Unintentionally.



Birds looking for breakfast - possibly worms and so forth are driven up by the high water.





Seagulls mark the sand bar in the middle of the river. Fail to notice this and you could be stuck there all day waiting for a marine recovery/rescue.



River high water also attracts the bugs.







Next dry land past that lifeguard tower is Hawaii, 3000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.



3000 miles in this direction you come to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Paying close attention is a good idea when walking around in San Diego County.






This bird was a genuinely cooperative photo subject. It only took me 4 shots to get these two good ones.





Likewise these two guys got only 2 snaps each and I was happy with the (yellow) results.





Not sure what to say about this one, only he's doesn't look like the brightest bird in the bush...



These guys don't know which way to go; they were marching in a circle.



Time to move on to the real action! 

Largest wild mammal of the day (not counting the dogs in the dog park nearby, or their owners)



Here I was working on my focus and I loved the fragile and colorful flowers



Notice the bug flying in from the left?







A hazard of shooting photos from the path is getting blind-sided by bikers who no longer issue courtesy warnings like "On your left" or "Watch out" or "Ding-Ding". The worst today was an electric bike going 20 mph -- No Hands on the bars, just a silly grin while his hands were in his jacket pockets. 



I saw the dog in the van massively yawning, (didn't see the guy) and as I took a picture the owner raised his head and flashed me a happy greeting. I'm intrigued by the steering wheel on the inside of the back door.



They were camped immediately across from the No Camping Sign, along with about 30 other vans.




Sigh... 



Back to Nature.


The squirrel lost his place as Largest Wild Mammal when these ears caught my wife's attention. She has very sharp eyes and helps me a lot in these adventures.



Now for a lesson in Ruby-Throated Hummingbird coloration.  It all depends on the angle of the feathers to the light.



This bird was oh, so cooperative!



Here he is, in context. Right behind the no camping sign. Did you notice him in that earlier photo?





And now to another hummer... who had been foraging in the yellow flowers, I see.









Then we crossed the path, looked up at a big tree, and spotted a small raptor, who was also cooperative. And curious. This is a Merlin, "a small and fierce falcon". Notice all the specks on the photos which are a swarm of gnats, not dirt on the lens.









He got bored and flew away, leaving us with our last find of the day, a mother Osprey (another raptor) on her nest. Another photographer said the male comes every 2 hours or so with a fish. But we didn't have 2 hours longer to wait.



It was time to go home. Today I remembered to wear a solar dive watch.



I'll leave you with a photo at full zoom to the other side of the river



See if you can figure out how the man on the boat got inside the bicycle wheel.



Cazalea




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