California Beach Hopper or Megalorchestia californiana As fleas go, they’re giants. Not giants in the sense of Bikini-Atoll-nuclear-mutant-gone-bad giants. But by flea standards, they’re positively huge — about 1 inch long. That’s probably because they’re not parasitic dog or cat fleas, but rather, amphipods — shrimp-like creatures who dine on organic matter at the outer…
Archives for June 2009
Marine Mammal Viewing — From a Distance
Hugh and I had another wildlife harassment incident this past week with a family on the Mendocino coast. We hiked over an unpopulated bluff and saw a mom and kids chasing a young sea lion across the rocks for a photo op. Their actions were forcing the young animal away from her resting spot, as…
Bay & Beach Flotsam – Episode #1
San Francisco Bay trash and pollution: I’ve seen: four-foot, mangy teddy bears nested in cord grass at high tide; an endangered Clapper Rail preening in a pile plastic bottles and corn chip bags; helium balloons tangled in seaweed, 100 yards out in the bog of low tide; plovers foraging around cigarette butts; fishing line and plastic loops just waiting to entangle the next curious gull.
Wasp Art
Wasp Nest – ©ingridtaylar I didn’t see it this way through the viewfinder — the aquarelle tone and texture of this wasp nest, clutching the painted boards. (Just as I didn’t see the pixie faceof a blue damselfly I’d been shooting over a pond — until I offloaded those giant orbs-for-eyes onto my Mac.) I…
Splendor in the Low Tide
An homage to Warren and Natalie — in title alone. There’s photographic magic in the sun rising over a super-low tide. At the point where dawn meets a -2.0, the strange, the stunning, the predictable and the chaotic all converge on that plane of tide pools, mudflats, and beach hopper burrows. One of my favorite…
Not-So-Ordinary Black Birds
Until the esteemed Brewer’s Blackbird Sir Swoopsmade a name for himself by dive-bombing pedestrians, there’s a good chance he was just one of many birds in black, hopping along the sidewalks of San Francisco without much notice. On first glance, blackbirds and black-colored birds may seem visually ordinary. But closer inspection always renders a more…
Swoops the Blackbird – Exhibit A in “Mobbing” Behavior
I snapped this on the weekend before national t.v. crews showed up to fuel the celebrity of Swoops the Blackbird. (Click on the image for the larger Flickr version.) ©ingridtaylar Swoops, a Brewer’s Blackbird with a nest of young to protect, perches on the awnings overlooking his brood and buzzes pedestrians who venture too close…
Young Fox Squirrels at Play
Photos of young/juvenile fox squirrels playing in an urban environment, on telephone poles and wires. Also includes images of baby squirrels in the hands of a wildlife rehabilitator.