In The New Year

"The bird a nest, the spider a web, man... friendship."

-William Blake

I went to San Francisco yesterday (Wednesday) to photograph the dahlias in Golden Gate Park, but I was out of luck. The park department is working on the whole park, replacing flowers here and there and unfortunately the dahlias are a part of the project. It will reopen next spring, and run through the fall so that is something to look forward to in the new year.

So, in place of the dahlias, I have this set of photos, that I took in Santa Cruz, last August. That was a pretty great day. I set out to attend the John Waite concert on the beach, and ended up finding all sorts of neat photo opportunities instead, including a game of naked Frisbee I happened upon when I accidentlly came across one of the area's nude beaches. My goodness, the adventures I have! LOL.

When I am in the area I always visit the two lighthouses that are in Santa Cruz, Walton, and this one, Surfer's Lighthouse, which sits along HWY 1. On this visit, I noticed something a little different. Situated under the edge of the top of the lighthouse, were a line of about 30 or so mud bird nests. Most of them were empty, but I noticed that there were one or two that had babies inside. They were pretty high up, so the photos I got weren't as clear as I would have liked, still, I enjoyed trying out some settings I hadn't had the chance to use prior to that time. Look at those faces... how cute is that? You can bet, I will be better prepared to photograph the new birds, when I go back next summer. :)

"Surfer's" Lighthouse, Santa Cruz

Mama bird brings back "Take-out"

Mud Nests

If you look very close, you can see the nests in a line under the edge.

-OndineMonet
"Siblings"
Santa Cruz, California
Late August, 2006
Afternoon