"Wings over the World"

On Sunday, I went to the Ventana Wildlife Society's Wings over the World event. Everyone has to buy a ticket to go, and when you get there, there are two auctions, a live one and a silent one to raise more money that goes to the condor program, so from my point of view, it's obviously all going to a great cause.

The highlight of the live auction is the bidding to release a condor back into the wild - the biologists have a couple of condors that were recently captured to be given their annual health checks and the highest bidders get to release them back into the wild.

The event took place at this fancy guest house on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean - ideal for the release of the birds.

I got over excited in the silent auction and was the highest bidder on a used tag and transmitter - old ones that had been attached to condor #167 - they were framed and now I'm looking for a suitable wall to stick them on.

Photos of the event (from Facebook once again) are here.

ALMS

Got to shoot the American Le Mans race on Saturday at a very chilly Laguna Seca. The same sort of cars that race at the Le Mans 24 hour race, but in a 6 hour race that ran to just after sunset.

Having to be at the track at 7:30am for a photo meeting made for a long, but fun day. The cars are way more boring to watch than bikes, but the going dark bit made for some photographic fun.

Photos (on Facebook) are here.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Well, the Sharks are out of the playoffs - failing in round 3 of 4 - so it's time to decide what to do with the playoff beard (and hair this year).

On the left is the "before" shot - freshly cut hair, freshly trimmed beard - on the right is the "after" shot, with some hair and a bushier beard (and not sporting that creepy weird smile that is evident in the before shot too).

I posted this picture on Facebook and solicited opinions from my FB friends - the winner is the after photo (both the hair and the beard), so they'll stay (though they will get trimmed).

More Condors

After a couple of recent motorcycle trips down Big Sur way that were totally bereft of condors, my plan this last weekend was for a similar experience, so the emphasis was on the best time to ride.

Saturday morning dawned dry, sunny and clear - perfect time for a ride, so I was out of the house by 8:30am. Part of that plan was to make sure I got back in good time too, so that I could head up north to the Sharks playoff game in the evening (which turned out to be an awesome game - go Sharks!).

I ended up at the condor area by around 9:15am and there was already a biologist surveying the sea lion colony below, which was cool because there were condors down there munching away on a carcass.

Given that there were condors there, I couldn't leave, as I was expecting them to take off after feeding and potentially provide some great photo opportunities.

It took a while, but by 11am, they decided they were full and lifted off. Initially, they headed off south, but after a few minutes, they came back my way - then there was all sorts of cool stuff happening for over another hour.

Most impressive part was bird #251 coming in and landing about 10 yards from where I was standing - a bit too close to humans per the biologists, so after I took some snaps, a loud cough managed to send him on his way.

My original plan was to be home by around 11am, with a drop dead time of 3pm (to be able to get to the Sharks game on time). In the end, I cut the ride short and managed to get home by 2pm, giving me just enough time for a shower and lunch before I headed off to watch the Sharks knock the Red Wings out of the playoffs - a great Saturday.

Check out all the photos here.

Fishing for Squid

For the last couple of weeks, there have been commercial fishing boats out in the bay in the evenings and at night. As I go to bed, I frequently see the boats' lights out on the bay, and on a couple of occasions when I've been up in the middle of the night, they were still there.

I asked around and was told it was squid season. This last Tuesday, I went running for the first time in a few weeks (work conflicts and being sick were the reasons for my lack of recent running) and when I got to the Municipal Wharf, they'd just finished offloading a boat, so I got to check out the catch - there were a few large tubs of squid on ice waiting to be shipped out.

For a frame of reference, each squid is around about nine inches long.

Below, a couple of the boats are anchored near the wharf in the morning.


Finally, yes, I have been partaking of squid - either the fried calamari on Fisherman's Wharf or the squid burrito at the local seafood taqueria - both are delicious.